Anomalies & Events
Detect traffic spikes and metric drops with statistical anomaly detection in Behavior Intelligence: severity levels, investigation cards, and recheck workflows.
What anomalies detect
Anomalies & Events applies statistical models to metric history—sessions, events, goal completions, channel slices—to flag values outside expected bands. It surfaces spikes and drops you might miss scanning daily charts, especially on weekends or holidays when manual review is sparse.
Detection runs on aggregated daily data; very short incidents under one hour may appear first on Realtime rather than here.
Severity levels
- Critical — Large deviation on high-volume metrics; investigate promptly.
- Warning — Notable but may be campaign-driven; verify context.
- Info — Mild deviation or low-volume metrics; monitor.
Counts by severity appear in KPI chips at page top and feed Overview intelligence cards.
Anomaly cards
Each card names the metric, shows expected vs actual values, deviation percentage, time window, and suggested next steps (e.g. check Tracking Plan, verify campaign UTMs, inspect Data Quality queue). Cards link to relevant report pages with date range pre-filled when possible.
Investigation playbook
- Confirm real traffic change vs tracking outage (Realtime + Data Quality).
- Check Marketing for new campaigns or missing UTMs causing channel shifts.
- Review recent deploys, redirects, or consent banner changes.
- Inspect funnel steps if goal anomalies fire.
- Create Growth Plan item if code or content fix needed.
False positives
Legitimate product launches create "positive anomalies." Dismiss or annotate rather than treating as incidents. Seasonality learning improves as history lengthens.
Recheck after fixes
Recheck re-runs detection against latest aggregates. Use after resolving tracking bugs or explaining expected campaign spikes. Resolved anomalies age out of open lists but remain in history for audit.
Relation to Overview feed
Open anomalies propagate to Overview intelligence feed for executives who live on the home dashboard. Keeping anomaly hygiene good prevents alert fatigue—dismiss info-level noise after review.
When not to panic
Holiday weekends, school breaks, and industry events shift baselines. Compare year-over-year when history exists. Positive anomalies on goal completions after a UX win are celebrations, not tickets.
Documentation
Log investigation outcome in Growth Plan notes even when dismissing—future analysts inherit context and avoid re-investigating known campaign spikes.
Additional best practices
Behavior Intelligence works best when tracking coverage, funnel definitions, and team review rituals stay aligned. Revisit this guide after major site changes—new theme, consent plugin, or checkout provider—and confirm Realtime, Data Quality, and Tracking Plan still agree.
Share direct help links from the in-app help panel so teammates read the same canonical definitions. Press Ctrl+K in the help center to jump between related guides quickly.
- Align date ranges before comparing metrics across pages.
- Document segment names when sharing screenshots.
- Verify fixes in Realtime before closing Growth Plan items.
- Keep UTM conventions consistent for Marketing and Traffic.
- Schedule AI analysis after enough post-change data accumulates.
Working with the global toolbar
Every major Behavior Intelligence report page shares a global toolbar controlling date range, comparison mode, saved views, and active segments. Understanding this toolbar prevents the most common reporting mistake: discussing metrics that look contradictory because two pages use different ranges or filters.
Date ranges support presets (last 7, 28, 90 days) and custom intervals. Comparison mirrors the prior period of equal length. When comparison is off, KPI deltas hide—do not assume zero change. Saved views capture all toolbar state; teach teammates to check the view name in the header before screenshotting for leadership.
Connecting insights to action
Analytics value appears when insights change behavior. Behavior Intelligence routes findings through Growth Plan, Anomalies, and AI Intelligence into prioritized work. A metric without an owner becomes wallpaper. Assign DRI (directly responsible individual) per Growth Plan card and set verification dates.
Cross-link investigations: Traffic anomaly → Sessions sample → Journeys path → Tracking Plan coverage → Funnel step fix. This sequence resolves most conversion mysteries without external tools.
Data freshness expectations
Raw events ingest in near real time on Realtime. Daily aggregates power most dashboard KPIs and typically finalize after processor cron completes overnight in site timezone. Intraday numbers on Traffic are directional, not audit-final. Export via Report Builder after period close for finance-adjacent reporting.
Security and access control
Report data stays inside WordPress authenticated admin. REST endpoints require configured capabilities. Do not expose API keys or disable capability checks for convenience. View-only roles should not access Settings, Tracking Plan writes, or AI job triggers unless policy explicitly allows.
Module updates and compatibility
After Imaginit Core or Behavior Intelligence updates, revisit Getting Started verification steps: Realtime test, Data Quality health, one saved report run. Release notes may add event types or metrics—refresh Report Builder definitions if preview validation fails. Theme changes always trigger Tracking Plan re-crawl before trusting click metrics.
Keyboard shortcuts and help search
From any Behavior Intelligence admin page, open in-app help links to jump to the matching guide on the public help center. Within the help site, press Ctrl+K or Cmd+K to open Spotlight search across all articles, headings, and keywords. Search for metric names, page titles, or tasks like "export CSV" to find the right workflow without browsing the sidebar.
Bookmark frequently used guides for your role: content editors often need Content Performance and Organic Search; engineers need Tracking Plan and Data Quality; leadership prefers Overview and Reports email summaries.