Retention

Retention metrics track whether users continue to engage with your product over time after their initial activation. These metrics measure the stickiness of your product and indicate if it truly solves an ongoing need for users.^[1]

Standard retention metrics include:

• Early user retention (such as day 3 or day 7 retention)
• Medium term retention (such as day 30 or day 60)
• Long term retention (6 month to 12 month plus)
• Retention cohorts (showing return rates after specific time periods)
• Churn rate (the percentage of users who stop using your product)

Align your retention measurement intervals with your product's natural usage cycle. For example, measure daily retention for apps used daily (like social media), weekly for weekly-use products (like meal planning apps), or monthly for less frequently used services (like travel booking platforms).

As retention is one of the biggest lagging indicators of product success, many teams use short-term measures (like day 7 retention) as proxies until sufficient data exists for longer-term patterns. Poor retention creates a "leaky bucket" where new acquisitions simply replace departing users rather than contributing to net growth, exhausting marketing budgets without building a sustainable user base.