If you want to merge data from different ads then it is possible to do, however we strongly advise that this is only done if your data merge meets any one of the scenarios below:

• You have run two or more separate facial coding tests using the exact same media file in both instances
• You have run two or more separate facial coding tests using very similar ads with only minor differences, such as a different language overlaid across the same video. 
• You have run two or more separate facial coding tests using similar ads that have a few seconds of different content, but are otherwise the same. 

In all above cases, the ads must be practically identical in length to ensure the data remains meaningful post-merging. If one ad is a few seconds longer than the other then this can give false impressions of the audience response towards the end of the ad as suddenly the sample is reduced by 50% for X seconds, where X equals the difference in length between the two ads. 

There are four methods for merging the data: 

Grouping ads into a single study

Use Case: You have tested two or more media which you wish to compare and contrast on the same study page.

Summary: This method isn't a true merging of data; rather it allows you to view the results of multiple ads along side each other. So rather than having two separate studies, each with their own charts, you can instead have a single study that depicts the trend lines for both ads on the same chart, allowing for ease of comparison. 

Procedure: This can be either performed by you if you control the set up of the study via API, or by Realeyes at any point, pre, post, or during collection. If you require us to create the grouped study for you then please simply send a ticket to support@realeyesit.com asking for us to create a new study that contains the data for X, Y and Z ads, including the original study names the ads come from if possible. In order to compare the two (or more) ads together on a single chart, simply:

1. Open the study page and click the 'Select media' button in the top left of the page. Select all media you wish to compare, and click 'Done'
2. Once the data for all of the ads you selected has loaded, ensure the 'Compare' option is selected in the 'Media' filter. 

Auto 'Summing' ads within a single study

Use Case: You have tested two or more very similar media (length and content) and wish to see their combined results.

Summary: Again like with the previous method this isn't true merging. It does combine the results of two or more ads together into a single chart line, but not permanently. If you were to refresh the page or deselect 'Sum' from the media filter (see Procedure below) then the data would no longer be merged. 

Procedure: This can be performed by you once two or more ads in a study have enough data (10+ sessions) to display the chart results, or at any other point during or post collection. If you require us to create the grouped study for you then please simply send a ticket to support@realeyesit.com asking for us to create a new study that contains the data for X, Y and Z ads, including the original study names the ads come from if possible. Once you have a study with all the required media in it, then in order to 'Sum' the results together, please do the following: 

1. Open the study page and click the 'Select media' button in the top left of the page. Select all media you wish to 'Sum' the results together for and click 'Done'
2. Once the data for all of the ads you selected has loaded, ensure the 'Sum' option is selected in the 'Media' filter. 

NB! Now that the chart depicts the combined ('Summed') results for multiple ads, the exports available on this page will also be for the combined results. 

Manual 'Summing' ads from different studies

Use case: You have tested two or more very similar ads (length and content) in different studies, and wish to view the combined results without creating a new study with all of the ads included. This would normally be if you wanted to quickly check what the merged results would look like, IE the task isn't worth the time/effort to submit a ticket for the 'Auto summing' option listed above. 

Summary: Again as with the last two, this isn't a true merging of the data. You are downloading the separate data exports for each ad, and then averaging them together to create your own version of the 'Sum' media filter result. 

Procedure: Open each study that contains one or more of the ads you wish to merge the data for, then perform the following steps: 

1. Select all the media that is relevant to you in each study using the 'Select media' button. Ensure the desired metrics (Happy, Engagement, etc.) that you wish to manually combine are selected. Furthermore, if you have multiple media selected within a single study, ensure the 'Compare' option is selected in the media filter. 
2. Click the 'Export' button just above the chart, and select 'Chart Data'. A CSV export will download via your browser that contains one column of chart data for each ad/emotion pair you selected for the chart. Repeat this step in every study you opened in step 1 until you have a column of results data for each ad you wish to combine.
3. Copy/paste all columns of data side-by-side into a single Excel spreadsheet. Create a new column at the end of the data, named 'Combined Data' or something else appropriate. You can then use Excel's 'AVERAGE' function to average the data across each row (each row being a second's worth of data) to get the average for that second. Do this for every row of data. 
4. You now have a combined data column from all of the included ads, which you can turn into a chart via Excel's charting functions. To make the chart line identical to what it would look like in the 'Automated Sum' option above, ensure the 'Smoothed line' option is ticked in the chart settings. This is not the same as the smoothing functionality we provide on all charts pages, it's merely a chart style option that makes the trend lines a little nicer to look at. 

NB! When you export the data, it will have already been 'Smoothed' to the same level you set it to in on the charts page. If you didn't specifically set the level, then it will be at whatever the default setting is. 

 Full database data merge

Use case: An issue with data collection resulted in you having two data sets for the same ad, however it's imperative that the data is merged so that it can be fully presented to your client as a single results set. 

Summary: The data needs to be manually combined by Realeyes developers. This is a big task and could take up to several days to plan and execute. The result will be a single study/single ad, but the results combined from two or more collections. This is a true merging of the data. 

Procedure: A formal request needs to be submitted to support@realeyesit.com that includes the following information: 

• A summary of what you are trying to achieve and why
• A list of the ads/studies you wish to combine
• The urgency of the request

To reiterate: This is a large, complex, manual process. It's not the type of task that can be done instantly or quickly - it must be planned into our developers' schedule. We may refuse the request if we do not agree that the justification for doing this is valid over the other merging options listed above. 

NB! If you have used *the exact same media file* for two or more collections, then you can simply request that we create a new study using those two (or more) collections.  If the media is the same in both collections then our system will automatically merge the results and depict them as a single chart line. This assumes that the media file is the same in all collections - if you uploaded multiple copies of the same ad and therefore used different files then we would need to do the full database data merge in order to get the study depicting the results fully as a single results set.