留存率

Retention Rate = (Unique N-Day Retained Users / Unique Day 0 Users) x 100

什么是 Retention Rate 留存率？

Retention rate tells you how many of your users are coming back. A high retention rate means your app is delivering enough value to keep users engaged over time. A low retention rate is a signal that something in the experience is pushing users away.

In mobile marketing, retention rate is tracked at specific intervals after install: Day 1, Day 7, Day 14, Day 30, and Day 90 are the most commonly used benchmarks. Each interval tells a different part of the story. Day 1 retention reflects the strength of your first impression and onboarding experience. Day 30 retention tells you whether users have built a lasting habit around your app.

Retention rate does not exist in isolation. It connects directly to 终身价值LTV, 流失率, and revenue. An app that retains users well is an app that can grow sustainably.

Retention Rate Formula

Retention rate is calculated by dividing the number of users who returned on day N by the total number of users who installed on day 0, then multiplying by 100.

Retention Rate = (Unique N-Day Retained Users / Unique Day 0 Users) x 100

N refers to the number of days since install. So Day 7 retention measures how many of your original install cohort came back exactly seven days later.

How to Calculate Retention Rate: A Step-by-Step Example

Here is a simple example to make the formula concrete.

An app receives 100 installs on a single day. That is your Day 0 cohort.

• On Day 1, 35 of those users return. Day 1 retention rate = (35 / 100) x 100 = 35%
• On Day 7, 20 of those users return. Day 7 retention rate = (20 / 100) x 100 = 20%
• On Day 30, 8 of those users return. Day 30 retention rate = (8 / 100) x 100 = 8%

Each of these figures is measured against the original Day 0 cohort, not the previous day's active users. This is what makes retention rate a cohort-based metric and why it is so useful for understanding long-term engagement trends.

Retention Rate vs Churn Rate

Retention rate and churn rate measure the same dynamic from opposite directions.

留存率 tells you the percentage of users who came back. Churn rate tells you the percentage of users who did not.

If your Day 7 retention rate is 20%, your Day 7 churn rate is 80%.

Both metrics are useful, but they serve slightly different purposes in analysis. Retention rate is typically used to benchmark engagement and product quality. Churn rate is often used in subscription and revenue contexts to quantify loss and model risk.

Tracking both gives you a complete picture of how your user base is behaving over time.

How to Use Retention Rate in Mobile Marketing

Retention rate is not just a product metric. It is a core input for mobile marketers making decisions about spend, targeting, and growth strategy.

Connect Retention to LTV

Users who retain longer generate more revenue. By connecting your retention data to in-app purchase behavior and ad revenue, you can build more accurate LTV models and make smarter bidding decisions.

Identify High-Quality User Segments

Breaking down retention by channel, creative, or campaign shows you which sources are bringing in users who actually stick around. A campaign with a lower CPI but strong Day 30 retention is often more valuable than one with a high install volume and rapid churn.

Inform Creative and Product Decisions

Low Day 1 retention often points to a gap between what your ad creative promises and what the app actually delivers. Aligning creative messaging with the real in-app experience is one of the most effective ways to improve early retention.

Set Smarter UA Goals

Optimizing purely for installs is a short-term strategy. Incorporating retention benchmarks into your UA goals ensures you are acquiring users who have a genuine chance of becoming long-term, high-value customers.

How to Increase Retention Rate

Improving retention is one of the highest-leverage things you can do for sustainable growth. Here are the most effective approaches:

Improve Onboarding

The first session sets the tone for everything that follows. A clear, frictionless onboarding experience that gets users to their first meaningful moment quickly makes a measurable difference in Day 1 retention.

Use Push Notifications

Well-timed, relevant notifications bring lapsed users back. Over-sending or sending generic messages drives uninstalls. Test timing, tone, and frequency to find what works for your audience.

Personalize the Experience

Users who feel like an app understands them stay longer. Personalization based on behavior, preferences, or progression level increases engagement and reduces churn.

Run A/B Tests on Key Flows

Retention problems are often hiding in specific parts of the user journey. A/B testing onboarding steps, core loop mechanics, and reward structures helps you find and fix the drop-off points that are costing you users.

Act on Cohort Data

Retention analysis by cohort shows you whether changes you make are actually improving things over time. If a product update lifts Day 7 retention for the cohort that installed after it shipped, you have evidence that it worked.

How Tenjin Tracks Retention Rate

Tenjin calculates retention rate using a UTC-based cohort strategy. With this approach, Day 1 begins at the first UTC midnight following each user's install timestamp. This aligns Tenjin's retention calculations with other platforms that use UTC-based timestamps, reducing discrepancies across your reporting stack.

To enable this for your account, navigate to My Account → Manage User → Cohort Strategy and select your preferred option.

Tenjin also supports retention and relative retention analysis, giving you flexibility in how you measure and interpret user engagement over time. You can connect retention data to your broader performance metrics including LTV, ROAS, and in-app events, all from a single dashboard with no blind spots.

Related Terms

• 流失率
• 生命周期价值（LTV）
• 什么是移动营销中的群组分析（Cohort Analysis）？
• A/B Testing AB测试
• In-App Advertising (IAA 应用内广告)
• 应用内购买 (IAP)：

常见问题解答

What is a retention rate? 

Retention rate is the percentage of users who return to an app after their initial install. It is measured at specific intervals such as Day 1, Day 7, and Day 30, and is one of the most important indicators of app quality and long-term growth potential.

How do you calculate retention rate? 

Divide the number of users who returned on day N by the total number of users who installed on day 0, then multiply by 100. For example, if 100 users installed your app on day 0 and 30 came back on day 7, your Day 7 retention rate is 30%.

What is a good app retention rate?

A strong benchmark for mobile apps is Day 1 retention of 25% to 40%, Day 7 retention of around 20%, and Day 30 retention of 5% to 10%. For casual and hyper-casual games, Day 1 retention of 30% to 40% is considered healthy. Benchmarks vary by category, so it is worth comparing against apps in your specific genre or vertical.

What is the difference between churn rate and retention rate?

They measure the same behavior from opposite directions. Retention rate tells you the percentage of users who came back. Churn rate tells you the percentage who did not. If your Day 7 retention rate is 20%, your Day 7 churn rate is 80%. Both are useful, but retention rate is more commonly used to benchmark engagement while churn rate is used to quantify loss in subscription and revenue models.