Customers sometimes ask, "Why are my % Organic and % PPC values showing up incorrectly within Junglytics? This dashboard says my % Organic for this variation is -50%. That's not possible."
While we agree that a negative % Organic is not possible, let's dive into why that's the case in some situations.
First, let's define what each of the relevant metrics means and how they are calculated.
Sales | Total revenue normalized to your preferred currency |
|
Organic Sales | Total sales generated from organic sales | (∑ Sales) - (∑ PPC Sales) |
% Organic | Percentage of sales generated from organic sales | (∑ Organic Sales) / (∑ Sales) |
PPC Sales | Total sales generated from pay-per-click advertising Note: Does not include sponsored brand video ads |
|
% PPC | Percentage of sales generated from pay-per-click advertising Note: does not include sponsored brand video ads | (∑ PPC Sales) / (∑ Sales) |
Look at the screenshot below. It shows a table grouped by Product Line and Primary Variant. We see that all the metrics at the Product Line level appear to be reasonable [see: yellow highlight]. But when we dig to the Primary Variation (color) level we see numbers that don't make sense [see: red highlight].
Specifically, we see that the Turquoise Fleece Sweatpants appear to have a -121% % Organic. How can this be?
Here's why:
Advertising metrics (PPC Sales) are attributed to the ASIN that was clicked on
Sales metrics (Sales) are attributed to the ASIN that was purchased
This can create discrepancies.
For example, when a customer clicks on an ad for a turquoise ASIN and ends up purchasing a purple ASIN, their purchase is added to PPC Sales for the turquoise ASIN and added to Sales for the purple ASIN.
Note that a similar situation occurs for Organic Sales and % PPC.
At Junglytics, our suggestion is to wade carefully when working with advertising attribution metrics beneath the Product Line (Parent ASIN) level. These metrics can provide valuable insights at any level of your catalog—as long as you know what you're looking at. Hopefully, this help article was a step in that direction.