Custom dimensions and metrics allow you to combine Natero built-in dimensions and metrics with those that have not been predefined within the Natero CSM platform, so you can analyze your customer data with more flexibility and segment it by the dimensions that matter the most to your business. For example:
- If you store “customer type” for your signed-in accounts in a CRM system, you could combine this dimension with your Natero data to analyze various information by customer type; and create alert rules and customer lists using a specific customer type you care about.
- If you're an online video service provider, you might want to track business - specific metrics such as "number of videos uploaded" or "storage used". By combining the data available in your Natero platform with custom metrics, you can monitor customer progresses against your most important KPIs in any way you want.
Custom Dimensions for Accounts and Users
Custom dimensions are attributes of your accounts and users and are not being tracked over time. Natero stores only the latest/instant value of a custom dimension for an account. There are three types of custom dimensions:
1. Textual Dimensions - dimensions with text description
e.g. Region, Customer type, User gender, Sports
Custom textual dimensions can be created for both accounts and users, once created, they will become available for use in alert/list rules, custom account views and reports.
2. Numeric Dimensions - dimensions with a number
e.g. # of seats used, # of units purchased, # of transactions completed
Custom numeric dimensions can be created for both accounts and users, once created, they will become available for use in the alert/list rules, health score and reports.
For example, you can use the dimension filter to look at data where ""Seats used" is greater than 30", "'Units purchased' is less than 10" etc.
3. Date-based Dimensions - dimensions with a date
e.g. Campaign date, Coupon expiration date
Custom date-based dimensions can be created only for accounts, once created, they will be available for use in alert/list rules as events and account custom views.
Please note that custom user dimensions will be fully available in the List Explorer and Chart Explorer but not in the Alert Rule since Alerts are account based.
Note that Natero does not capture historical values for custom account dimensions.
Custom Account Metrics
Custom metrics are time series data that can be plotted and aggregated over time to view trends across your accounts. Natero tracks historical values of a custom metric for an account. Note that custom metrics are available only for accounts not users.
For example, if you are charging your customers based on their bandwidth usage, you can create a custom metric called "Daily bandwidth usage" to monitor your accounts' bandwidth usage trend over time. Or if you are an online video service provider, you can create a custom metric called "Daily video uploads" and track how this number changes for a particular customer segment over time. Custom metric values are always associated with a timestamp indicating the time at which they occurred.
Custom metrics will be available in any account metrics dropdown for you to build trending metric report; use in rule conditions for account alerts, email triggers, and custom views; as well as in custom account health score configuration.
Learn how to setup custom metrics and dimensions in Natero.