Dateless data in Funnel

What purposes does dateless data serve; How can dateless data be used in Funnel; how to integrate dateless data with other datasets.

Kelsey Maynard avatar
Written by Kelsey Maynard
Updated over a week ago

Funnel keys on date

Most of the data in Funnel uses date as the primary key of the dataset. This means that each piece of information in the dataset is uniquely identified and organized based on the date it corresponds to. For more detailed information, please refer to the following article: "How Funnel treats dates."


Data that uses date as the primary key

Using the date as the main way to organize marketing data is usually the best choice. That's because most marketing activities, like ads or sales, happen on particular dates. So, using dates helps keep everything organized and easy to understand.

Date

Campaign Name

Campaign ID

Clicks

Impressions

2024-01-21

Sparkle & Shine Summer Sale

1002150

4856

38645

2024-01-21

FreshStart Fitness Challenge

1005632

9587

65842

2024-01-22

Sparkle & Shine Summer Sale

1002150

3421

25846

2024-01-22

Cozy Comfort Winter Warm-Up

1003695

10512

78596

2024-01-23

FreshStart Fitness Challenge

1005632

9987

72548

Overwriting data that uses date as the primary key

When you're updating data where the date is the main way to identify it, you only have to send the data for the specific dates you want to change. For instance, if by the end of 2024-01-23, you had 10212 clicks and 77879 impressions, you just need to send data for that date. You don't need to send anything for 2024-01-21 or 2024-01-22.

Date

Campaign Name

Campaign ID

Clicks

Impressions

2024-01-23

FreshStart Fitness Challenge

1005632

10212

77879


Data that doesn't use date as the primary key

There are specific situations where using the date as the primary key isn't practical. This is particularly true for reference tables or datasets that don't rely on time-based information. For example, it's not ideal to use dates as primary keys for datasets containing lifetime data, keyword lists, statuses, or product features and attributes.

Keyword ID

Keyword Name

Search Volume

Competition Level

12563

Marketing

10000

High

25634

SEO

8500

Medium

48593

Social Media

9200

High

32561

Content

7800

Medium

84576

Advertising

8800

High

Overwriting data that doesn't use date as the primary key

When updating data where the date isn't the main way to identify it, you have to include all the data each time you make a change. For example, if you add a new keyword, you must resend the entire dataset, including the new keyword, rather than just sending the new addition.

Keyword ID

Keyword Name

Search Volume

Competition Level

12563

Marketing

10000

High

25634

SEO

8500

Medium

48593

Social Media

9200

High

32561

Content

7800

Medium

84576

Advertising

8800

High

97548

Conversion Optimization

5400

Low

Mapping data that doesn't use date as a primary key to data that does use date as a primary key

The information stored in the lookup table or dateless dataset likely needs to be connected or associated with a dataset in Funnel where dates are the main identifiers. For more information on how to accomplish this, please see the following article: "How to use lookup tables when creating custom fields."
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Viewing dateless data in Funnel

Because the data isn't linked to a particular date, the selected date range in the Data Explorer doesn't affect what you see. Regardless of the date range chosen, you'll see the entire dataset. To verify when the dataset was last updated, look at the "LAST IMPORTED" column within the Data Sources tab of your Funnel workspace. It's important to note that there won't be any "IMPORT START DATE" or "IMPORT END DATE" columns, even if dates are included in the dataset, because no specific dates are used for indexing.


How to request dateless data in Funnel

For a dateless dataset in Funnel, kindly submit a Custom Connector Request. Make sure to specify in the request that the dataset should be without dates. For more detailed information on how to submit a Custom Connector request, please see the following article: "How do I request new data in Funnel."


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