skills/marketing-plan/references/aarrr-framework.md
AARRR (Dave McClure's "pirate metrics") is the spine of every plan produced by this skill. This doc is the primer + the decision rules for when each stage gets prioritized.
| Stage | Question | Common metrics |
|---|---|---|
| Acquisition | How do strangers become aware of us? | Visits, MQLs, signup-page sessions, app-store visits, CAC by channel |
| Activation | Once they try us, do they have an experience that converts? | Signup completion rate, time-to-value, % completing first key action, trial → paid rate |
| Retention | Do they stay and deepen? | DAU/WAU/MAU, week-1/4/12 retention, churn |
| Referral | Do retained users bring more users? | Viral coefficient, NPS, ambassador attribution |
| Revenue | What do they pay, who pays, how does it compound? | ARPU, LTV, expansion revenue, ARR / MRR |
Signup boundary rule. Signup intent (a stranger landing on the signup page) is Acquisition. Signup completion and everything after (first key action, trial-to-paid) is Activation. Apply this rule consistently across all docs and the plan template.
Three reasons.
1. Funnel-stage tagging forces prioritization. Without AARRR, marketing plans become channel-organized ("here's the SEO plan, here's the social plan, here's the paid plan"). Channels can address multiple stages; tagging by stage instead asks the more useful question: what stage of the funnel is the binding constraint right now?
2. Fix the leak before pouring water in. The Activation/Retention question ("does the funnel convert at acceptable rates given exposure?") is usually higher leverage than the Acquisition question ("how do we get more exposure?"). AARRR sequencing surfaces this naturally.
3. The Revenue / Referral conversation is honest. Most marketing plans bury monetization under "growth" and treat referral as wishful thinking. AARRR forces explicit treatment of both.
A common mistake: making "Brand" or "Content" the sixth bucket. They're not — they serve every stage.
In the plan, brand/content shows up as the strategic frame (Section 2) and cross-cutting in Section 11's ops stack — never as its own AARRR section.
For every client, one or two AARRR stages will be the binding constraint. The plan sequences moves there first.
Decision rules:
The diagnostic question: Where is the gap between TAM-level awareness and current funnel volume? What channels are saturated by competitors vs. open?
Common Acquisition moves:
Sequencing principle: Build the organic compound first (SEO + founder-led + content + PR amplification + ambassadors). Only layer paid on top of a working organic baseline. Premature paid amplifies what's broken.
The diagnostic question: Where in the user's first session do they decide "this works for me" or "this doesn't"? What stops them from reaching that moment?
Common Activation moves:
Sequencing principle: Get to first felt value as fast as possible. Everything that adds friction between "user opens app" and "user has the experience that converts them" is a candidate to cut.
The diagnostic question: Why do users churn? What would have made them stay? What's the "second moment of value" after the first one?
Common Retention moves:
Sequencing principle: Ship lifecycle flows in the order their content is most stable. Hardware post-purchase flows ship first (they don't reference in-app screens that might change). Onboarding emails ship last (they reference UI that might change). Win-back is a quarterly campaign, not a one-time flow.
The diagnostic question: Is there inbound referral interest that isn't being captured? What's the share-after-value moment that's natural to the product?
Common Referral moves:
Sequencing principle: Lead with whoever is already raising their hand. If there are 5 inbound ambassadors, launch with those 5 — don't wait for a "complete program." Iterate based on what they tell you.
The diagnostic question: Is the company underpricing? Underpackaging? Missing an upsell? What's the "right" price discipline given LTV and brand voice?
Common Revenue moves:
Sequencing principle: Run the pricing audit before testing changes. Surprisingly often, the "implied" pricing on the dashboard doesn't match the listed price — discounts, trials, or plan mix distorts the read. Surface the ground truth first.
Some moves clearly belong to one stage. Others span. The rule:
Assign to the stage where the move's primary measurable impact lands.
Examples:
When in doubt: where would removing this move hurt the most? Assign there.
For most clients, the plan won't have equal volume across stages. That's fine — and worth surfacing as a diagnostic.
If a plan ends up evenly distributed across all five stages, the diagnostic was probably weak — re-examine the funnel state intake to find where the binding constraint is.
Always present AARRR in order (Acquisition → Activation → Retention → Referral → Revenue) regardless of priority order.
This is for the reader's mental model. Founders expect the funnel to flow top-to-bottom. If Retention is the most-leveraged stage but you lead with Retention, the reader has to context-switch.
To signal priority, use the executive summary (Section 1) — name the biggest bets there. The AARRR breakdown then walks the funnel in order, with the most leverage-positive section being the longest and most-detailed.