Revenue retention

Understanding how much revenue you keep month over month tells you more than just counting customers - it reveals whether your existing customer base is growing or shrinking in value. The Revenue Retention report shows you exactly how well you’re maintaining and expanding your revenue over time, helping you spot both opportunities and potential issues before they impact your bottom line.

What makes this report different

While subscription retention tells you who stays, revenue retention shows you the true financial impact of those relationships. By tracking both base subscriptions and usage charges, you get a complete picture of how customer value evolves over time - including the possibility of retaining more than 100% of your revenue when customers expand their usage.

Report components

Your revenue picture at a glance

Right at the top, you’ll see three key metrics that tell different parts of your retention story:

• Current retention rate - your snapshot of right now
• Period change - how your retention has improved as a percentage of your previous rate
• Period average - your baseline retention rate for comparison

These numbers work together to help you understand whether your revenue base is stable, growing, or needs attention.

The retention visualization

The main chart shows how your retention rate changes over time through two key elements:

• A purple filled area representing your actual retention rate - showing the percentage of revenue maintained and grown
• A dotted trend line revealing the longer-term direction of your retention - helping you distinguish between daily variations and meaningful patterns

This dual visualization helps you spot both immediate changes that might need investigation and gradual trends that could signal broader opportunities or challenges.

Understanding your numbers

Retention calculations

The report offers three distinct ways to look at retention, each telling you something valuable about your revenue health:

• Retention rate: The basic measure - how much revenue stays after accounting for churned customers
• Gross retention rate: A broader view including both churned and downgraded revenue
• Net retention rate: The complete picture - factoring in churn, downgrades, upgrades, and reactivations

Usage charge impact

Including usage charges in your calculations provides deeper insight into customer behavior:

• See how customer usage patterns affect your overall retention
• Track whether remaining customers are expanding their usage over time
• Understand if usage growth offsets customer departures
• Monitor retention rates above 100% when customers significantly increase their usage

Configuration options

Fine-tune your retention analysis with precise controls:

• Usage charges: Choose whether to include variable billing in your calculations
• Time period: Analyze retention across different timeframes to spot seasonal patterns
• Segments: Break down retention by customer type, plan level, or other key attributes

Making the most of this report

Daily monitoring

Keep your finger on the pulse of revenue health:

• Watch for unusual drops that might signal immediate issues
• Compare daily patterns to your historical baseline
• Use the trend line to spot gradual changes that need attention
• Track how usage patterns affect your overall retention

Strategic analysis

Use retention trends to guide your growth strategy:

• Measure the impact of new features or pricing changes
• Identify which customer segments tend to expand usage over time
• Track progress toward revenue growth goals
• Compare retention patterns before and after major product updates

Pro tips

Take your retention analysis to the next level:

• Compare subscription and revenue retention to understand usage impact
• Use segments to identify customer types most likely to expand
• Track both basic and net retention to understand upgrade influence
• Monitor usage patterns alongside subscription changes
• Consider seasonal factors when analyzing usage-based revenue

Remember: While subscription numbers matter, revenue retention reveals the true health of your customer relationships. This report helps you focus on not just keeping customers, but helping them grow their usage and value over time.

Need help making sense of your retention patterns or building strategies for revenue growth? Our team is here to help you turn these insights into action.

Frequently asked questions