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.
| **A**cquisition | How do strangers become aware of us? | Visits, MQLs, signup-page sessions, app-store visits, CAC by channel |
| **A**ctivation | Once they try us, do they have an experience that converts? | Signup completion rate, time-to-value, % completing first key action, trial → paid rate |
> **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.
**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.
## Brand and content — not a stage, cross-cutting
A common mistake: making "Brand" or "Content" the sixth bucket. They're not — they serve every stage.
- **Brand voice** governs every piece of copy across every stage
### If everything works at small scale → start with Acquisition (scaling)
- Funnel is healthy
- Question is just "more"
- This is the "post-fit" scaling problem
## Stage-by-stage strategic patterns
### Acquisition
**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:**
- SEO content strategy (organic compounding)
- Founder-led channels (LinkedIn, X, Substack for B2B; Instagram/TikTok for D2C)
- Paid acquisition (when budget unlocks)
- App Store / Play Store / marketplace listing optimization
- Hardware / commerce surface (Shopify SEO + Amazon for hybrid businesses)
- B2B sales support (case studies, partner pages, vertical content)
**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.
### Activation
**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?
**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.
### Retention
**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:**
- Lifecycle email flows: onboarding, lapsed user re-engagement, post-purchase, win-back
- Subscription / preference centers
- Churn reconciliation (often metric definitions don't match across surfaces)
- Annual plan defaults / pricing structure (cross-cuts Revenue)
- Support as marketing (high-touch moments that drive stories)
- Community + practitioner networks
**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.
### Referral
**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:**
- Ambassador / affiliate program (start with inbound interest, not cold recruitment)
- Share-after-value moments built into the product (reflection prompts, milestone celebrations)
- Founder amplification (founder as referrer-zero)
- Two-sided referrals (reward both referrer and referred)
**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.
### Revenue
**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:**
- Pricing audit (what's actually charged today vs. listed?)
- Annual plan defaults
- Hardware → software bundling formalization
- Storefront / commerce page optimization
- B2B case studies + sales material
- Long-term value pool flags (data, expansion, enterprise) — flagged not executed
**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.
## How to assign a move to a stage
Some moves clearly belong to one stage. Others span. The rule:
**Assign to the stage where the move's primary measurable impact lands.**
Examples:
- "Rewrite App Store listing in voice" — spans Acquisition (organic discovery) and Activation (threshold to trial). Primary impact = Activation (trial conversion rate). Assign to Activation, mention crossover.
- "Eye mask Shopify page rewrite" — spans Acquisition (organic search for sleep mask) and Revenue (sale conversion). Primary impact = Revenue (transaction). Assign to Revenue, mention crossover.
When in doubt: where would removing this move hurt the most? Assign there.
## When the AARRR breakdown isn't equal
For most clients, the plan won't have equal volume across stages. That's fine — and worth surfacing as a diagnostic.
- **Heavy Acquisition section** = client has product-market fit but top-of-funnel is the bottleneck. Common for early-stage with strong retention metrics.
- **Heavy Activation section** = client has traffic but conversion is broken. Often beta-stage products.
- **Heavy Retention section** = client has churn problem. Often mid-stage products that scaled past PMF without lifecycle infrastructure.
- **Heavy Referral section** = client has loyalty but no WOM mechanics. Often consumer products with passionate users.
- **Heavy Revenue section** = client is underpricing or missing monetization layers. Common for tools transitioning from free to paid.
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.
## A note on the order of presentation
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.
