Understanding your numbers
Real gain, Real drop and Directional
Most week-to-week movement is noise. Ocita only calls a change real when the data supports it.
Real gain and Real drop
Each week, Ocita pools the answers from up to four previous weekly runs and works out a range for that baseline. A change is real when this week’s range doesn’t overlap the baseline range.
If your visibility ran from 30 to 38 over the last four weeks and this week’s range is 42 to 52, that’s a Real gain. If the ranges overlap, Ocita reports no real change, even if the headline number moved.
- A brand’s first check has no baseline, so it can’t show a real change.
- For average position, lower is better, so a lower position is a gain.
- Real changes appear on This week, in Activity, in the Monday digest, and as alerts if you’ve turned them on.
Stable and Directional
These labels say how much to trust a metric. It’s Stable when all three are true:
- At least 20 prompts were sampled.
- The range is no wider than 10 points, or 1 place for average position.
- The brand’s first full weekly run is done.
Anything else is Directional. It’s worth watching, but not worth acting on yet. Your first check is always Directional.
What drove a change
When a brand has a real change, its Overview lists the prompts behind it under What changed, with the engine and the before and after. Each one links to the prompt, so you can read the answers.
Rankings
Rankings use share of voice. A brand shares a rank with the leader of its group when their ranges overlap, so you’ll see a rank like 3–5 instead of an order the data can’t support.