Customer Cohort
A customer cohort is a group of customers who share a starting characteristic — most commonly the month they signed up — whose behavior is then tracked over time as a single unit.
Common cohort analyses
- Retention by cohort — what % of January-2025 signups are still customers 12 months in?
- Expansion by cohort — how much has the Q1 cohort grown vs the Q3 cohort?
- TTV by cohort — has time-to-value improved for newer cohorts?
- NRR by cohort — comparing across acquisition periods
Why cohort analysis matters
Aggregate metrics (total ARR, total customer count) hide trends because they mix old and new customers. Cohort analysis isolates what's happening to this group, which reveals whether your motion is improving over time.
How BlueHill helps
Customer records carry signup date and segment tags. Reports can be filtered to compare cohorts (e.g., "Q1 2026 onboarding completions vs Q1 2025").