Overview

The Cohort Analysis dashboard groups customers by acquisition month and tracks their revenue over time. Use it to see whether customers acquired in a given month keep spending, and whether your ad spend against that cohort stays efficient.

Access

Go to Dashboards. Select Cohort Analysis.

Choosing an analysis type

The dashboard has two modes. Switch between them using the Cohort Analysis Type selector.

Mode	Question it answers	Formula
MER Analysis	Is total marketing spend efficient across all channels for this cohort?	MER = Total Revenue ÷ Ad Spend
ROAS Analysis	Is paid advertising specifically driving return for this cohort?	ROAS = Revenue ÷ Ad Spend

Higher values mean better efficiency in both modes. MER pulls in all revenue against all spend. ROAS isolates paid ad performance. If blended MER looks weak but ROAS looks strong, the gap is usually organic or retention revenue not being captured, not an ad problem.

What the MER table looks like:

What the ROAS table looks like:

Metrics shown per mode

Metric	MER view	ROAS view
Total Revenue	Yes	Yes
Ad Spend	Yes	Yes
Effective MER	Yes	No
Effective YTD ROAS	No	Yes
Monthly cohort revenue	Yes	Yes

Setting the date range

Option	Shows	Use when
12 Months	Most recent 12-month cohort performance	You need a fast read on recent acquisition quality
18 Months	Extended historical cohort performance	You're evaluating long-term retention or seasonal patterns

Reading the cohort table

Each row is one acquisition cohort, labeled by month (example: May 2026 Cohort). Columns show how that cohort's revenue developed month by month after acquisition.

Column	Shows
Total Revenue	Cumulative revenue generated by the cohort to date
Ad Spend	Total ad spend attributed to acquiring the cohort
Effective MER / Effective YTD ROAS	Efficiency metric for the selected mode

Heatmap

Cells are shaded by revenue contribution. Darker cells mean higher revenue. Use the shading to scan for strong and weak cohorts without reading every number.

What to look for

Pattern	What it means
Revenue holds or grows in later months	Strong retention, cohort is compounding in value
Revenue drops sharply after month 1-2	Weak retention, one-time buyers, or acquisition targeting problem
High Ad Spend, low Total Revenue	Cohort was expensive to acquire and isn't paying back
Efficiency improves in older cohorts	Recent acquisition may be less efficient than historical, worth investigating channel mix

Troubleshooting

Issue	Check
No cohort data showing	Data integrations are connected. Reporting period has data. Customer acquisition tracking is enabled.
Revenue values look wrong	Correct analysis type (MER or ROAS) is selected. Date range is correct. Data sync completed.
Table won't load	Dashboard permissions are enabled. Refresh the browser session. Confirm reporting data exists for the period.

Appearance

Cohort Analysis Dashboard