4

I am trying to create a new audience in Firebase analytics which includes "new" users, for example users that have been using the app less than two weeks.

I have tried to create an audience based on "first_open_date" being ">" or "greater than" but when I get to the date field, it has to be an actual date rather than a relative date.

Why is this so difficult? It seems that everyone would want to have an audience of new users that they could target. And yet...

Doug Stevenson
  • 297,357
  • 32
  • 422
  • 441
Daniel K
  • 1,119
  • 10
  • 20

3 Answers3

7

After a Firebase Update on October 29 2018 it is now possible to limit the amount of days, the users stick to an audience. (Check relase notes here)

That means you can create an audience of people who triggered the sign_up or register event and set the membership duration to e.g. 14 days. There you have your "newer users" audiences.

Simon Baingo
  • 86
  • 1
  • 2
1

The way a user becomes part of an audience with Google Analytics for Firebase is through actions they take in the app, represented by events sent by your app. When the criteria for membership of an audience is met, the user becomes part of the audience forever. There is no ability to specify a counter-condition that removes them from membership.

In other words, the condition for audience membership you're trying to create is not possible with the way audiences work, since you're counting on the ability for a user to leave an audience after some time or other condition is met.

Doug Stevenson
  • 297,357
  • 32
  • 422
  • 441
  • I see. The ultimate aim was to have a remote config value that changes for older users. Specifically, I want to change my advertising mix for older users. – Daniel K Mar 03 '18 at 19:55
  • Well, that sounds like a different question with a different answer. – Doug Stevenson Mar 03 '18 at 19:57
  • So, I actually wonder about your answer. I can easily create an audience where the count for achievements (for example) is less than 20. I imagine that this will apply to a certain audience and that when a user crosses the 20 count, they will "leave" the audience. Is that not what you are saying is impossible? – Daniel K Mar 05 '18 at 18:19
  • A user can never leave an audience defined by events, because the events that got them in the audience are immutable and will always satisfy the requirements for entry. – Doug Stevenson Mar 05 '18 at 18:25
  • So you're saying in the above case, the audience will be all users (assuming the audience was created before the app was released) because when they initially start the app, the count is less than 20 and once they do get 20 achievements, they will remain in the audience forever? – Daniel K Mar 05 '18 at 18:31
  • Yes, if a user generates an event that qualifies them for inclusion in an audience, they will forever be included because that event can never be undone. – Doug Stevenson Mar 05 '18 at 18:33
  • So, unlike in real life, where I can choose to stop watching a series, once I start watching in Firebase, I must forever watch? Makes sense... Is there a reason for that? As an addendum, it seems like you should be able to harvest a few hundred a month just with this same answer ;) If you think I'm joking... here's another... https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37450256/is-there-a-way-to-create-an-audience-of-developer-builds?rq=1 – Daniel K Mar 05 '18 at 19:03
  • 1
    Yes, it's very difficult to emulate real life humans! :-) Going back in time to undo things carries a great computational (and therefore monetary) expense. It's much easier (and cheaper) to process all events as a stream, given the prior immutable state of what previously happened. – Doug Stevenson Mar 05 '18 at 19:19
  • If you want to process your own events, you can export to BigQuery and query your data there. You will have to pay for that service. – Doug Stevenson Mar 05 '18 at 19:19
  • Hi @DougStevenson, I think the Audience answer needs an update after October 2018 update. – Mayur Dhurpate Nov 29 '19 at 11:00
0

Doug Stevensons answer explains why creating a new user audience will not work. However, it is still possible to send a notification to your new users.

Instead of targeting to an audience, use user property at firebase console notification sending target to select the target group for your notification. In that case you need to have something like "new-user" property that is only true during the first two weeks after the installation, or you could property that defines the first start time of the app ... use of property directly from notification sending provides quite a few possibilities, but all require that your users have started the app at least once (unless you send to all and exclude everyone who has started the app at least once ;).

diidu
  • 2,823
  • 17
  • 32