Author
Lucas Hayes
Data Engineer
Author · 29 articles · 21 glossary terms
Writes about event design, data quality, and collection workflows, with verifiable implementation methods for reliable analytics.
Articles by Lucas Hayes
29 articles
Live Chat · Nov 7, 2026 · 8 min read
Live chat for ecommerce: where it helps a store sell, and how to measure it
Live chat helps online stores answer the questions that stop a purchase: size, shipping, returns, payment. Where to place it, what shoppers ask, how to use proactive invites and AI for peaks, and how to measure its effect on sales honestly.
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Growth & Marketing · Nov 6, 2026 · 5 min read
SaaS customer journey: stages, metrics and where revenue leaks
The SaaS customer journey from awareness to expansion: eight stages with goals and metrics, how to map and measure them, and a trial cohort example showing activation as the bottleneck.
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Analytics · Nov 6, 2026 · 5 min read
Ecommerce analytics: metrics, reports and how to set it up
Ecommerce analytics joins traffic, behavior and transactions. The metrics and formulas that matter, five reports every store needs, setup steps and a channel-quality example.
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Growth & Marketing · Nov 6, 2026 · 5 min read
Mobile app conversion rate: how to calculate and improve it
Mobile app conversion rate depends on the denominator and window. Six types of app conversion, a worked subscription funnel, eight ways to improve it and common mistakes.
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Analytics · Nov 6, 2026 · 5 min read
Ecommerce funnel: stages, metrics and how to find the leak
The ecommerce funnel from visit to purchase and repeat: stage metrics with formulas, how to build and segment it, and a device-split example that points to the real leak.
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Growth & Marketing · Nov 6, 2026 · 5 min read
Subscription analytics: the metrics, the data and a 12-month cohort example
Subscription analytics measures how recurring revenue is won, kept, expanded and lost. The key metrics with formulas, how to join billing with product usage, and a worked 12-month cohort that found early churn signals and hidden payment failures.
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Growth & Marketing · Nov 6, 2026 · 5 min read
Revenue growth rate: formula, CAGR, benchmarks and a worked MRR bridge
How to calculate revenue growth rate month over month, quarter over quarter and year over year, when to use CAGR, what counts as good growth, and a worked MRR bridge showing why growth slowed while new sales rose.
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Growth & Marketing · Nov 6, 2026 · 6 min read
Freemium model: how it works, how to design the free plan, and a worked test
Freemium gives a basic plan away for free and charges for more. How it compares with free trials and reverse trials, how to set free-plan limits, and a worked test where a stricter free plan raised conversion but not revenue.
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Analytics · Nov 5, 2026 · 6 min read
Data lakehouse vs data warehouse (and data lake): how to choose
A warehouse stores modeled tables for SQL, a lake stores raw files cheaply, and a lakehouse adds warehouse features to lake storage. A three-way comparison, why lakehouses appeared, two worked company examples and a decision checklist.
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Growth & Marketing · Nov 5, 2026 · 6 min read
LTV to CAC ratio: how to calculate it, benchmarks and what it hides
The LTV to CAC ratio compares a customer’s lifetime gross profit with the cost of acquiring them. Formulas, a worked example where a healthy blended 2.6 hides a paid channel at 1.25, benchmarks, payback and the mistakes that inflate the ratio.
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Growth & Marketing · Nov 4, 2026 · 4 min read
Account-Based Marketing Analytics: Metrics That Show ABM Works
Account-based marketing is judged by accounts, not leads. The metrics for each stage, a worked quarter comparing 200 target accounts with non-target accounts, why you need a comparison group, and what you can measure before people sign in.
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Growth & Marketing · Nov 4, 2026 · 5 min read
Customer Churn Prediction: Signals, Simple Models and How to Judge Them
Churn prediction flags customers likely to cancel early enough to do something about it. Which signals predict churn, a rule-based way to start, and a worked example of judging a model by precision, recall and lift.
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Growth & Marketing · Nov 4, 2026 · 4 min read
Ecommerce Conversion Rate: How to Calculate, Compare and Improve It
Ecommerce conversion rate is the share of sessions or visitors that end in a purchase. How to calculate it, why benchmarks disagree, a sample store split by device and funnel step, and which lever fits each step.
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Growth & Marketing · Nov 4, 2026 · 4 min read
OKR vs KPI: The Difference and How to Use Them Together
KPIs track the health of what you already do; OKRs describe the change you want this quarter. The difference, how one feeds the other, a worked example with measurable key results, and the common mistakes.
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Growth & Marketing · Nov 4, 2026 · 4 min read
Compound Monthly Growth Rate (CMGR): Formula and Examples
Compound monthly growth rate (CMGR) is the steady monthly rate that takes you from a starting value to an ending value. The formula, a 12-month MRR example, why averaging monthly growth rates overstates growth, and how to calculate it in a spreadsheet.
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Growth & Marketing · Nov 4, 2026 · 4 min read
Product-Market Fit Metrics: Six Signals and How to Read Them
How to measure product-market fit with six signals: a retention curve that flattens, repeat use, organic growth, the "very disappointed" survey, willingness to pay and referral. How to read them together, with a sample.
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Growth & Marketing · Nov 4, 2026 · 4 min read
What Is a Good Retention Rate? Read the Curve, Not One Number
A good retention rate depends on the product, the definition and the time frame. Why benchmarks disagree, what the shape of the retention curve tells you, a sample of three products and how to set your own target.
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Growth & Marketing · Nov 4, 2026 · 4 min read
The Leaky Bucket in Marketing: Why Growth Stalls and How to Fix It
The leaky bucket is the idea that pouring in new customers is wasted while existing ones leak out. The simple math behind it, a sample comparing more acquisition with lower churn, and how to find the leaks.
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Growth & Marketing · Nov 4, 2026 · 4 min read
Customer Lifecycle Metrics: One Number per Stage, and How to Read Them
Customer lifecycle metrics measure how people move from first visit to loyal customer. One metric per stage with its formula, a sample scorecard, and how lifecycle states show movement between stages.
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Growth & Marketing · Nov 4, 2026 · 4 min read
Purchase Path: How Shoppers Get to Checkout and Where They Drop
The purchase path is the sequence of steps from first interest to a completed order. The stages, the events that make it measurable online, a sample per-session funnel, and how to fix the biggest leak.
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Growth & Marketing · Nov 4, 2026 · 5 min read
Customer Data Analytics: Five Questions to Answer, With an RFM Example
Customer data analytics turns profile, behaviour and purchase data into decisions about who to win, keep and grow. Five questions to answer, the data each needs, and an RFM example for a store with 5,000 buyers.
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Growth & Marketing · Nov 3, 2026 · 4 min read
Startup Metrics by Stage: What to Measure Before and After Product-Market Fit
The right startup metrics depend on stage. What to measure before product-market fit, in early traction and in growth, the question each metric answers, the few events to instrument, and why a flattening retention curve matters more than any total.
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Growth & Marketing · Nov 3, 2026 · 6 min read
Ecommerce KPIs: One Revenue Equation and What Moved It
Ecommerce KPIs organised around one equation: revenue = sessions × conversion rate × average order value. Compare months factor by factor, add repeat purchase and refunds, and know where each number comes from.
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Growth & Marketing · Nov 3, 2026 · 6 min read
SaaS Metrics: One MRR Bridge and the Ratios Built on It
SaaS metrics tied together by one MRR bridge: new, expansion, reactivation, contraction and churned MRR, with NRR, GRR, quick ratio and CAC payback computed from it, and the product signals that lead each line.
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Analytics · Nov 3, 2026 · 6 min read
First-Party Data Strategy: Collect for Decisions, Keep Less
A practical first-party data strategy: what counts as zero-, first-, second- and third-party data, how to plan collection around decisions, identity and consent choices, and minimisation and retention defaults.
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Analytics · Nov 3, 2026 · 7 min read
Revenue Tracking with Events: Purchases, Refunds and the Metrics They Feed
How to track revenue in analytics with events: which purchase and refund events to send, from where, the properties that matter, deduplication and currency, and the revenue metrics you get from them.
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Analytics · Jun 9, 2026 · 9 min read
How to migrate from Google Analytics 4: an 8-step checklist
Migrations fail on definitions, not on snippets. Eight checks in order, from the event inventory and metric mapping to the parallel run, history export and the day you remove the old tag.
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Analytics · Mar 5, 2026 · 8 min read
Cookieless vs cookie-based analytics: accuracy, consent and what changes
Cookieless vs cookie-based analytics compared: how each counts visitors, where each goes wrong, what the law says about consent, and what to check when you switch.
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Analytics · Feb 12, 2026 · 10 min read
Why analytics tools show different numbers: 8 causes and a reconciliation checklist
Two analytics tools on one site never print the same visitor count. Here are the eight causes, a worked example of where the gap goes, and a checklist to reconcile them.
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Glossary terms by Lucas Hayes
21 glossary terms
Glossary
Annual recurring revenue (ARR)
Annual recurring revenue (ARR) is the annualised value of the recurring subscription contracts a company has at a point in time, excluding one-off fees and variable usage that is not committed.
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Glossary
ARPPU: average revenue per paying user, formula and example
ARPPU (average revenue per paying user) is total revenue in a period divided by the number of users who made a payment in that period.
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Glossary
Burn multiple: formula, benchmarks and a worked example
Burn multiple is a capital-efficiency metric equal to net cash burn divided by net new annual recurring revenue over the same period.
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Glossary
CAC payback period: formula, example and benchmarks
CAC payback period is the number of months it takes for the gross profit from a new customer to cover the cost of acquiring that customer.
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Glossary
Canary testing
Canary testing (a canary release) is a release practice in which a new version is first served to a small share of real production users or traffic, its health is compared with the current version, and it is rolled out further only if it performs as well, otherwise rolled back.
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Glossary
Cart abandonment rate
Cart abandonment rate is the percentage of shopping carts, or sessions with an add-to-cart, that end without a completed purchase.
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Glossary
Customer health score
A customer health score is a composite number, usually 0–100 or green/amber/red, that combines product usage, customer outcomes, relationship and commercial signals to estimate how likely an account is to renew, expand or churn.
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Glossary
Data types
A data type is a classification that tells a program, database or analyst what kind of value a field holds, such as an integer, a decimal number, text, true/false or a date, and therefore which operations are valid on it.
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Glossary
GMV
The total value of orders placed in a period, before refunds, discounts and fees.
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Glossary
Gross revenue retention (GRR)
Gross revenue retention (GRR) is the percentage of recurring revenue from a starting group of customers that remains after a period, counting losses from cancellations and downgrades but excluding any expansion revenue, so it can never exceed 100%.
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Glossary
MRR (monthly recurring revenue)
Monthly recurring revenue (MRR) is the predictable subscription revenue a business earns per month, with every active plan converted to its monthly value and one-off charges left out.
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Glossary
Net revenue retention (NRR)
Net revenue retention (NRR) is the recurring revenue you earn now from a group of existing customers, divided by what the same customers paid at the start of the period, including expansion and subtracting contraction and churn.
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Glossary
Product qualified lead (PQL)
A product qualified lead (PQL) is a free or trial user, or account, that has reached usage signals showing real value and buying intent, such as inviting teammates or hitting a plan limit.
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Glossary
Repeat purchase rate
The share of customers who bought more than once in a period.
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Glossary
Revenue churn: gross vs net, vs logo churn, with an example
Revenue churn is the percentage of recurring revenue lost in a period from cancellations and downgrades, relative to revenue at the start.
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Glossary
RFM
Scoring customers on Recency, Frequency and Monetary value, then grouping them — champions, at risk, hibernating.
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Glossary
Rule of 40
The Rule of 40 is a benchmark for software companies: revenue growth rate plus profit margin, both as percentages, should add up to 40% or more, showing a healthy balance between growing and making money.
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Glossary
SaaS quick ratio: formula, benchmarks and a worked example
The SaaS quick ratio is (new MRR + expansion MRR) ÷ (churned MRR + contraction MRR) over a period.
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Glossary
Tracking plan
The agreed list of events and properties, their names, when they fire and who owns them.
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Glossary
Unit economics: definition, formulas and two worked examples
Unit economics measure the revenue and variable costs associated with a single unit of a business, such as one customer or one order, to show whether each unit is profitable before fixed costs.
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Glossary
Value metric
A value metric is the unit a SaaS or usage-based product charges for (seats, contacts, events, projects, GB), chosen so that the price grows as the customer gets more value.
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