New and returning visitors definition and segment building (M-1 vs M-2)

[GabrielBE2]

Hello,

I would like to create two segments.
My first one isolates new visitors and the second one returning visitors.

My data analysis period is the previous month (M-1) and I'm comparing the data with the previous month (M-2).

Here are their verbal definitions:
- New visitors: Visitors who have not visited the site in the last 6 months up to the end of M-2 and who visited the site in M-1.
- Previous visitors: Visitors who have already made at least one visit in the 6 months to the end of M-2 and who visited the site in M-1.

I've tried to apply these definitions in the Adobe Analytics segmentation tool.
But I'm not sure whether I'm correctly identifying the right cohorts of visitors.
See attached screenshots.

Could someone confirm that I'm doing the right thing to match my definitions?

Thank you for your time!

Have a good day.

[AnitaMummert · Accepted solution]

Hello Gabriel!

One thing to note, Visit number is the number of times the user has visited the site, ever, not just in your report (or segment) time frame. I'd recommend using "visits greater than or equal to 1" or "visits equals zero", as that will give you the number of visits in the time frame, regardless of any visits that may have happened outside of your 6-month range.

Otherwise, your logic is sound! You can compare to a cohort table (inclusion of visits >= 1 and return is visits >=1). I created the same segments you had, and got the following results. The "included" number at the bottom, matches my new visitors metric exactly, and the bottom row from each column represents those who returned last month. That one is harder to validate, since these are visitors, and there is likely some crossover, but I think this does a good job of helping make sure the numbers are reasonable.

You are definitely on the right track!

[GabrielBE2]

@AnitaMummert Thank you a lot for your time and answer.

Your precisions are crystal clear and make sense.