Basic Metrics #3

What the FAQ is ...

It's our last newsletter of the Basic Metrics series 😭

You can find the first two on LinkedIn 👉 here [link] and 👉 here [link]. The others will be added to a white page that I am trying to whip up!

As a refresher, the daily must-sees are:

Sessions/Views
Active users
Average engagement time
Custom events
User retention by cohort

User Retention isn't a new metric in the marketing or product world, but it does seem to have quite a larger presence on GA since the face-lift to GA4.

But if you haven't ever worked with a retention metric before, no sweat.

Think of it as a "stickiness" 🍯 metric. It looks at content over a long period rather than within a single session.

There isn't much pairing with this metric - but it is important to monitor for different scenarios.

1. Help Center Stickiness

Are you getting returning users to your help center? Do they know it's the place to be to solve their problems?

User Retention shows that users are coming back to your help center after their first visit. If a cohort of users who visited in Week 1 continues to engage in Weeks 2 and 3, it suggests they know the Help Center has something to offer them when they run into an issue.

It’s often a common complaint from users, “Where do I go for X?”. User Retention lets you know they know how to navigate your help content.

2. Impact of Content or Layout Changes

Any changes you make in the help center should be tracked.

Honestly, I've seen a 5% increase in tickets because a button was moved from the left to the right side of the page.

Track cohorts before and after the change. Whichever cohort performs better tells you which content or layout your user enjoys.

3. Identify Difficult Topics

Which document has the highest user retention? Whichever it is, it will tell you one of two things:

1) a topic is hard and the user needs to reference the material frequently

2) the user isn't getting their questions answered.

Very, very different outcomes, I know.

Pair with Avg. Engagement Time and Events (Ticket Submission) to see which is the reality.

It is also important to point out that User Retention for internal vs. external help centers means very different things. An employee visiting an article 100 times is way more positive than a user (because they really shouldn't be having that hard of a time).

Okay, that's it. What an end to Basic Metrics.

This was difficult to put into words, but glad I did 💪

Have you been finding this information helpful? What other topics would you like to see me cover?