How do I analyze Retention in Signals?

Overview

Retention in Signals enables you to track and assess how creators engage with brands, topics, and more. You can also discover creators who consistently create content about chosen topics and brands over an extended duration.

In the example table below, out of 12.5k Profiles that mentioned Nike in January 2023, 38.93% of profiles mentioned them in April as well. You can click on any value in the table to see profiles that are retained over a given period of time.

Use Case for Retention

Here are some popular use cases for Retention:

• See how many mentions of your brand come from brand ambassadors

• Find brand ambassadors of your competitors

• Benchmark creator Retention of your brand against the competition

• Find creators that are actively posting about chosen topics over a period of time

• See which topics have a consistent audience vs. which are temporary

How to set up the Retention Component

To set up the Retention Component, you'll need to get familiar with three concepts: Retention intervals, rows, and values.

Retention Intervals

Retention intervals split the date range of the Signals Report into equal periods of time of a chosen cadence. You can also create custom date ranges if your use case doesn’t suit any of the predefined options.

For example, if the date range of your report is set to January 1, 2023 - December 31, 2023, choosing monthly intervals will split this range into 12 separate months, such as January, February, etc.

Rows

Rows let you ‌segment data by any available attribute to see how different groups perform. For example, you can choose the following data points as rows:

• Mentioned Profiles - see how different profiles retain creators

• Keywords - see how different topics retain creators

• Content Type - see how different Content Types retain Creators

Values

When using the Retention Component, you can choose from four values specially designed for Retention analysis:

• Retention - how many creators from the first period are still meeting the Retention criteria. You can display it as an absolute number or percentage of the initial group.

• Lost - how many creators from the first period are no longer meeting the Retention criteria. You can display it as an absolute number or percentage of the initial group.

• New - how many creators posted in the given period but weren't included in the initial group of creators.

• New to File Rate - the ratio of a new creator to all retained creators in the given period.

Understanding Retention

How Retention is Calculated in Signals

Starting with the first available period, Signals tracks creator retention by analyzing how creators perform over time.

The following graphic explains how Retention is calculated in the default mode:

Green - creator posted

Grey - creator didn’t post

The first period of Retention analysis creates a cohort of profiles that are tracked in the periods following the first one. In the example above, the creator from the fourth line isn't included as Retained because they didn't post in the first period.

Customizing the Calculation Method

Signals allows three slightly different methods of calculating Retention that can discover different patterns in data.

On and After - creators are considered retained when they've posted in a given period or after it. An example of such a creator is outlined in the third line of the graph.

Green - creator posted

Grey creator didn’t post

On - creators are considered retained only if they've posted in a given period. An example of such a creator is outlined in the second line of the graph.

Green - creator posted

Grey - creator didn’t post

On and Before (Funnel) - creators are considered retained when they've posted in a given period and in every period before. An example of such a creator is outlined in the first line of the graph.

Green - creator posted

Grey - creator didn’t post