Read the original at Lenny’s Newsletter ↗lennysnewsletter.com · subscriber post
By Lenny Rachitsky · lennysnewsletter.com · @lennysan on X · YouTube · LinkedIn
Lenny Rachitsky answers a reader question by outlining the metrics that matter for consumer subscription businesses, split into content, software, and physical goods models. The post argues that success depends on six areas: acquiring users sustainably, activating them, keeping them engaged, converting to paid, retaining payers, and delivering profitably. It then lists specific metrics and benchmarks for each stage.
Subscriber post — summary only01Key takeaways
- Consumer subscriptions succeed by balancing six stages: acquisition, activation, engagement, conversion, paid retention, and profitable delivery.
- The most important metric differs by model: activation for software, ongoing engagement for content, and contribution margin and second-order retention for physical goods.
- Cohort-based conversion and retention metrics, tracked at one month and one year, reveal whether subscribers keep paying.
- Acquisition health can be judged with payback period, virality, and channel-level ROAS against rough benchmarks.
- Engagement intensity measures such as L7/L30 help distinguish power users from casual ones.
02Frameworks mentioned
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.