Churn

Churn rate refers to the tally of subscriptions that have been canceled or suspended over a specific duration. This can happen in two ways:

• User cancels auto-renewal of subscription (voluntary churn)
• User miss a payment and automated attempts to charge their selected payment method fail (involuntary churn) 

Churn rate formula

(Number of churned subscriptions / Total number of subscriptions) * 100

• When a user subscribes to an SVOD/TVOD plan, they are added to the list of Subscribed Users.
• Active subscribers are users whose subscription status is either "COMPLETED" or "DEFERRED_CANCEL". 
• Upon re-subscription after an expired subscription, they are reinstated in the Subscribers list but not deducted from the Churn count.

All Subscriptions = New subscriptions + Re-subscriptions + Recurring subscriptions

Refer to this article to learn more about churn, dunning, and retries.

Overall churn data

This report gives you an overall number of subscriptions churned. Churns are either Voluntary or Involuntary. The subscription plans that experience higher churn are displayed adjacent to the aggregate churn value. 

1. Total Churn count - Aggregate of (3) over a time period 2. Subscription plans with higher churn count 3. Churn data by day/week/month

Use the Date/Week/Month presets to pivot data by Date, Week, and Month. 

To use Date Range and advanced Filters, see Audience > Overview article.

Churn report by Campaign

Click the Campaign tab to get the subscription churn report by the Campaigns you've set up. Subscriptions via redemption coupon campaigns but churned out in the next billing cycle will appear in this report. If the campaign name is empty, it may indicate that subscribers directly purchase from your View Plans page, or you have set up the campaign incorrectly.

See this monthly churn report. It highlights subscribers from various campaigns who opted not to renew after their subscription term ended. Campaigns with higher churn rates are visualized as vertical bars in the bar chart. To access the complete report, simply click the Download button within the graph area.

Churn rate by Campaign in Monthly subscriptions

 

Churn report by Subscription Plan

This report presents a comparative analysis of subscription plans along with the number of subscribers lost under each plan during the specified time frame.

View total churn in a month

Click the checkbox on the top-churned subscription plans top to filter and display the churn report for that specific plan in the chart work area.

Other Dimensions

You can break down the churned base further.  Use the other available dimensions in the drop-down to view the churn rate from other dimensions as follows:

Predict subscription churn using Bulk API

ViewLift has deprecated the Churn prediction feature in the Intelligence module in the ViewLift tools platform.

You can however predict user churn by accessing your Bulk API in ViewLift and get information such as watch history, purchase history, plan ID, suspension date of subscription, and more to predict the subscription churn and develop strategies to reduce the churn volume.

To access the Bulk API, go to https://export-api.viewlift.com and click DOCS. In the Search field, search for a user attribute you want to monitor.

For example, use the ListPurchases API as shown in the figure below to figure out the cancellation date, suspension date, and end date and take decisions.

Churn FAQs

Q. Once a churned customer renews, does the number reduce from the churn number that is showing in the dashboard, or does it remain the same?

The churn rate won't reduce when a customer reactivates the subscription. Churn rate is the number of subscriptions canceled or suspended for that period. So when there are fewer cancelations, the churn rate reduces, or when the cancelations are more at a period, the churn rate will be high for that given period. It does not depend on re-subscriptions.

Q. We see a high churn rate for a certain period. How can we drill down to more churn data for analysis?

Users who have consented to receive marketing materials will be visible in your marketing engagement platforms such as Clevertap and Mailchimp. If you require all email addresses, including those who haven't opted in, you can use our Bulk API data. For details on when users last accessed the platform, refer to your Google Analytics reports.

Tips for reducing churn rate

Use analytics to make decisions

In addition to ViewLift churn analytics, track churn data if available in your marketing platform data and Google Analytics events. Platforms (Samsung, Roku, FireTV, and Vizio) have in-app analytics that you can use for comparison and comprehensive tracking of churn metrics.

Focus on the right KPIs

Find ways to increase customer engagement of your platform, for example by push notifications, then focus on metrics that matter to you, such as average view duration or engagement. Some metrics, such as total views, may not indicate how well your content is performing.

Make it easy to cancel

Also, make sure you offer excellent support, for example, by creating comprehensive FAQ pages and providing quick resolutions to customer problems.

Reward loyal customers

You can think of providing offer codes on recurring subscriptions, increased device limits, referral codes, access to premium content, and so on.
Read this HubSpot blog to learn some tips and tricks to help you reduce customer churn.