Advertising (Historical) Formula in Excel

Understanding Advertising (Historical)

The Advertising (Historical) formula in Excel with MarketXLS helps you retrieve historical advertising, sales, and marketing expenses for a given company or financial instrument. By analyzing this data, you can:

• Compare advertising trends and performance over different quarters or years
• Evaluate marketing spend effectiveness in relation to revenue or other metrics
• Monitor trailing twelve-month (TTM) advertising expenses for deeper insights

This formula is especially valuable for financial analysts, marketers, and investors looking to understand the historical marketing expenditure of a company and its overall financial health.

Syntax and Parameters

Syntax

=hf_Advertising(Symbol, year, [quarter], [TTM])

Parameter Table

Return Value

• Returns a numeric value (the advertising expense) if available.
• Returns "NA" if data is unavailable, the symbol is invalid, or if your license does not include access.

?? Note: If there is an error in the underlying web service or malformed inputs, the function will also return “NA”.

Examples and Usage

Below are some practical ways to use hf_Advertising in Excel:

Basic Usage

=hf_Advertising("MSFT", 2022)

Returns the annual advertising expense for Microsoft in 2022.

Quarter-Specific Data

=hf_Advertising("MSFT", 2022, 2)

Returns Microsoft’s advertising expense for the second calendar quarter of 2022.

Trailing Twelve Months (TTM)

=hf_Advertising("MSFT", 2022, 3, "TTM")

Returns Microsoft’s trailing twelve-month advertising expense based on the third quarter of 2022.

Last Quarter / Last Year

=hf_Advertising("MSFT", "lq")
=hf_Advertising("MSFT", "ly")

Retrieves the last quarter's or last year's advertising expense.

Using Offsets for Last Period Calculations

=hf_Advertising("MSFT", "lq-1")
=hf_Advertising("MSFT", "ly-1")
=hf_Advertising("MSFT", "lt")
=hf_Advertising("MSFT", "lt-1")

• "lq-1" gives data for the previous quarter to the last quarter.
• "ly-1" gives data for the previous period to the last year.
• "lt" gives the last 12 months, and "lt-1" the previous 12 months.

? Pro Tip: Combine date functions or cell references for dynamic time periods. For example:
• Cell reference: =hf_Advertising(A1, A2)
• Direct date: =hf_Advertising("MSFT", "2024")
• Excel date function: =hf_Advertising("MSFT", TEXT(A1,"yyyy"))

Common Questions

1. Can I use cell references for symbols and years?
   Definitely. You can reference cells for dynamic formulas, for example:

   =hf_Advertising(A1, B1)

   where cell A1 holds the symbol "MSFT" and B1 holds the year "2022".

2. How do I input different date formats?
   You can provide dates in several ways:

   • Cell references:

     =hf_Advertising(A1)

   • Direct dates:

     =hf_Advertising("2024-03-15")

   • Excel date functions:

     =hf_Advertising(TEXT(A1,"yyyy-mm-dd"))

   However, for this function’s parameters, providing just the year or the special keywords ("lq", "ly", etc.) is typically sufficient.

3. Why do I get an "NA" result?

   • The symbol might be invalid.
   • Your MarketXLS license may not cover certain data.
   • Data is not available for that period.
   • There may be a temporary issue with the data source.

4. Is there any performance concern?
   The hf_Advertising function fetches data from external APIs. While MarketXLS employs caching to speed things up, running the formula on many rows at once can cause noticeable delays. Consider refreshing data periodically or using fewer formulas simultaneously.

5. Are there related historical expense functions?
   Yes, MarketXLS offers a suite of Historical Fundamentals functions, such as:

   • Revenue (Historical)
   • Cost Of Revenue (Historical)
   • Gross Profit (Historical)
   • R & D Expenses (Historical)
   • Selling, General, and Administrative Expense (Historical)

By leveraging the Advertising (Historical) formula in Excel with MarketXLS, you gain quick insights into past advertising expenses, enabling better decision-making and financial analysis.