Vanity metrics hide churn
Follower growth can rise while the paying audience quietly leaves. Retention is where the business lives.
Signals we watch
- Renewal and rebill behaviour over raw joins
- Concentration of spend (healthy mix vs one whale dependency)
- Reply latency during peak hours
- Custom request completion time
- Soft churn: fans who still follow but stopped spending
What to do with the data
If renewals drop while joins rise, fix onboarding and first-week experience before buying more traffic. If whales dominate revenue, rebuild mid-tier offers so the business survives one person leaving.