Top Cohorts by Conversion, Amplitude

Top Cohorts by Conversion for Amplitude stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it.

Metrics type: Supporting Metrics • Category: Analytics

At a glance

Top Cohorts by Conversion is a cohort metric tracked from Amplitude data. Shown as a table, it ranks your behavioural and property-based cohorts by conversion rate, so you can see at a glance which segments turn into buyers and which do not. It moves the conversation from one blended store-wide rate to the segments that actually drive results, which is where acquisition, retention, and merchandising decisions get sharper. Cross-reference the related cards listed below for context.

What it counts	The conversion rate of each cohort in the window, ranked highest to lowest, as exposed by the Amplitude integration. Computed from the latest available data and refreshed on the standard data refresh.
Sample type	Backend API data from Amplitude, refreshed on the standard data refresh.
Why it matters	A single store-wide conversion rate hides who is converting. Ranking cohorts shows which segments to lean into and which to fix, turning a flat average into a list of actions for acquisition and merchandising teams.
Reading the value	Read the ranking, not just the top row. Compare each cohort’s rate to the store-wide baseline and to the prior period to see which segments are pulling ahead or slipping. Watch cohort size alongside rate, since a tiny cohort’s high rate can be noise.
Currency	percent
Time window	30D
Alert trigger	-
Sentiment key	amp_top_cohorts_by_conversion
Roles	owner, marketing

Calculation

Calculated automatically from your Amplitude data. The card computes a conversion rate for each cohort over the window and ranks the cohorts from highest to lowest. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.

Worked example

A representative reading of Top Cohorts by Conversion for a typical merchant on Amplitude. In the 30 days to 12 Mar 26 the store-wide conversion rate sits at 2.4%, but the cohort table tells a richer story: “returned within 7 days” converts at 9.1%, “arrived from email” at 6.3%, and “first-time mobile” at 1.1%. The headline rate is just an average of very different segments. The action is clear - protect and grow the high-converting returning and email cohorts, and treat the weak first-time mobile rate as a checkout or onboarding problem to fix rather than a reason to stop acquiring. Vortex Mind can trace why a top cohort’s rate moves week to week and which step in its journey leaks; ask Ask Viq “which cohorts convert best this month and how do they compare to the store average” to get the ranked breakdown in plain English.

Sibling cards merchants should reference together

Card	Why merchants reach for it
amp_funnel_conversion	The store-wide funnel rate each cohort’s conversion is measured against.
amp_top_conversion_paths	Shows the routes high-converting cohorts take to purchase.
amp_new_vs_returning	The new-or-returning split behind two of the most common cohorts.
amp_session_conversion_rate	Session-level conversion, complementing the user-cohort view here.
amp_top_sources	Reveals which sources feed the best-converting cohorts.

Reconciling against Amplitude

Where to look in Amplitude’s own dashboard:

Cohorts is where you define behavioural and property-based segments, and Funnels is where you measure each cohort’s conversion by applying it as a segment to the same conversion funnel. Dashboards usually holds a saved version of the ranked view. Confirm the conversion event, the period boundaries, and the cohort definitions match the Vortex IQ profile to reconcile cleanly.

Why the Vortex IQ value may legitimately differ:

Reason	Direction	What to do
Period boundary. Vortex IQ uses a rolling 30-day window by default; Amplitude funnels may use calendar months, which changes which conversions count.	Variable	Match the period range.
Time zone. Amplitude uses the project time zone; Vortex IQ aligns to the merchant reporting time zone, shifting conversions near the boundary.	Marginal	Confirm time zone match.
Filter or segment scope. Differences in how a cohort is defined, or profile-level filters on test and internal traffic, can change a cohort’s rate and its rank.	Variable	Match cohort and filter settings.

Cross-connector reconciliation: compare a cohort’s conversion rate against actual orders for the matching customer segment in your ecommerce connector to confirm the analytics ranking reflects real purchases. For divergence investigations, use Vortex Mind.

Known limitations / merchant FAQs

Q: How often does Top Cohorts by Conversion update? The card refreshes on the standard data refresh (typically every 30-60 minutes for live integrations). For real-time signals, force a manual refresh from the dashboard.

Q: Why does my Amplitude dashboard show a different number? The most common reasons are differences in how a cohort is defined, period-boundary differences (Vortex IQ uses a rolling 30-day window vs Amplitude’s calendar months), time-zone alignment, and filter scope (profile-level vs Amplitude’s unfiltered view). Match these settings before assuming a real divergence.

Q: Why does a tiny cohort sometimes top the ranking? A small cohort can post a high conversion rate on very few users, which is statistically noisy. Always read the rate next to the cohort’s size, and treat large, stable cohorts as more reliable signals than small ones near the top of the table.

Q: Can I customise the alert threshold? This card has no alert trigger by default, since a meaningful cohort rate varies by segment. You can set alert rules per profile in the Alert Rules tab if you want to be notified when a key cohort’s conversion moves beyond its normal range.

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Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

Top Cohorts by Conversion is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Amplitude and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English.

Start for free or book a demo to see this metric running on your own data.