Returning visitors are people who have visited the website repeatedly. Their share and behaviour say something about two things. First, about the length of the decision-making process – if most orders arise only on the third or fourth visit, evaluating campaigns by immediate conversions systematically undervalues the channels that brought the customer in for the first time. Second, about the value of the content and the brand, because people return to where they found something useful. It is worth tracking the average number of visits before purchase, the time between the first visit and the order, and the difference in conversion rate between new and returning visitors. This data also serves as the basis for setting the conversion window and for deciding how much to invest in re-engagement.
See also: Conversion window, Remarketing, Cohort analysis.
