What is Retention Rate?

What is Retention Rate?

Retention Rate (RR) is a percentage of all tracked install users that come back to a mobile or web app after X-days since install.

Retention rate helps to track users’ interest in an app. The higher the retention rate, the more interest users have in the app in question. It is possible to increase the RR of an app by knowing what users like and what they dislike about the app, and by making the necessary improvements. This can be done through a data-driven approach of using attribution tools to track retention rate, which is connected to metrics such as churn rate, repeat purchase rate, and life-time value (LTV).

How is the Retention Rate calculated?

The following formula can be used to calculate the retention rate:

N-day retention rate = unique N-day retained users / unique 0-day users

However, in mobile marketing there are different methods of calculating retention. Please check our FAQ to find more information about different types of retention.

What is an example of Retention Rate?

Let’s consider the following simplified example to understand the concept of retention rate. Let’s say an app was downloaded 100 times in one day (Day 0). The next day, only 10 visitors came back. This means that the first-day or Day 1 retention rate for the app is ([10 divided by 100] * 100 = 10%). Let’s then assume that in ten days (Day 10) since the install date (Day 0), just one visitor comes back to the same app. This means that the Day 10 or ten-day retention rate (RR) for the app is ([1 divided by 100] * 100 = 1%).

What is considered a good retention rate?

Usually, to analyze the retention of an app, advertisers consider Day 1, Day 7, Day 14, Day 30, and Day 90 retention data.
Different types of app categories and games have slightly different target retention rates. For example, for casual and hyper-casual games, Day 1 retention is expected to be 30%-40%.

In general, we believe than an average retention benchmark for a successful game or app is Day 1 = 30-40%, D7 = about 20%, and D30 = 5-10%.