Understanding the flow of your form submissions over time is key to recognizing patterns, evaluating the impact of your efforts, and forecasting future activity. Formora’s analytics provide charts that visualize submission trends, allowing you to see how many responses you receive based on the selected date range and chart type.

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Why Track Submissions Over Time?

  • Identify Peak Periods: Discover when your forms are most active (e.g., specific days of the week, times of day, or periods after a promotion).
  • Measure Campaign Effectiveness: See clear spikes in submissions after launching a marketing campaign, sending an email blast, or running an ad.
  • Monitor Growth: Track the overall increase or decrease in form engagement over weeks, months, or years.
  • Detect Seasonality: Observe if submission patterns vary significantly depending on the time of year or specific seasons relevant to your audience.
  • Spot Anomalies: Quickly identify unexpected drops or surges in submissions that might indicate a problem (e.g., broken form, external event) or a success.
Submission trend data is a central piece of the Formora analytics dashboard for your selected form(s) and date range.
  • Location: Look for a prominent Composed Chart (which can display as Area, Line, or Bar) labeled “Submissions Over Time.”
  • Date Range Control: This chart dynamically updates based on the global Date Range Selector. All data shown is confined to this selected period.
Mockup of a chart showing submission volume over a selected date range, with selectors for chart type.

Example of a Submissions Over Time chart in Formora Analytics, showing options for Area, Bar, or Line chart types.

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Available Chart Types

Formora allows you to switch between different visual representations for the submission trend data:
  • Area Chart (Default): Displays submissions as a filled area under a line. This is good for showing volume and cumulative trends.
  • Bar Chart: Shows submissions as vertical bars for each time interval. Useful for comparing discrete totals per interval.
  • Line Chart: Presents submissions as a line connecting data points. Best for highlighting the rate of change and exact trend direction.
You can select your preferred chart type using a dropdown menu associated with the chart.

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Time Granularity and X-Axis Formatting

The X-axis of the chart represents time, and its formatting adapts to the length of the selected date range:
  • Shorter Ranges (e.g., up to 60 days): Dates are typically displayed in a “Month Day” format (e.g., “Jan 5”, “Mar 15”). This provides a daily or near-daily view of submissions.
  • Longer Ranges (e.g., over 60 days): Dates may be displayed in a “Month ‘Year” format (e.g., “Jan ‘24”, “Apr ‘24”). This provides a more aggregated view, suitable for observing weekly or monthly trends over extended periods.
The chart automatically groups submission data by day within the selected range.

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Interpreting the Chart

  • Identify Peaks and Troughs: Look for regular patterns. For example, do you consistently get more submissions on weekdays versus weekends? Do submissions spike after you send out a newsletter?
  • Spot Overall Trends: Is the general direction of the line/bars upward (growth), downward (decline), or flat (stable)?
  • Correlate with Activities: Mentally (or by annotating) overlay your marketing activities, website changes, or external events onto the timeline to see their potential impact on submission volume.
  • Compare to Previous Periods: Some analytics tools allow you to overlay data from a previous period (e.g., this month vs. last month, or this year vs. last year) directly on the chart for easy comparison. This is very powerful for measuring growth or the impact of changes.
By regularly monitoring your submissions over time, you gain valuable insights into the rhythm of your audience engagement and the effectiveness of your outreach efforts. Next, let’s explore how to analyze the Device Breakdown of your form users.