Comparison Period

You can compare data from a range of time with other data trailing from a previous time period in Sprout Social. This helps you to better understand data trends by comparing an Activity Date Range that you select against the same amount of time previous to your selected range. 

For example, if you select five days as your date range, all comparisons in the report are the previous five days. Selecting one year compares it to the previous year. It’s worth noting that selecting one month compares it to the previous calendar month.

You can see the comparison period by looking directly underneath the date range you select. In the image above, the selected date range, 4/12-4/25 of 2019 is compared to 3/29-4/11 of 2019. Both periods contain 13 days exactly.

In the expanded view of the Reporting Period modal, you see the comparison period again, listed under the Compare to section in the bottom right.

You see an additional message in this area, if you are comparing two months that don’t have the same amount of days. For example, if you compare data from February to January you get notified that you are Comparing 28 days to 31 days.

Custom date range comparison

Many Sprout reports have the capability to compare data from a period of time with a trailing period. You can compare non-contiguous date ranges or date ranges of different lengths. This makes it possible to analyze more meaningful period over period comparisons.