Cohort and Funnel Analysis

Cohort analysis compares groups that share a starting condition across equal periods of time. Funnel analysis counts how many people or accounts progress through a defined sequence, so you can locate conversion loss and compare behavior between groups.

itData engineering and analytics

Cohort and Funnel Analysis

Cohort and funnel analysis are two ways to organize event data around a business question. A cohort groups people or accounts by a shared condition, often the date of a first action. A funnel tests how many of those entities complete an ordered sequence of actions within a defined window.

The methods answer different questions. A funnel locates where progression stops. A cohort shows how behavior changes across groups or elapsed periods. Used together, they can show whether a conversion problem affects every group, only recent acquisition cohorts, or people with a specific behavior.

The analytical model

Both methods start with an event stream. Each event needs an entity identifier, an event name, and a timestamp. Properties add context such as device category, plan, campaign, or product identifier. The analyst turns those fields into explicit rules:

Select the analysis unit: person, account, or session.
Define the qualifying event or property for each cohort.
Define the funnel steps as event conditions.
Choose the order rule and conversion window.
Choose the date range, filters, and breakdown attribution.
Count qualifying entities and calculate rates.

These rules are part of the metric. Two reports with the same title can disagree because one counts sessions while another counts people, or because one accepts intervening events while another requires adjacent steps.

Cohort and Funnel Analysis

Cohort and Funnel Analysis

The analytical model

Cohorts: align groups on a shared start

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