The latest normalization methodology is live, and we've made our Canadian modules even spiffier!
Normalization Upgrades for U.S. Destination Partners
The latest normalization methodology goes even further to address and smooth out volatility in our geolocation data signal — AND it creates safeguards against more kinds of volatility that could occur in the future.
This methodology balances your destination data across many different dimensions and accounts for differences including the ways people use their phone at home and when traveling, variances across origin markets, and variances based on destination POI makeup. All U.S. users of ZDOS Destination and ZDOS State will see a marked improvement in the stability and reliability of their data.
What differences will you see?
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Your Visitor Economy Index should look more like you expect it to. (This normalization update corrects what many destinations saw as an abrupt YoY increase in device counts that skewed this metric.)
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Your Visitor-to-Resident Ratio may also change, especially in year-over-year trends.
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You may see more subtle updates to your Market Index.
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If you use the Analytic Designer function, you will also see a change in normalized device counts. (NOTE: You may notice that these counts appear much closer to visitor volume figures you receive from other sources. Do not be tempted to report this as visitor volume! These counts are calculated differently and are not intended to reflect this measurement.)
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Your sample size calculator still shows device counts but you will notice a slight adjustment in amount compared to what you have been accustomed to seeing. This is due to an evolution of our methodology and normalization practices and is expected.
Pro tip: We encourage partners to apply the best practices of only reporting on data that is more than 30 days old. More recent data may be subject to change during this time period. The good news is that this window likely aligns with other data sources you are accustomed to reporting, such as lodging or tax revenues.
ZDOS Canada: Users of our new ZDOS Canada platform will see a fresh visual update and brand-new module summaries. These snippets of text at the top of each page help you understand how to best use your data and also link to helpful resources.