New vs returning visitors

The New vs returning visitors report provides traffic data segmented by visitor type (new or returning), revealing differences in session patterns and engagement levels.

This report helps you understand how first-time visitors and loyal customers interact with your website, enabling optimization of user experiences and loyalty strategies.

Use this report to

• Analyze traffic trends: Observe changes in visitor counts, sessions, and page views for new/returning visitors across daily, weekly, or monthly cycles to identify seasonal patterns and growth opportunities.
• Customer composition analysis: Use visualizations to evaluate the proportion of new vs. returning visitors in total traffic and sessions, assessing the effectiveness of acquisition and retention efforts.
• Behavior comparison: Compare engagement metrics like session duration (indicates interest level), bounce rate (reveals page relevance), and purchase conversion rate (reflects loyalty and spending intent) to tailor experiences for each segment.

Report data fields

For general terms, refer to Acquisition reports - common terms.

This report includes:

Term	Definition
Visitor type	Categorizes visitors as New (first-time) or Returning (repeat).

TIP

Visitor classification relies on browser cookies and may exclude users who clear cookies or use privacy modes.