Retention

Category: Metrics

The share of customers who stay engaged or paying over a defined period.

Retention is the inverse of churn and the single biggest determinant of long-term growth. Cohort retention curves ideally flatten and stabilize. A curve that falls to zero means you're renting customers, not owning them. For subscription businesses, look at Month-1, Month-3, Month-6, and Month-12 retention broken out by acquisition channel.

Related terms

• Churn
• LTV (Customer Lifetime Value)

Part of the AMA Orlando marketing glossary. See also the chapter's free marketing calculators and templates and playbooks.