Overview: Alerts

With Alerts, you can automatically and proactively monitor your data and get notified of any emerging trends. If an Alert is triggered, it may indicate that you need to adjust your strategy or add an Annotation to note significant activity. Alerts can also help you and your team better understand the correlation between the work you're doing and the results you're seeing in the data. 

HOW TO

• Access Alerts
• Use Alerts
• Create Alerts [Example]

How to access Alerts

Navigate to Notifications > Alerts to access Alerts. Click + New Alert to create a new Alert.

How to use Alerts

• A) Metric: Select the Metric from the  Metric drop-down that you want to set an Alert for. You can filter out metrics for a specific Data Source using the Data Source drop-down. Basic, Custom, and Calculated Metrics can all have Alerts set. Multiple Alerts can be added for each Metric in the Account. 
• B) Condition: Choose the Condition that you want to use to monitor the selected Metric. This Condition may help differentiate between certain milestones, significant trends, or your progress towards reaching a Goal.
• C) Qualifier: The Qualifier is the threshold that determines when the Alert is triggered. It works in conjunction with the Condition to monitor the data and trigger a notification
• D) Date Range: Choose the Date Range that you want to apply the Condition and Qualifier to.
  
  For example, selecting Last 7 Days as a Date Range will compare the last 7 days performance to the performance of 7 days before that to determine when the Alert should be triggered. The Date Range selection works in conjunction with the Condition and Qualifier to monitor the data and trigger a notification. 
   
  The Date Range options that are available are dependent on the accessibility of the Metric from the Data Source's API. 
• E) Alert Preview: As you build your Alert, the Alert Preview will show the structure and design of the Alert that will be sent out when triggered. Note that the Alert Preview shows random metric values.
• F) Delivery Options: Alerts can be delivered through Email, Mobile or Slack notifications. These allow you to stay up-to-date on the state of your data any time, anywhere. 

• G)   Delivery Time: Choose whether you want to receive these Alerts during business hours only or at any time. If Deliver only on weekdays (8-5 PM) is selected, the Alert will only be sent out Monday through Friday between 8 AM and 5 PM in the timezone set in your Account. If an Alert is triggered outside those hours, it will be delivered the next weekday at 8 AM. 
• H) Recipients: Choose which users in your Account you want to receive the Alert when it is triggered. The person setting up the Alert is automatically set as a Recipient of the Alert.
  If Me and selected users is selected, a text box will appear, so you can specify which users should receive the Alert. Only users in the Databox Account can receive Alerts. 

• I) Related Metrics: By clicking on the Advanced settings hyperlink, you can reveal more customization options for the Alert. Alerts are put in place to monitor the performance of significant Metrics, so if the Alert is triggered it may indicate a larger problem. To get ahead of this, you can select Related Metrics that you want to view the performance of in the Alert if it is triggered. This can allow you to quickly identify the why behind the Alert you received. 
• J) Message layout: Customize the message you receive in your Alert in this text box. An Available Strings Key can be found at the bottom of the text box. Enter any of these Strings in your Message, and they will dynamically populate with the Data Source, Metric, Date Range, Condition, and Value selected above. 
• K) Save: This will save the Alert and the current settings. 

How to create Alerts [Example]

1. Navigate to  Notifications > Alerts
2. Click + New alert   
3. We want to set an Alert to monitor any trends in Sessions to our website tracked in HubSpot, So we'll open the Metric drop-down, select the appropriate HubSpot Marketing Account in the Data Source drop-down, and we'll select  Sessions as the Metric.
4. Since we're interested in monitoring both positive and negative emerging trends, we will select % has increased or decreased by as the Condition. 
5. Based on trends we've seen in our Sessions thus far, we've determined that 10% is a good threshold to signal a significant trend. Therefore, we'll enter 10 in the Qualifier text box. 
6. We want to monitor week-over-week performance so that we can quickly adjust our strategies if something isn't going as planned. So, we'll select Last 7 Days as the Date Range. 
   In the Compared to field, we will select  Previous Period. That means that if the number of Sessions tracked in the selected HubSpot Mktg Account in the last 7 days increases or decreases by more than 10% as compared to the previous week, the Alert will be triggered.
7. Since this Alert is a top indicator of success for our business, we will leave the Deliver only weekdays checkbox unchecked. If an Alert is triggered, it will immediately be sent out to the Recipient(s). 
    
8. Our Marketing Team is mainly responsible for the performance of our website, so we will select individual members of the Marketing Team, as our Director of Marketing, as Recipients of this Alert. 
    
9. The Alert Preview is showing exactly what we're looking for, so we will not further customize the Alert using Advanced Settings.
    
10.  Click Save to activate the Alert in the Account.