How can we find out the number of new visitors?

Tagging version > 6.11.0

Since version 6.11.0 of the JavaScript SDK (Piano Analytics SDK), visitors are now separated into two categories:

• New visitors

• Returning visitors

You can use the new “Visitor status (visit)” property (visitor_new_return) and the “New visitors” (m_new_visitors) and “Returning visitors” (m_returning_visitors) metrics, through filters or segmentation.

Notes:

• Works only when client-side cookies are set

• Will only work after the SDK has been updated, and after any cookies already deposited have expired.

• Data can only be fed via PA SDK tagging, in JS only.

If the data is not fed, it's because your tagging version is earlier than 6.11.0, or that the period precedes September 2023. In this case, there are alternatives, see below.

Tagging version < 6.11.0

Before version 6.11.0, the notion of “new visitor” was difficult to measure, due to several factors, which remain relevant even after this version:

• A visitor can access your site via different devices and browsers.

• Visitors can refuse or delete cookies, making it difficult to identify them.

• Some browser extensions, such as adblockers, can block visitor tracking.

These elements therefore continue to affect the measurement of new visitors, but from version 6.11.0 onwards and for higher versions of the Javascript SDK, the arrival of a new cookie_creation_date property makes it possible to classify visitors (New / Returning).

Here are 2 examples of analyses that may help you to determine the proportion of new visitors:

1. Loyalty

It is possible to access the Loyalty analysis available in Audience > Users to view returning visitors. This tool allows you to see the retention of visitors (visitors who return to the site), over a given period of time, so it can help you deduce the number of new visitors.

In this example, we notice that 24.5% of visitors who visited the site during the week “2022-47” returned during the week “2022-48”, i.e. (3,947,581*24.5) / 100 = 967,157 visitors.

Thus, among the 3,971,314 visitors in the week “2022-48”, 3,971,314 – 967175 = 3,004,157 are new visitors or visitors that first came before the analysis period.

This calculation can be done via an external tool, but the result will potentially be impacted by the external factors mentioned above. 

2. User Segmentation

You can also create an exclusion Segment to exclude all the visitors who have already visited your site on a defined period.

Here, for instance, we are going to exclude all visitors who came between Jan 2021 and Sept 2021, and see how many new visitors we have in October 2021.

With this segment, you can also create a custom metric to get the % of new visitors :

Then here are the data from a Data Query report: