AARRR
Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue
In one line
AARRR — Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue — is the five-stage growth metrics framework popularised by Dave McClure and used as the default scaffolding for growth teams.
Going deeper
AARRR — Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue — is the metrics model Dave McClure popularised. The pronunciation earned it the 'Pirate Metrics' nickname. Compared with a generic marketing funnel, its key contribution is making activation (first real value) and retention explicit, separate stages.
Growth teams use it mostly as a quick triage tool. Lots of signups but few first uses points to activation; users showing up but disappearing next month points to retention. Each diagnosis pulls a different lever.
Don't treat the order as gospel. There's a strong school of thought (RARRA) that retention should come first because everything else compounds on top of it, and for B2B revenue often shows up before full activation.
Sources
Related terms
Marketing Funnel
A marketing funnel is the staged model — usually visualised as a narrowing funnel — that tracks prospects from first awareness through to purchase and loyalty.
MarketingRetention
Retention is the share of users who continue to use or purchase from your product over time after their first touch — a primary signal of long-term product health.
MarketingNorth Star Metric
A north star metric (NSM) is the single number that best captures the core value your product delivers to customers, used to align decisions across the whole company.
MarketingCohort Analysis
Cohort analysis groups users by a shared starting characteristic — usually signup week — and tracks their behaviour over time so you can see how each cohort evolves.
MarketingGrowth Hacking
Growth hacking is the discipline that combines data, rapid experimentation and product changes to find scalable levers for user and revenue growth.
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