MAU is a very common metric and for social networks it’s often their Northstar metric (read more about Northstars).

The problem is that most don’t know that it’s actually a composition of 4 metrics.

If you don’t break it down, you fall into what I call a MAUse trap.

The biggest reason companies fail is they churn more than they retain.

They need to replace everyone churning causing CACs to skyrocket.

It becomes a death spiral.

By unpacking MAU into 4 metrics, you identify trouble zones and proactively address them.

MAU = Newly active + Continuing active + Churned + Resurrected

Also, reminder that an “Active user” can mean many things. It’s up to you to define that.

These are all the users that were active for the first time ever in that month.

This doesn’t mean only those that signed up in that month. It can include users who signed up a year ago but just became active that month.

All users that were active last month who continue to be active this month.

All users that were active last month who are not active this month.

There are many ways to define churn, but for social networks where MAU is most relevant, they have low churn windows. Churn is on the order of days/weeks and not months.

Be careful not to confuse reporting churn which is what we’re doing here with actual definitions of churn using data science.

All users that were not active last month who are active this month.

The same caveat from Churned applies here. Defining them as “churn” last month may not be scientifically accurate. In the next section I’ll share how to use ratios to help you understand what’s going on.

Here’s a helpful little chart: