Cohorts

A cohort is a group of customers bucketed by a shared event — usually their first action (signup, first purchase). Cohort analysis shows how each bucket's retention evolves over time.

Building a cohort

1. Go to Cohorts → + New cohort.
2. Pick the qualifying event (e.g. signup_completed).
3. Pick the return event (e.g. session_started, purchase_completed).
4. Choose bucket granularity: day, week, or month.

The retention grid

Rows are cohorts (each row = customers who qualified during that bucket). Columns are periods after qualification. Cells show the % of the cohort that fired the return event in each later period.

Spotting patterns

• Vertical gradient — later cohorts retaining better or worse than earlier ones. Indicates product or acquisition changes.
• Horizontal gradient — typical decay; measure the slope to spot when your product becomes "sticky".
• Plateau — a healthy long-tail indicates PMF.