MoEngage provides advanced analysis to help you gain a deeper understanding of user retention beyond standard cohort charts. This will allow you to explore the nuances of user return behavior and engagement patterns over time.
First Occurrence
First Occurrence shows the percentage of users who perform the return event for the first time (after the first event) on a specific day. It is the percentage of users who haven't performed the return event until the selected day. The First Occurrence is how long the users take to perform the return event. For a higher level of granularity, choose hour, week, or month instead of day.
For example, the user installed the app (first event) on Day 0. The user did not perform the purchase (return event) on Day 1 and Day 2, so the user is counted as inactive on those days. On Day 3, when the user purchases for the very first time, the user is counted as a returned user. We do not consider what happens after Day 3 because this analysis only provides how long the user was away from the app before they came back and performed the returned event.
When to Use First Occurrence
Standard retention analysis typically shows the percentage of users who return and perform an action on specific days, weeks, or months after an initial event. First Occurrence allows for a more specific analysis focused on the timing of initial re-engagement.
Use this advanced feature when your analysis requires understanding:
- Time to Initial Re-engagement: You need to know how long it takes for users to perform a specific return action for the very first time after their initial interaction.
- Activation Timelines: You want to measure the latency between an initial event (like an install or sign-up) and the first instance of a key follow-up action (like a purchase or core feature usage).
Here’s how the First Occurrence option helps solve specific analytical challenges:
- What it does: Measures and shows the percentage of users who perform a specific return event for the very first time on a particular day, week, month, or even hour after performing the first event. It specifically tracks how long users take to perform that return event once, ignoring any subsequent performances of the return event.
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When to use it:
- When the critical insight is understanding the time lag until the initial activation or key action, not just general repeat behavior.
- To measure how quickly users reach a specific milestone for the first time after starting their journey.
- To analyze the effectiveness of onboarding or initial engagement campaigns in driving a specific first action.
Example Use Cases
Some of the use cases that you can solve using this option:
- Time-to-First Purchase: After an App Install (first event), track daily/weekly/monthly cohorts to see when users make their Purchase (return event) for the first time. This helps you understand how long it takes to convert new users into buyers.
- Core feature adoption lag: Following Account Signup (first event), determine how many days/weeks it takes for users to perform Used Core Feature X (return event) initially. This indicates how quickly users discover and engage with key functionality.
- Onboarding completion time: After Started Onboarding Flow (first event), analyze how long it takes users to trigger Completed Onboarding Step 5 (return event) for the first time.
By leveraging the First Occurrence option, you can gain precise insights into the critical time it takes for users to perform key actions for the first time after an initial event, helping you optimize onboarding flows, activation strategies, and initial engagement campaigns.