"Pirate Metrics" AARRR Good for Business
Growth marketing supports every stage of the customer journey—which can make things messy fast. The more initiatives in play, the harder it is to manage and prioritize. Without a solid framework, you risk wasting time and energy.
The Case for AARRR Metrics: Why Digital Marketing KPIs Fall Short
Standard digital marketing KPIs (even the so-called “smart” ones) can sometimes mislead us. Take “Marketing Qualified Leads” (MQLs), for example—everyone defines them differently. It's tough to set goals around something so vague.
That’s where AARRR metrics—aka Pirate Metrics—come in.
Instead of tracking inconsistent KPIs, Pirate Metrics give us a universal and simple framework. AARRR metrics work across industries, business models, and growth experiments. They help bring order to the chaos.
Here’s how AARRR Metrics work:
The 5 AARRR Metrics and the Customer Journey
Each AARRR metric aligns with a specific stage of the customer journey. This structure makes it easy to pinpoint breakdowns and find opportunities fast.
The five stages (with simplified definitions):
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Acquisition – When a stranger becomes a lead
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Activation – When a lead engages and joins the sales process
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Revenue – When a lead becomes a paying customer
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Retention – When customers stick around and stay engaged
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Referral – When happy customers spread the word
By labeling ideas with one of these five Pirate Metrics, you add focus and strategy to your experiments.
Prioritizing with AARRR Metrics (Instead of Just Digital Marketing KPIs)
When you use AARRR Metrics to organize your ideas, everything becomes easier to sort and prioritize.
Say you're losing customers due to cancellations. That’s a Retention problem. You’d zero in on ideas that address that specific AARRR metric—ignoring anything not directly related.
If you're like most teams, you’ve got a backlog of ideas waiting for their moment. Labeling each one with its AARRR stage helps cut through the clutter and identify what really matters.
A Quick Case Study: Applying AARRR Metrics to a Health Marketplace
Business: A digital marketplace connecting users to healthcare providers
Current state:
- MVP launched
- No organic leads (only a couple of purchased lists)
- No proof of concept yet
MVP includes:
- Paid ads, SEO, and email to attract users and practitioners
- Functional app and user/practitioner portals
- Activation sequences (email + in-app tutorials)
- Payment and distribution tools
Despite the work behind launching the MVP, a major stakeholder halted progress. Their reasoning? The email flows weren’t perfect, so we should redo them entirely.
Suddenly, everyone was asking: Where’s the ROI?
The Takeaway: AARRR Metrics Bring Focus and Speed
By mapping each experiment to an AARRR stage, we applied a LEAN, structured approach.
Instead of chasing every opinion or instinct, we let the AARRR metrics guide prioritization. Even when people pushed for revenue or referral ideas, we could hold firm—because the right focus was clearly on Acquisition.
When we paired AARRR Metrics with ICE Scoring, we had a simple way to prioritize everything—no matter where the idea came from.
Want to use AARRR metrics to bring clarity and confidence to your growth strategy?
👉 See how to apply this → Growth Strategy Certification: Leverage Pirate Metrics in Your Funnel
