> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.roivenue.com/roivenue-resources/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.roivenue.com/roivenue-resources/roivenue-training/roivenue-app/reports/cohort-analysis.md).
# Cohorts
Cohorts shows what the customers you acquire are worth over time: how many come back, how fast they buy again and how much revenue they bring, by acquisition period or channel.
{% hint style="info" %}
Cohorts is in **Beta** and available to all accounts with a transaction feed. See What Cohorts needs.
{% endhint %}
Most reports tell you how a channel performed in a period. Cohorts tells you what the customers it brought are worth later. It groups customers by when they first bought, or by the channel that brought them, and follows each group over time. Instead of "which channel is cheapest", you can ask "which channel brings the most valuable customers".
Use Cohorts when you want to know:
* Are newer customers more or less valuable than customers you acquired six months ago?
* Which campaign brings one-off buyers and which brings repeat customers?
* Did a launch, a price change or a promo bring a better or worse cohort than usual?
* Do customers from one country, device or product line come back more often than others?
The page has four parts:
1. **Cohort Settings:** metric, dimension, granularity and number of periods. The settings apply to the whole page.
2. **Cohort KPIs:** six cards with the value of the customers you acquired.
3. **Customer Retention Cohort Table:** each cohort in one row, its development over time in columns.
4. **Cohort Performance Overview:** the same data as a line chart.
To open the page, go to **Reports → Cohorts** in the left navigation. Use the date range at the top to choose which customers to analyze, the attribution model for channel dimensions, and the **Filter Panel** to narrow the data.
***
### How to set up the page
**Cohort Settings** apply to all charts and tables on the page.
| Setting | What it does |
| --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Metric** | What the table and the chart measure, for example Net Revenue or Conversions. |
| **Dimension** | How customers are grouped. **Date** groups them by when they first bought. A channel dimension, for example **Platform Name** or **Campaign (auto)**, groups them by where they came from. |
| **Granularity** | The length of one period: Daily (1 day), Weekly (7 days), Monthly (30 days), Quarterly (90 days) or Yearly (365 days). |
| **Number of periods** | How far into each cohort's life you follow it, so how many columns you see after **Base**. |
The date range at the top decides who counts. Cohorts include every customer whose first purchase falls into the selected period.
***
### How to read the KPI cards
The cards show the headline numbers for the customers acquired in the selected period. Roivenue follows these customers up to today, not only to the end of the period.
| KPI | What it tells you | How it is calculated |
| -------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------- |
| **Customer Acquisition Cost** | What you paid on average to win one new customer. | Total cost ÷ new customers |
| **Avg. Order Value** | How much a typical order from these customers is worth. | Total revenue ÷ total orders |
| **Avg. Time to Second Purchase** | How quickly new customers come back for their second order. | Average days between the 1st and the 2nd order |
| **Returning Customer Rate** | The share of new customers who bought again at least once. | Customers with 2 or more orders ÷ all customers |
| **Avg. Number of Orders per Customer** | How often an average customer buys. | Total orders ÷ customers |
| **Avg. Lifetime Value (LTV)** | The total revenue an average customer brings across all orders. | Total revenue ÷ customers |
The cards update when you filter the page, for example to one channel or campaign. Each card can be added to a dashboard.
***
### How to read the Customer Retention Cohort Table
Each row is one cohort, a group of customers acquired in the same period or through the same dimension value. Each column is one step later in the cohort's life.
* **Base** is the period in which the customers first bought.
* **+30d**, **+60d** and further columns are fixed windows after the base period. Their length follows the granularity: with **Monthly (30 days)**, each column is 30 days, not a calendar month.
* The **Total** row summarizes all cohorts.
* Colour shading shows which cohorts grow and which fade. Hover over a cell to see the cohort, the period and the value.
Columns that lie in the future stay empty. A cohort acquired last month cannot have a value for +90d yet.
With the **Date** dimension, cohorts go from the oldest to the newest. With other dimensions, the cohorts with the most customers come first.
{% hint style="info" %}
**Example:** Granularity Monthly, Metric Net Revenue, Dimension Date. The January row shows that customers acquired in January spent EUR 50,000 in their Base period and EUR 12,000 in the next 30 days. A February row with EUR 45,000 and EUR 18,000 means fewer first purchases, but stronger repeat buying.
{% endhint %}
#### Cumulative and Absolute values
The **Data View** switch in the table header changes what each column means:
* **Cumulative Values** show a running total. Use it to see how much a cohort has brought so far.
* **Absolute Values** show only the single period. Use it to see when customers buy and when activity drops.
***
### How to read the Cohort Performance Overview
The line chart puts every cohort on the same starting line, so you can compare their shape no matter when they started. The chart shows the first 5 cohorts by default. In **Dimension Value**, you can choose up to 10. The **Avg of all Cohorts** line shows the average for comparison.
***
### How customers are counted
A customer is a unique person identified by a customer ID, with all their orders linked over time. The first order makes them a new customer in a cohort. Every later order counts as a repeat order. A customer is not the same as an order: someone with three orders in January counts as one customer in the January cohort.
How a customer is assigned to a cohort depends on the dimension:
* **Date:** one customer, one cohort. The date of the first order decides the cohort. All later revenue and orders stay in that cohort.
* **Other dimensions**, for example Platform Name: one customer can be split across cohorts. A customer journey often touches several channels, so Roivenue splits the customer between them by the credit of the selected attribution model. The channel totals then match the rest of your reporting.
***
### How filters work in Cohorts
Filters follow where a customer started. A customer stays credited to the cohort and channel of the first purchase. When you filter to one channel, you see the customers that channel acquired, including revenue they later brought through other channels.
A few order-level filters apply to all orders instead, for example **Conversion Type**, **Delivery Type** or **Order Status**.
Full list of order-level filters
Conversion Type, Coupon, Customer Birth At, Customer City, Customer Country Code, Customer Email Domain, Customer Email Hash, Customer Gender, Customer Is Company, Customer Latitude, Customer Longitude, Customer Phone Hash, Customer Postal Code, Customer Segment, Customer Street, Delivery Type, Destination, Item Names, Loan Attribution, Order Status, Payment Type, Processing Type, Product Type, Sales Channel, Source System.
***
### How to export and share
* **Export to XLSX** downloads the cohort table.
* **Download PNG** downloads the performance chart.
* **Add to Dashboard** adds the table, the chart or a KPI card to a dashboard. See [Dashboard](https://docs.roivenue.com/roivenue-resources/roivenue-training/roivenue-app/dashboard).
***
### What Cohorts needs
Cohorts needs at least one site with a matched **transaction feed**, the order data from your order management system. Without it, the page shows "This feature is not included in your plan." Contact your Customer Success Manager to set it up.
***
#### FAQ
1. Why can't I open Cohorts in my account?
Cohorts needs a transaction feed connected to at least one site. Without it, the page shows that the feature is not included in your plan. Contact your Customer Success Manager to set up the transaction feed.
2. Why doesn't +30d match the next calendar month?
Columns after **Base** are fixed windows: 7 days for Weekly, 30 days for Monthly, 90 days for Quarterly and 365 days for Yearly. They count from the end of the base period, not by calendar months. This keeps all cohorts comparable, because every cohort gets windows of the same length.
3. What does "Date range doesn't match granularity" mean?
Cohorts follow your date range. When the range does not start and end with the granularity, the first and last cohorts cover only part of a period. Roivenue flags these cohorts but does not adjust them. Hover over a cohort to see its exact date range, or align the date range with the granularity, for example whole months for Monthly.
4. What does "Data aggregated" mean?
The selected period is shorter than the granularity, for example two weeks with Monthly. Roivenue then aggregates the data to the whole containing period, so the total can include data outside your date range. Choose a smaller granularity or a longer date range.
5. Why are the last columns of recent cohorts empty?
These periods have not happened yet. A cohort acquired last month cannot have data for +90d. The cells fill in as time passes.
6. Why do the KPI cards include orders after the end of my date range?
The date range decides which customers count, not which orders. Roivenue follows the selected customers up to today, so their later orders are part of Avg. Lifetime Value, Returning Customer Rate and the other KPIs.
7. Why do the numbers by channel change when I switch the attribution model?
With a channel dimension, Roivenue splits each customer across the channels in the journey by the credit of the selected model. A different model splits the credit differently, so each channel gets a different share of customers and revenue. With the **Date** dimension, the model does not matter, because each customer belongs to one cohort.
8. Why does a channel filter show revenue from other channels?
Filters follow where a customer started. When you filter to one channel, you see the customers that channel acquired and everything they bought later, also through other channels. That is the value the channel brought.
9. Why can't I find a metric or a dimension in Cohorts?
Some metrics and dimensions are hidden on certain pages. Go to **Data → Metrics** or **Data → Dimensions**, open the settings of the item and check on which pages it is hidden. Uncheck **Cohort Analysis** and save.
10. How is Cohorts different from Model Comparison or Performance?
Model Comparison and Performance show results in the period when they happened. Cohorts shows results by when the customers were acquired and follows them over time. Use Cohorts to judge the long-term value of customers from a channel, not only the conversions in one month.