First/Return user for each application within a global report suite

[phils71661113]

Question: Because we cannot go back in time to put "New" or "Returning" in our Digital Data Layer User Object (digitalData.user[0].profile[0].profileInfo.returningStatus) for capture in a variable, is there any other way identify "New/Return" users for individual applications* within a global report suite?

Background: A more complete definition of "First Time Visit" is something like "Visit Number = 1 for the Visitor in this report suite".

• This presents a problem when you collect data from many applications into a single "global" report suite and have business questions like "What % of users are visiting a particular application for the first time?" or "Are users re-engaging with a particular application or do they use it once and never again?"
• This also presents a problem when you have a business question like "Are users re-engaging with particular site section(s) within the report suite or do they use that section once and never again?"

Problem: We define segments for each application and create corresponding Virtual Report Suites based off them.

• Right now in each Virtual Report Suite the value stored in "Visit Number" is incorrect, as it represents "The number of times each unique visitor has visited one or more of the applications in the global report suite at the time they visited this specific application."
• It does not represent "The number of times each unique visitor has visited this specific application in the global report suite."

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

-Phil

*We capture "Application Name" for each unique application in every reporting call.

[Urs_Boller · Accepted solution]

Hi phils71661113​

I guess there are at least two fancy solutions to get rid of the problem. be careful that not both work if you are interested in single visitor ID's, but work for overall numbers:

1. segments: you can create a bunch of segments and see what visitors had a certain pattern based on page hits. it was firet described by adamgreco​ here: https://analyticsdemystified.com/adobe-analytics/visitor-retention-adobe-analytics-workspace/. and there is follow up article from Piermarco here: Visitor Retention Analysis with Adobe Analytics | LinkedIn. I think you could add the desired "site section" segment to the solution the get you visitors.
2. calc. metric: one solution I use in my dashboards just show the numbers of "new visitors" regarding last month for a certain page is based on a calc. metric. basically I calculate some differences in total unique visitors for different time ranges to get the "new visitors". How it works for a monthly number: "total unique visitors for last 2 full month" minus "unique visitors 2 month ago" equals the new unique visitors for last month (since they are not in the second number but in the first). you can adapt the time ranges for your own definition of "new visitors". drawback is that you can't break it down to single ID's...

I hope one of those solution might help you get your desired numbers. I'm quite happy with my solution (2) since it's a calc. metric which I can add to any dashboard I want (whereas No 1 might not work... but haven't tested it).

let me know if you need more knformation