Introducing Year-on-Year Comparison (YoY) Date Filters: easily measure and report on your YoY growth using your Fospha data
We’re thrilled to introduce our new Year-on-Year (YoY) Date Filters, designed to empower you with actionable insights that drive accurate decision-making. This feature allows you to effortlessly compare your current performance with the same period last year, ensuring that your strategic decisions are informed by data that incorporates your growth, business context, as well as yearly and weekly seasonality.
What’s New?
Our YoY Date Filters enable you to select time periods and instantly compare them with the corresponding periods from the previous year. The available options include:
This Week/This Week Last Year
This Month/This Month Last Year
This Quarter/This Quarter Last Year
Previous Week/Previous Week Last Year
Previous Month/Previous Month Last Year
Previous Quarter/Previous Quarter Last Year
Head over to the Period filter drop down to check out the new feature:
Why This Matters
At Fospha, we believe that insights are only as valuable as the decisions they inform. Our YoY Date Filters are built to provide you with not just data, but accurate comparisons that allow you to make confident decisions. By ensuring that you’re comparing periods of equivalent seasonality, we guarantee that every decision is backed by accurate, actionable insights.
How can I get the most out of the YoY date filters?
Optimizing Cross-Channel Performance:
Situation: You're meeting or exceeding your blended targets but face budget constraints.
Challenge: You need to shift funds between channels without increasing your overall budget.
Solution: Use YoY comparisons to assess which channels have the most growth potential compared to last year. This will help you make informed decisions on where to allocate budget for maximum efficiency, ensuring that your marketing strategy remains both data-driven and intuitive.
Example: Compare performance for "This Month/This Month Last Year" to identify channels that have shown significant YoY growth and could benefit from additional investment. Once you have identified the high-growth channels, be sure to check Spend Strategist for how much headroom is available!
Granular Market Analysis:
Situation: You're analyzing specific markets, channels, or strategies.
Challenge: You need to understand if current trends are part of a larger pattern or an outlier.
Solution: Leverage the YoY filters to compare the same period across years, matching the days of the week to incorporate the effect of weekly seasonality, ensuring that your analysis is comprehensive and informed by both historical data and current market dynamics.
Example: For "This Quarter/This Quarter Last Year," track whether a new marketing strategy is yielding consistent improvements compared to last year’s performance, allowing you to validate or adjust your approach with confidence.
Strategic Budget Reallocation:
Situation: You need to optimize your budget to maintain or improve performance.
Challenge: You need to decide where to reduce or increase spend without disrupting overall performance.
Solution: Use the YoY filters to compare short-term and long-term performance trends, ensuring that your budget decisions are grounded in data while remaining flexible enough to adapt to market changes.
Example: Compare "Previous Month/Previous Month Last Year" to see if certain channels consistently underperform during specific periods, indicating potential budget reallocation opportunities.
How It Works
To ensure that our comparisons provided in Fospha are meaningful and actionable, the Year-on-Year (YoY) Date Filters align data based on ISO week numbers or elapsed time in the current period versus the same time last year. This method guarantees that you are comparing data from periods which have the same yearly and weekly seasonality, ensuring accurate analysis and better decision making.
Example Breakdown
This Week/This Week Last Year:
Time Period | Year | ISO Weeks | Date Range (Monday Start, Thursday End) | Number of Days |
This Week (Week 36) | 2024 | 36 | Monday, September 2 to Thursday, September 5 | 4 days |
This Week Last Year (Week 36) | 2023 | 36 | Monday, September 4 to Thursday, September 7 | 4 days |
In this example, we are comparing 4 days of Week 36 in both 2024 and 2023. Specifically, we are focusing on the period from Monday to Thursday. For 2024, the dates are from Monday, September 2 to Thursday, September 5, while for 2023, the corresponding period is Monday, September 4 to Thursday, September 7. This ensures an accurate comparison of the same number of days for this week in both years.
This Month/This Month Last Year:
Time Period | Year | ISO Weeks | Date Range (1st of the Month Start) | Number of Days |
This Month (August) | 2024 | 31 to 35 | Monday, July 29 to Sunday, September 1 | 35 days |
This Month (August) | 2023 | 31 to 35 | Monday, July 31 to Sunday, September 3 | 35 days |
For the monthly comparison between 2024 and 2023, we start from August 1st in each year. In 2024, the range is from Monday, July 29 to Sunday, September 1. In 2023, the comparison covers from Monday, July 31 to Sunday, September 3. Both comparisons cover a full 35-day period.
ISO weeks span from Monday to Sunday, and if a month starts mid-week and continues into the next month, the period considered as "within the month" according to ISO week numbering could span across 5 full weeks (35 days), this helps align with seasonal trends more precisely and maintain a standardised structure.
Previous Month/Previous Month Last Year:
Time Period | Year | ISO Weeks | Date Range (1st of the Month Start) | Number of Days |
Previous Month (July) | 2024 | 27 to 31 | Monday, July 1 to Sunday, August 4 | 35 days |
Previous Month (July) | 2023 | 27 to 31 | Monday, July 3 to Sunday, August 6 | 35 days |
For the July comparison, both 2024 and 2023 cover 35 days. In 2024, the range is from Monday, July 1 to Sunday, August 4, and in 2023, it covers from Monday, July 3 to Sunday, August 6.
This Quarter/This Quarter Last Year:
Time Period | Year | ISO Weeks | Date Range (1st of the Quarter Start) | Number of Days |
This Quarter (Q3) | 2024 | 27 to 39 | Monday, July 1 to Sunday, September 29 | 91 days |
This Quarter (Q3) | 2023 | 27 to 39 | Monday, July 3 to Sunday, October 1 | 91 days |
For the quarterly comparison between Q3 2024 and Q3 2023, both quarters cover 91 days. In 2024, the range is from Monday, July 1 to Sunday, September 29. In 2023, the comparison is from Monday, July 3 to Sunday, October 1.
Previous Quarter/Previous Quarter Last Year:
Time Period | Year | ISO Weeks | Date Range (1st of the Quarter Start) | Number of Days |
Previous Quarter (Q2) | 2024 | 14 to 26 | Monday, April 1 to Sunday, June 30 | 91 days |
Previous Quarter (Q2) | 2023 | 14 to 26 | Monday, April 3 to Sunday, July 2 | 91 days |
For the Q2 comparison, both quarters cover 91 days. In 2024, Q2 ranges from Monday, April 1 to Sunday, June 30, while in 2023, it covers from Monday, April 3 to Sunday, July 2.
By comparing equivalent weeks and dates from different years, these filters help you make accurate, apples-to-apples comparisons, ensuring that your insights are reliable and relevant for decision-making.
Why You Should Care
This update is crucial for anyone responsible for performance analysis, budgeting, or strategic planning. At Fospha, our mission is to provide you with not just insights, but the tools to act on them. The precision offered by our YoY Date Filters allows you to:
Make informed decisions on where to allocate or reduce budget, ensuring that every dollar spent is optimized for maximum return.
Identify and capitalize on growth opportunities by comparing equivalent periods, helping you refine your strategy with confidence.
Balance your marketing instincts with data-driven insights, ensuring that your decisions are both intuitive and accurate.
By using these filters, you’ll ensure that your comparisons are not only accurate but also actionable, enabling you to optimize your performance and strategy with confidence.
Head over to Fospha to check how these work: