Cohort Analysis

Cohort analysis is a very powerful tool for understanding seasonality, customer lifecycle, and the long-term health of your business. In this content you will be able to learn how to do a cohort analysis in Google Analytics. You will be able to gain a variety of information about what cohort analyzes are and what they are used for.

You may have noticed some features in the beta version under the Audience tab in Google Analytics. One of these beta features is called Cohort Analysis. In order to explain well what cohort analysis is in Google Analytics, first of all, it is necessary to look at the definition of the word cohort.

A cohort is any group that shares a trait. For example, one of the most heard groups these days is the Y generation. In the case of Google Analytics, currently the only shareable property you can select is Date of Acquisition. Throughout the content, all narrations will proceed through it.

The idea of ​​cohort analysis is to group users according to certain criteria and examine how the behavior of these groups has changed over time. Cohort analysis helps you understand how your marketing efforts affect key performance indicators (conversion, retention rates, return on investment, etc.).

In whatever system you plan to produce a cohort report, you need to consider four key parameters:

Cohort defining feature: Date of first visit to site, date of purchase or registration, etc.
Cohort size: The time range to define your cohort, days, weeks or months, etc.
Reporting period: When you will analyze the behavior of the group.
Key metric for analysis: ROI, retention rate, lifetime value, etc.