SaaS Cohort Framework: Analyze Your Customers (Excel XLSX)

Over the years, I've had a few larger jobs that involved analyzing customer trends for SaaS and general recurring revenue businesses. The majority of this analysis was on historical data. I've taken all that knowledge and built a customer cohort framework that is reusable for everyone.

This template has the correct database schema (which is just 3 data input columns and a fourth formula column) that makes the analysis possible.

Output Results:
•  Average customer lifetime value.
•  Average customer retention over tenure (visual included) – This output is essential to understand for modeling future customers.
•  Layer cake visualization showing monthly recurring revenue by cohort for all monthly cohorts.
•  Average monthly spend per customer during tenure (visual included)
•  Average monthly churn rate (# and %) (visual included)

I've got a clean dashboard to display all the key metrics and as the raw data is updated, all summary data will update. There is quite a bit of know-how required to build the above analysis with the right database structure. It requires modeling techniques that I've developed over many iterations.

Historical cohort analysis is an essential tool for SaaS businesses, offering a granular understanding of customer behavior over time. By segmenting customers based on shared characteristics or join dates, businesses can pinpoint patterns, such as feature usage trends or churn propensities.

This segmentation aids in assessing metrics like customer lifetime value (CLTV) and customer acquisition costs (CAC), allowing for a precise evaluation of marketing ROI.

Furthermore, cohort insights provide invaluable feedback on product enhancements and marketing strategies. For instance, differences in product usage between cohorts can indicate the success of recent feature updates or the efficacy of marketing campaigns.

Additionally, by analyzing retention rates and the behavior of specific cohorts, companies can tailor their marketing approaches, predict future trends, and proactively address potential issues. In essence, cohort analysis equips SaaS businesses with the data-driven insights needed for continuous refinement, risk management, and strategic growth.

Instructional video included in file.