Note: This article describes a legacy dashboard. For the latest analytics information please refer to Analytics and ChurnIQ Metric Guides.
The Subscribe step of the Retention Journey is the key step for monitoring the health of your subscription business.
There are two tabs under the Subscribe Dashboard in Cleeng:
- Subscriber Daily
- Subscriber Evolution
They contain a number of the most important metrics and trends for any subscription service:
- Your current subscriber count (including in-trial subscribers)
- Your new subscriber count
- Your seasonal dynamics
- The balance between your churn and acquisition rate.
Key Insights from the Subscribe Step
These are some of the most important insights you can access on the subscribe step of the retention journey:
- How is my subscriber base evolving? How quickly is it growing?
- What is the balance between acquisition and churn?
- What seasonal dynamics are causing signup/churn spikes?
Key Subscribe Metrics
You can find definitions, calculation logic, and analytical uses for each Subscribe metric on their respective pages.
Subscriber Daily
Daily Subscriber Overview (All Subscribers)
New Subscribers (excl. winback subscribers): The total number of users who became active subscribers on the given day, excluding previously churned customers who reactivated (aka winbacks).
Winback Subscribers: The number of previously churned customers who reactivated (became active subscribers again) on the given date.
Churned Subscribers: The number of subscribers whose subscription(s) were terminated on the given date.
Canceled Subscriptions: The count of subscriptions regarding which users have indicated a cancellation intention on the given date.
Example: If a user has a monthly subscription and they cancel it in the middle of the duration, they will be counted as a Canceled Subscription. At the same time, they are not included in Churned Subscribers, because the user is still in the canceled state and not yet in the terminated state.
Payment Churned Subscriptions: The count of terminated subscriptions that churned on the given date due to payment failure.
They are also included in Churned Subscribers because the payment failed the entitlement was already terminated.
The balance between payment and customer churn is a key ratio to focus on, as they require very different responses from you. If payment churn spikes, or is, in general, responsible for a high proportion of churn, you should investigate using the Pay step of the Retention Journey.
Correcting payment churn problems can be complex, or it can be as simple as reconfiguring dunning schedules.
Net Subscriber Growth = New Subscribers + Winbacks - Churned Subscribers (on the given date)
Subscriber Evolution
New Subscriber Growth
Your growth is powered by a dual engine, with acquisition at one end and retention at the other. So one of the most important dimensions to track on the Subscribe step is your New Subscriber Trend, and how that trend is impacting your overall growth rate.
You can quickly assess how that engine is performing in the subscriber evolution chart. Investment in either acquisition strategies (eg. content, trials, or marketing) should see your acquisition curve trend upward relative to your active subscriber trend. Excellent retention will show the opposite relationship.
Engagement and offer growth analytics are good next steps for building your acquisition strategies.
Seasonal Dynamics
Strong or weak management of seasonality will determine the annual results of many subscription services. The timing of some trends is obvious, but the timing of others less so. Lifecycle dynamics within your subscriber base can have as big an impact as highly visible market seasonality.
The first step in managing seasonal trends is identifying and mapping them. Both the Year on Year Growth and Subscriber Evolution charts will help you to identify these critical periods.
Next, the important point is that you have sufficient advance warning to handle both the peaks and troughs. When sign-up peaks approach, price trials, new offers, and premium packages should be in place. When troughs or churn peaks approach, coupons and downgraded offers should be ready.
Seasonal dynamics can never be eliminated, but with the right visibility, you can always be prepared to optimize your outcomes when they arise.
Using Subscribe Analytics
Your Subscribe analytics are the main scoreboard for your service and are the primary source of truth for the health of your subscriber base generally. This makes them a very useful starting point for creating your new strategies.
As well as for tracking what results past strategies have delivered. Here are two examples of how your Subscribe analytics can be used to focus your attention and resources.