Marketers have a vast amount of data at their disposal. Often, they are drowning in data, making it impossible to pinpoint crucial information that informs impactful business decisions. They find it challenging to identify the key advertising and media insights that can help in decision-making.
That’s where cohort marketing can help.
In the mobile marketing world, cohort marketing analysis is an effective way to get an in-depth understanding of user behavior, identify trends, and personalize experiences. The targeted approach cuts out the noise and focuses on what matters. It allows marketers to improve retention, optimize experiences based on specific behaviors and preferences, and drive sustainable app growth.
In this post, you will find all the information you need about cohorts in marketing and how they can help take your mobile marketing game to the next level.
What Are Cohorts in Marketing?
Cohort Definition
Cohorts are user groups segmented by shared characteristics and behaviors within a specific time frame.
For instance, a cohort may comprise users who installed an app during the festive season. Similarly, it could have users who made in-app purchases during the Black Friday sale.
Creating cohorts allows marketers to track key trends, analyze performance, and refine strategies and marketing efforts.
Types of Cohorts Used in Marketing
In mobile marketing, three types of cohorts are commonly used. Marketers can leverage these cohorts to gain actionable insights into the user lifecycle.
- Acquisition Cohort
In this, users are segmented based on the time or source of acquisition events like recent onboarding, sign-up, or upgrading to a premium plan. It offers insights into which part of the app is effective.
For instance, users who installed the app through a specific campaign or signed up in January.
This type of cohort helps evaluate the campaign ROI and optimize user acquisition strategies. - Behavioral Cohort
Users are segmented based on their in-app behavior like purchases, subscription to email newsletters, feature usage, etc. Behavioral cohorts help marketers identify power users, improve engagement, and tailor in-app experiences to boost retention.
For instance, a cohort of users signing up for email can be targeted using specific content that appeals to them. - Demographic Cohort
Demographic cohorts are created based on age, gender, location, income, education, and other demographic factors. This type of segmentation allows marketers to tailor campaigns according to specific user needs. Getting insights into demographic patterns allows better audience targeting and drives app growth.
Why Cohort Analysis Is Crucial in Mobile Marketing
We are in 2025, and marketers find themselves at the intersection of data and analytics. The sophisticated data collection capabilities coupled with ad tech and pub tech have created a data deluge, making it tough for marketers to extract actionable insights from the noise. Processing this vast volume of data is among the top concerns marketers face, especially during the peak season.
Cohort analysis is indispensable for optimizing performance and fostering user-centric growth in the mobile app ecosystem as it bridges the gap between data and action.
Here’s why mobile marketers cannot afford to ignore cohorts in marketing.
- Cohort analysis helps in improving retention and app monetization as the insights can be used to optimize in-app experiences.
- Reduces churn as marketers can use customized messages to target users who are likely to leave. For instance, targeted strategies like gamified experiences or retention campaigns can address specific pain points to address the churn.
- The analysis allows marketers to understand which campaign, ad group, or ad is performing well across cohorts. This helps them optimize marketing campaigns.
- It brings out the cohorts that respond well to certain stimuli like discount codes, offers, etc. Thus, marketers can identify growth opportunities and work on cohorts that aren’t responding well to these stimuli.
- It empowers marketers to identify app performance trends over a specific period. For instance, feature adoption, onboarding success, or drop-off rates. They can study which app update or feature is impacting different cohorts.
- Mobile marketers can leverage cohort analysis to identify trends in purchasing behavior based on pricing. Thus, they can optimize product pricing for improving in-app purchases.
5 Strategies to Drive App Growth through Cohorts in Marketing
Let’s look at the top strategies that can help you leverage cohorts to boost your app growth and revenue.
- Track Relevant Metrics
First things first一define the objective of the cohort analysis. Are you looking to boost retention, reduce churn, or understand user behavior? Setting clear goals will determine the mobile app metrics you need to prioritize.
The most common metrics measure engagement, retention, and conversion rates. Focus on retention metrics like daily active users (DAU), monthly active users (MAU), stickiness rate, user churn rate, and session length to monitor how long users stay engaged.
Churn rate will help in pointing user drop-offs while customer lifetime value (LTV) assesses the long-term profitability of various customer segments. Monitoring retention rate metrics by cohort will help in tailoring retention strategies - Segment Users
The next step is to define cohorts based on the event or action you want to track. Cohort differs from segment as the former considers the time component.
For instance, you can define the cohort of users who installed the app during the Black Friday sale and made an in-app purchase within that week.
Similarly, you can create a cohort for users from a specific country who installed the app during this period.
Cohorts can also be created based on onboarding dates, device types, and other in-app behavior. For instance, cohorts based on device type reveal platform-specific engagement trends, allowing marketers to refine their Android or iOS experiences.
Similarly, behavioral cohorts uncover patterns like high-value purchases, opening up opportunities for upselling. - A/B Test the Cohorts
Test your marketing campaigns within the defined cohorts to gain actionable insights for app optimization. Run A/B tests on your brand messaging, offers, and user journeys to identify which messaging resonates most with each group.
For instance, one cohort may respond well to discounts while the other prefers personalized content.
A/B testing the campaigns will help in personalizing the campaign at scale. The insights derived will help in better allocation of the marketing budget and time campaigns for maximum engagement. This shapes a better experience and helps fight fraud. - Focus on Retention and Monetization Tactics
Leverage cohort analysis to understand the drop-off points and refine engagement strategies.
Implementing push notifications, for instance, can boost user engagement and increase the chances of users coming back to the app. The notifications serve as a reminder and encourage users to revisit the app.
Similarly, leveraging personalized offers and gamification can make the app more engaging and fun. Gamification creates an enjoyable and rewarding experience for users, ultimately translating into increased engagement and retention.
Customized content based on user location, interests, and behavior caters to cohort-specific needs and preferences and re-engages inactive users. For instance, dormant app users may respond well to the ‘We miss you’ campaign coupled with an offer, encouraging them to purchase.
Finally, cohorts can be used to study the spending behavior of various groups. Evaluate which cohort is most likely to spend on in-app purchases. Use this data to inform your monetization strategies for high-value users like tiered pricing models, premium features, or loyalty programs. - Select a Suitable Tool for Cohort Analysis
The right tool can help in gaining actionable insights from the cohort analysis. When selecting one, look for features like flexibility, intuitive data visualization, granular audience segmentation, advanced analytics, advanced fraud mechanisms, and superior customer support.
Besides, the tool should allow you to define cohorts based on varied criteria. It should offer clear data visualization and easily integrate with your existing infrastructure.
Apptrove adds a layer of detailing and accuracy to cohort analysis. The platform offers granular filters for well-defined cohorts based on user behavior, purchase intent, and several other custom filters.
Besides, you can leverage its 7-layered fraud settings to ensure data security for each campaign and channel. The platform offers unparalleled customer support from the moment you onboard. Check out this case study where Apptrove helped a financial product-selling app, GroMo unlock the potential of their app data. The platform helped them save tons of resources invested in low LTV users.
Summing Up
Cohorts in marketing are a game-changer for mobile app marketers as they help them get a deep dive into user behavior and drive app engagement and conversions. Embracing cohorts in marketing allows marketers to come up with personalized strategies and build lasting customer relationships for a higher ROI. With its robust features like data-driven insights, anti-fraud shields, and privacy certifications, Apptrove can help you unlock the full potential of your mobile app marketing campaigns. Get in touch with our team or sign up for a free trial to understand how Apptrove, the mobile measurement platform can partner with you in gaining actionable insights from your cohorts.
