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excelretention

Forecasting DAU using retention rates and new user acquisition count


I have been given a table with retention rates starting from day 1 to day 364. I have been given a current DAU count of 600k with a degradation rate of 2% per week(I am assuming current DAU means DAU on Day 1. The other information includes a count of daily acquired new users which is 10k.

The problem is to forecast/predict users on day 365.

What would be the best way to approach this problem?

I don't know whether my approach is correct but below is what I am thinking.

Step 1: Starting from a count of 600k on day one add 10 k users each day. On day 8 deduct 2% from day 7 count and perform the same operation till day 364.

Step 2: For the retention rates. Say day 1 - 100%, 2-60%, 3-40%, 4-30%...day 364-1%. Calculate DAU using values in Step 1 and run a cumlative sum using the retention rates. Example:

Day 1 - 600,000 * 100 %

Day 2 - 600,000 * 60% + 610,000 * 100%

Day 3 - 600,000 * 40% + 610,000 * 60% + 620,000 * 100%

and so on

Once I have the DAU from Day 1 to Day 364 use Time series forecasting and predict the DAU for Day 365.

Thank you!

Adheip


Solution

  • Let :

    A1 = day
    B1 = RR
    C1 = no of users
    A2 = 0
    B2 = 100%
    C2 = 600000
    
    E1 = 0
    F1 = 1
    G1 = 2
    H1 = 3
    I1 = 4
    J1 = 5
    K1 = 6
    L1 = 7
    M1 = 8
    N1 = 9
    O1 = 10
    P1 = 11
    Q1 = 12
    R1 = 13
    

    with

    D2       =SUM(E2:R2)
    

    drag until D16,

    C3       =C2+10000
    

    drag until C16, and

    E2       =IF(E$1>$A2,0,INDEX($C:$C,MATCH(E$1,$A:$A,0)))*INDEX($B:$B,MATCH(E$1,$A:$A,0))
    

    drag until R16.

    Hope that helps. (: