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Cohort Analysis

cohort analysis · cohort analysis

Cohort Analysis - dividing clients into groups by date of attraction and analyzing their behavior over time.

Cohort Analysis - cohort analysis, dividing customers into groups (cohorts) based on a common characteristic (usually the month of first contact or purchase) and tracking their behavior over time.

Cohort analysis answers questions that “average” numbers cannot answer: - Does the LTV of cohorts change over time? January 2024 → December 2024 - Is the quality of marketing growing? (if the LTV of new cohorts grows) - When do users stop coming back on average? (day N retention) - Is there seasonality? (Are December cohorts different from June cohorts?)

In my projects, cohort analysis is the main tool for assessing the effectiveness of long-term marketing. If the average LTV of a project is 12K ₽, this doesn’t say anything. But “cohort Q1 has an LTV of 15K, Q4 - 9K” is a signal that the quality of attraction is declining.

The most common case where cohort comes to the rescue: a marketer launches a new channel, sees an excellent CPL, and reports “everything is cool.” After 3 months, it turns out that the cohort from this channel has 2x less LTV. CPL was good, but customer quality was bad.

I usually do cohort analysis in Google Sheets (for projects with up to 10K clients) or through pandas scripts (for projects with more than that).

Frequently asked questions about Cohort Analysis

What is cohort analysis?+
Cohort analysis - dividing customers into groups by date of acquisition and tracking their metrics over time. The January cohort and the February cohort are each tracked separately. This is the only way to see whether the quality of attraction is increasing or decreasing.
Why do we need cohort analysis if there is an average LTV?+
Average LTV is a dangerous metric. It can grow at the expense of old cohorts, masking the fact that new cohorts are being held less and less well. Cohort analysis will show that the January cohort brings LTV 15K, and the March cohort only 8K. These are different business decisions.

Related terms

Where is it understood in practice?

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