Retention is 👑 . But here's the kicker: most companies measure retention incorrectly. I did too, and I learned the hard way. Learn from my 5 mistakes: 🗣 Oh and hey, Amplitude has released an amazing retention playbook that you should check out. Especially valuable are real life examples from B2C, B2B, Marketplaces, and Media companies. Don't miss out: https://bit.ly/3PWI5e1 Now onto my mistakes... 🙈 1️⃣ Defining Retention *Activity* Incorrectly At SurveyMonkey, we initially defined activity as 'logins.' Despite a spike in logins we drove with lifecycle emails, we saw no improvement in long-term retention rates. We later realized that 'received a response' was a more meaningful and predictive activity metric for customer retention. 2️⃣ Not Measuring Habitual *Frequency* WAU should mean 'active 3 of the last 4 weeks,' not just 'active last week.' Similarly, MAU is 'active 3/4 months' and DAU is 'active 3+ days a week.' The goal is to capture natural engagement frequency. Confusing this with one-off activity impacts whether your DAU/WAU/MAU are predictive of retention or not. 3️⃣ Only Measuring Paid User Retention in Freemium Models It might be tempting to obsess over the retention of your existing paid customers. However, in a freemium model, focusing solely on paid users compromises long-term growth. Engaged free users should be measured for their contributions in: -> Expanding your pool of potential paid prospects -> Participating in viral/content loops for new acquisitions -> Aiding in the expansion of your PMF (Product-Market Fit) through adjacent use case discovery or network effects. 4️⃣ Measuring Retention for Non-Activated Users Only measure retention for users who have completed activation: setup, had an "aha!" moment, and formed a first habit loop. Any user who hasn't reached first habit loop is still in the activation phase and should NOT be the focus of retention efforts. Fail to recognize this, and you'll be forever stuck with a 'leaky' bucket, applying the wrong tactics to retain users when even initial value realization has not happened yet. 5️⃣ B2B-Specific - Measuring Retention at the User Level In B2B scenarios, measure retention at the account, logo, org, or team level, rather than the user level. While you do acquire individual users, your aim is to activate and engage entire teams because you're selling to companies. The health of an account is the sum of its users, not any single user. Or you'll be in the situation with hundreds of individual users inside a logo, yet not be able to sell enterprise plan to save your life. Trust me on this one... P.S. I love that Amplitude now have the ability to measure the natural frequency of engagement. Killer feature. 🔥 #growth #retention #guide
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