Retention Report

The retention report shows whether users continue to engage after an initial event. It helps teams understand product stickiness, lifecycle health, onboarding quality, and long-term campaign value.

What retention measures

Retention compares a starting cohort against future activity. For example:

• Users who signed up and returned in week 1, week 2, and week 4.
• Customers who purchased and purchased again within 30 days.
• App installers who completed meaningful in-app events after install.
• Trial users who activated a key feature before renewal.

Configure retention

1. Choose the cohort start event. Examples: signup, install, first purchase, trial start.

2. Choose the return event. Examples: app open, session, purchase, renewal, key feature usage.

3. Select the time grain. Daily, weekly, or monthly depending on the product cycle.

4. Set the cohort population. Filter by campaign, channel, device, plan, geography, or lifecycle stage.

5. Compare cohorts. Use campaign, source, segment, or acquisition month to see quality differences.

Example questions

• Do users acquired from one campaign retain better than users from another?
• Are high-intent segments more likely to purchase again?
• Did onboarding changes improve week 2 retention?
• Are customers with certain behaviors less likely to churn?
• Do fraud-filtered cohorts show better downstream quality?

Read the chart

Signal	Interpretation
Strong day 1, weak day 7	Initial interest but weak habit formation
Slow decay	Users continue receiving value
Sudden drop in one cohort	Campaign quality, product issue, or tracking change
Paid cohort weaker than organic	Acquisition quality or expectation mismatch
High retained revenue with lower user retention	Smaller set of valuable repeat customers

Retention and LTV

Retention is closely tied to LTV. A campaign with cheap acquisition can still underperform if users do not return, purchase, or renew. When reviewing acquisition performance, compare CAC and ROAS with retention quality, not only initial conversions.

Troubleshooting

Issue	What to check
Retention appears too low	Return event may be too strict or missing from one platform
Retention appears too high	Background events may be counted as meaningful engagement
Cohorts are not comparable	Different acquisition windows, promotions, or product changes
Churn predictions look noisy	Insufficient data, seasonality, or inconsistent return event

Best practices

• Use meaningful return events, not passive system events.
• Separate new and returning users.
• Compare cohorts by acquisition source and product experience.
• Review retention before scaling spend.
• Document event changes that affect historical comparisons.