FAQ: How do you run a sample report in Advertising Insights?

Advertising Insights, formerly Ad$pender, is located under letter A of our A-Z Database list. In this sample report, we want to find out the total amount of advertising dollars spent by McDonald’s each year from 2015-2019.

1. Click the New Report link

   

2. Select Double arrows to select all media types (or just move over the ones you want individually). Click the Next link at the bottom right of the page to move to the next selection for the report.

   

3. Look for the button on the top right that says Select Multiple Time Periods and click that link.  On the next page, click the Calendar radio button and then Select Frequency: Year and then specify your date range. Once you are finished click the Add link in the middle to move them over.

   

   

4. Select Parents and then type in your company. In this example, we’ve specified McDonald's. Be sure that you don’t use any punctuation. For example, if you typed in McDonald’s with an apostrophe, no results will be found. Click the Search button and you’ll see McDonalds Corp in the list.

   

5. Highlight McDonalds Corp and then click the Select button in the bottom left to add your selection. You should see a line appear right below that button that says 1 item has been included. Now click the Next link in the bottom right to move on.

   

6. For the Report Format, select Time Period for Columns and Media for the Sort by field. You can leave everything else the same and click Next in the bottom right.

   

7. No changes are needed in the Report Options page. Click the next link in the bottom right.

   

8. On the Report Summary page type in your report name and then click Run Report.

   

9. If you get this error page, it seems like you will have to go back and make some changes, but click OK and it actually does run the report.

   

10. You will see on the next page that the report has been submitted. Click the refresh arrow in the top left of your browser to see if the report has finished. It will appear under View once it’s done. It usually only takes a few minutes.

    

11. Click the PDF logo to open your report.

    

Please contact a librarian for additional assistance.

Content authored by: GS