Articles on: Data Explorer

Can I use Annotations in the Data Explorer?

Annotations let you add context directly to your data by flagging specific dates with notes. So you and your team always know why metrics looked the way they did. Open the Annotations panel from the toolbar inside your report, then fill in a description, set a Severity level, and choose a Start date and End date for the annotation. Click Save to attach it to that date range. Saved annotations are visible to anyone who views the report, and the panel shows "No annotations for this period" when the selected date range has none.


How to add an annotation


  1. Open your Data Explorer report.
  2. Click the Annotations icon in the report toolbar.
  3. Enter a description of the event in the text field.
  4. Set the Severity (e.g. Critical).
  5. Choose the Start date and End date the annotation applies to.
  6. Click Save.


Times you wished someone made an annotation

  • Flag a date range as Critical with the note "DDOS attack on the website" to explain a sudden drop in sessions and conversions
  • Annotate a deliverability dip with "ESP outage — sends delayed by 6 hours" so future analysis accounts for the gap
  • Mark a promotional period with "Black Friday sale live" to remind the team why open rates and revenue spiked




Context that travels with your data

Numbers without context are just numbers. Annotations ensure that unusual spikes, drops, or anomalies in your data are always explainable. Whether you're reviewing a report a week later or sharing it with a stakeholder who wasn't there when it happened.


Use Severity to prioritize

The Severity field helps signal how significant an event was at a glance. Use Critical for events that meaningfully impacted your data, and reserve lower severity levels for minor disruptions or informational notes.

Updated on: 09/03/2026