Growth
AARRR (Pirate Metrics)
A funnel framework for product analytics with five stages: Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue. Named for the sound 'AARRR' (a pirate would make).
In plain English
Five questions every product team should answer with data: How do users find us? Do they get value early? Do they come back? Do they invite others? Do they pay?
Example
A self-serve SaaS measures: - Acquisition: 10,000 visitors/mo from organic search - Activation: 18% complete onboarding - Retention: 42% of activated users still active after 30 days - Referral: 8% invite at least one teammate - Revenue: 4% convert to paid within 60 days Each stage has its own optimisation tactics; biggest leaks define the next month's roadmap.
Why it matters
AARRR forces the team to look at the entire user journey rather than just the top of the funnel. The leakiest stage usually has the highest leverage — fixing a 5% activation rate matters more than 2x'ing top-of-funnel traffic.
Common mistakes
- Focusing on Acquisition because it's the easiest to grow with marketing spend; leaks lower in the funnel cost more in lost LTV
- Skipping Referral measurement — the cheapest customer is the one your existing customers brought you
- Treating each stage independently rather than measuring the conversion rate between stages
- Using AARRR for sales-led products where Activation and Referral don't apply cleanly