How can I measure retention using Google Analytics

Question

I would like to create a retention cohort analysis for my mobile Android application using Google Analytics Mobile SDK.

Basically I would like to segment my cohort by date of installation (e.g. group all users which installed my app on the same day) and measure retention after two weeks (e.g. how many of each group are still using the app after two weeks). I want to end up with a graph showing a date on the X-axis and the relevant retention percent for that date on the Y-axis.

I was able to do this in the past (using the previous analytics version) by using a custom variable which indicated the date of installation for each user and than for each date of installation query the API for all users in that group that were still visitors after two weeks. This is not possible any more using the new Google analytics mobile API.

Answer 1

You can do this with the Quantcast app measurement SDK. It allows you to define any install date cohort on the fly and look at user retention for that cohort. It will also compare your app to the average app user retention. A good example of this is the profile for the GoodReads iOS app. Look at the "User Retention After Install" section.

Full Disclosure: I work at Quantcast

Answer 2

Google Universal Analytics now support Cohorts. Create a Custom Segment and set "Date of First Session". This works for Mobile, tested on Android, iOS and Unity.

Found a slideshare that shows you how:

http://www.slideshare.net/Local-Ventures/local-ventures-customsegreporting-27989106