Anomaly Watch
The formula
μ = the mean (average) of the previous 14 days
σ = the standard deviation of those 14 days — how much the metric usually wiggles
z = how many standard deviations yesterday is from the recent norm
When we flag it
| |z| ≥ 2.0 | Notice | ● |
| |z| ≥ 2.5 | Warning | ● |
| |z| ≥ 3.5 | Critical | ● |
Worked example · "Sessions" on May 14
The idea, in plain English
Every day, this dashboard compares yesterday's number to what we'd expect based on the previous two weeks. If the number is much higher or much lower than expected, it gets flagged. Same instinct you'd use eyeballing a chart — "that day looks weird" — except the system runs it across every metric, every day, without missing.
Why a two-week comparison window?
Marketing traffic naturally rises and falls by day of the week — Mondays look different from Sundays. Two weeks captures both weekdays and weekends, so the comparison adapts to those patterns without overreacting to recent campaigns or seasonal shifts. It's long enough to be stable, short enough to stay current.
What the severity tiers mean
What this catches
Traffic spikes from campaigns or viral pages, traffic drops from tracking breaks or site outages, unusual conversion patterns, sudden geographic shifts — anything far outside the recent norm. Especially useful as a safety net the week of a launch or a redesign.
What this doesn't catch
Gradual trends that build over several weeks — those get absorbed into the rolling baseline by design. Issues that happen only at certain hours (the system checks once a day, not hourly). Problems in segments that aren't on the watchlist, such as a specific channel cratering while overall sessions hold steady. For those, pair this view with the channel and page reports below — or open a focused investigation on the day flagged here.