Cohort Analysis for Attribution

Cohort analysis groups prospects by their entry point and tracks their journey through the pipeline over time. A cohort of prospects who entered through a webinar in January is tracked separately from a cohort who entered through outbound email in January. By comparing cohort behavior — conversion rates, deal size, time to close, and retention — you learn which entry points produce the most valuable pipeline, not just the most pipeline.

1. Define Cohorts by Entry Channel Group all prospects who entered the pipeline in the same month through the same channel into a cohort. January webinar cohort, January outbound cohort, January referral cohort. Track each cohort through the full pipeline: meeting to opportunity, opportunity to close, close to retention.
2. Compare Cohort Performance Across cohorts from the same time period, compare: conversion rate (what percentage reached each stage), average deal size, time to close, and one-year retention rate. A cohort with a 30% conversion rate but 60% first-year churn rate produces less lifetime value than a cohort with a 15% conversion rate and 5% churn.
3. Identify High-Value Entry Points The entry points that produce the highest lifetime value — not just the highest conversion rate — are the channels that deserve increased investment. Cohort analysis reveals this by tracking outcomes past the close, capturing retention and expansion that single-deal attribution misses.