The concept of retention rate is not unfamiliar to everyone. What we usually see is more of a fixed retention rate. The general statistical period is based on days, and common ones are the next day, 7 days, 14 days, 15 days, 30 days, 60 days, etc.; if you want to see a more flexible retention rate, such as the retention rate according to a certain date time period, you have to go through this process: put forward requirements to analysts - analysts put forward requirements to technology - analysts get data and analyze retention rates - give data results to PM/ operation . This process needs to last at least one day, and the final results can only be obtained after one day. Not only does it delay the best time to adjust the website operation strategy, but there may also be data errors due to the time interval. Such a process does reduce work efficiency. Is there any way to calculate the retention rate more autonomously and flexibly?1. What is retention rate?In the Internet industry, users begin to visit websites/applications because of new user acquisition or promotional activities, but after a period of time, some of these customers may gradually disappear. Retention rate is defined as users who start using the website/app within a certain period of time (generally defined as registration). After a period of time, those who continue to use the website/app are considered retained users. Retention rate reflects the quality of the website/app and its ability to retain users.Retention rate calculation method: Retention rate = number of logged-in users / number of new users * 100%(Generally, the statistical period is days, and common period dimensions include next day, 7 days, 14 days/15 days, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days)for example:
Next-day retention rate: (number of new users on the first day, number of users still logged in on the second day) / total number of registered users on the first day
7-day retention rate: (number of new users on the first day, number of users still logged in on the 8th day) / total number of registered users on the first day
30-day retention rate: (number of new users on the first day, number of users still logged in on the 31st day) / total number of registered users on the first day
Retention rate ≠ activity rateIt is a serious misunderstanding to confuse retention rate with activity rate. People often use daily active users (DAU) to monitor websites/apps. Sometimes DAU gradually increases over a period of time. This is a good phenomenon, but if the retention rate calculation is ignored, the result is likely to be a mistake. For example, a company has carried out many activities to attract new users and promote them, which has brought in many new users. Its daily active data should also increase, but the number of users who ultimately stay is not necessarily increasing, and may even be decreasing. It’s just that there are too many new users, which masks the retention rate problem. In fact, user retention is gradually decreasing.2. How is retention rate achieved in the data platform?(1) How to setDimension: Date dimensionValue: Added registered users + retention settings (Note: multiple retention rates can be calculated at the same time, such as next-day retention, 7th-day retention, 30th-day retention, first-quarter retention, etc.)(2) Retention rate settingAfter a lot of relevant data research, we finally determined that the retention rate can be calculated by day, week, month, quarter, year, or custom time period. In the past, most retention rates were calculated on a daily basis, but these personalized demands based on weeks, months, or even custom time periods are very strong, which can help our customers understand more specific retention data of the website and make more correct website operation strategies.By fixed time: The most basic setting, only view the retention rate at a fixed time in the future
Retention period: Select to calculate by fixed time, including: day, week, month, quarter, year, such as the nth day, the nth month, the above figure is set to the 7th day;
Date field: Select the date field in the worksheet, such as user access time;
Selected date: the start time of the retention period. The default is a fixed time, but you can also set a custom time period.
Numerical settings: retention rate, retention number, this should not be difficult to understand;
Meaning of the above picture: Retention on the 7th day after today, that is, 7-day retention;By time range: The setting is more flexible, and you can view the retention rate of a certain period of time in the future (according to a fixed period, such as week 1 to week 7)Retention period: select the time range to calculate the retention rate, including: day, week, month, quarter, year, such as day n to day m, month n to month n, the above figure sets the retention rate from day 1 to day 7 (i.e. retention from the next day to day 7);
Date field: Select the date field in the worksheet, such as user access time;
Selected date: the start time of the retention period. The default is a fixed time. Here we choose to customize the time period.
Numerical settings: retention rate, retention number, this should not be difficult to understand;
Meaning of the above figure: The total number of new users from 2016-07-21 to 2016-07-31 corresponding to the next day to 7 day retention;By custom time period: the most personalized setting, you can view the retention rate of a certain period of time in the future (no fixed period setting, you can set the date range at will)(Figure 1, selected date: fixed time)(Figure 2, Selected date: custom time period)
Retention period: select to calculate the retention rate based on a custom time period, such as from 2016-08-04 to 2016-08-31;
Date field: Select the date field in the worksheet, such as user access time;
Selected date: the start time of the retention period. You can select a fixed time (today) or a custom time period.
Numerical settings: retention rate, retention number, this should not be difficult to understand;
Meaning of Figure 1: Retention of today’s registered users from 2016-08-04 to 2016-08-31;Figure 2: The total number of new users from 2016-07-21 to 2016-08-03 and their retention from 2016-08-04 to 2016-08-31;In addition, it is important to note that the sentence "When calculating the retention rate, the calculated value may exist in multiple states" in the advanced options is understood as follows: for example, most websites use user IDs to calculate new users and user retention rates . New users only make a calculation judgment on the user ID (for example, access time - creation time = 0, that is, this user ID is a new user), and the retention rate is also calculated for the user ID. In addition to the users who have stayed before, the users who come to the visit date also include new users who come on the day of the visit. At this time, the new users on the day of the visit must be excluded, and only the users who have stayed before can be counted as retained users, and the calculated retention rate is correct.If there are no such exceptions for the fields corresponding to the retention rate calculation, you can ignore this so-called "advanced option".The above is about how to flexibly set the retention rate on the data platform. In the next issue, I would like to share with you the design concept of the retention rate and some practical application scenarios, and share more knowledge about the retention rate from the perspective of product design.
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The author of this article @连浩, BDP Senior Product Manager , compiled and published by (APP Top Promotion), please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!
