Net revenue retention – Definition and importance
As a business model, SaaS (Software as a Service) is built on recurring revenue from customers. In order to be successful, SaaS businesses need to have a strong net revenue retention rate. Net revenue retention measures how much revenue a company keeps from its existing customer base over time, and is a key metric for evaluating the health of a SaaS business.
Net revenue retention is a key metric for SaaS businesses. It measures the amount of recurring revenue that a company retains from its customer base over time. In other words, it's a measure of how much recurring revenue a company keeps from one period to the next.
If a company has a healthy net retention rate, it means that it is retaining more customers and generating more recurring revenue than it did in the past. This is indicative of a growing and healthy business. And also increasing the chances of your SaaS to get funding.
On the other hand, if a company has a low net retention rate, it may be losing customers and seeing its recurring revenue decline. This is something that investors and analysts will be closely watching for when considering whether or not to invest in a SaaS company.
Calculating your retention
There are two main ways to calculate net revenue retention: gross retention and net retention. Gross retention looks at the total recurring revenue from customers in a given period, while net retention looks at the change in recurring revenue from customers in a given period.
How to calculate net revenue retention
To calculate net revenue retention, you will first need to gather data on your customer churn rate and your customer lifetime value (LTV). Once you have this data, you can use the following formula:
Net Revenue Retention = ((1-Churn Rate) * LTV) - Gross Revenue
For example, let’s say that you have a customer churn rate of 5% and an LTV of $100. If your gross revenue for the period is $1,000, then your net revenue retention would be ((1-0.05) * 100) - 1000 = 95%.
This formula can be helpful in understanding net revenue retention, but it’s important to keep in mind that there is no magic number for net revenue retention. The right net revenue retention rate will vary depending on your specific business model and goals.
If you’re looking to improve your net revenue retention rate, there are a few things you can do:
- Offer discounts or incentives to customers who stay with your service for a longer period of time
- Provide additional value to customers so that they see your service as essential
- Improve your customer service and support so that customers are less likely to churn
How to calculate gross retention
There are two ways to calculate gross retention: cohort analysis and monthly recurring revenue (MRR).
Cohort analysis is the more detailed of the two methods, and involves tracking groups of customers (cohorts) over time to see how much revenue they generate. This method can be useful in understanding which cohorts are generating the most value for your business.
To calculate gross retention using MRR, you will need to track the MRR for each customer at the beginning and end of each month. You can then use the following formula:
Gross Retention = ((Ending MRR - Starting MRR) / Starting MRR) * 100
For example, let’s say that you have a customer with an MRR of $100 at the beginning of the month, and an MRR of $120 at the end of the month. Your gross retention for that customer would be ((120-100)/100)*100 = 20%.
You can also use this formula to calculate gross retention for your entire customer base. This will give you a good overview of how much revenue you are retaining from one period to the next.
It’s important to keep in mind that gross retention only measures the amount of revenue that is being retained, not the number of customers. So, if a small number of customers are responsible for a large portion of your recurring revenue, your gross retention rate will be high even if you are losing a lot of customers.
No matter what net revenue retention rate you ultimately achieve, it’s important to constantly monitor this metric and make sure that you are doing everything you can to retain your existing customers.
Key factors that influence net revenue rate for a SaaS company
There are a few key factors that can influence net revenue retention for a SaaS company, including customer churn rate, customer lifetime value (LTV), and gross revenue.
Customer churn
Customer churn rate is the number of customers who cancel their subscription or stop using your service over a given period of time. The higher your customer churn rate, the lower your net revenue retention will be.
Customer lifetime value
Customer lifetime value (LTV) is the total amount of money that a customer will spend on your service over the course of their relationship with your company. The higher your LTV, the more likely you are to retain customers and generate revenue from them over time.
Gross revenue
Gross revenue is the total amount of revenue generated from customers in a given period of time. The higher your gross revenue, the more likely you are to retain customers and generate revenue from them over time.
Improving net revenue retention for your SaaS
There are a few things you can do to improve net revenue retention for your SaaS company including offering discounts or incentives to customers who stay with your service for a longer period of time, providing additional value to customers so that they see your service as essential, and improving your customer service and support so that customers are less likely to churn.
Offering discounts or incentives to customers who stay with your service for a longer period of time can be a great way to encourage them to remain loyal to your company. This could include offerinng a discount on the monthly fee for customers who commit to a year-long contract, or giving a free month of service to customers who refer a friend.
Providing additional value to customers so that they see your service as essential can also help to improve net revenue retention. This could include offering new features or functionality that are only available to paying customers, or providing exclusive content or access to VIP events.
Improving your customer service and support so that customers are less likely to churn is another important way to improve net revenue retention. This could involve ensuring that you have a knowledgeable and helpful customer support team, providing easy-to-use self-service tools, and proactively reaching out to customers to address any concerns they may have.
Finding the right tool to measure your net revenue retention
Most companies have different analytics tools to capture and measure their product, marketing and revenue metrics. While there are so much to track, this easily get's compiles in a spreadsheet somewhere. While there are so many digital tools used by the teams to collect them.
Gilion insights draws on all data that’s ever related to your growth - operational costs, acquisition metrics, cohort metrics, LTV metrics. No cost is left out, essentially merging the growth models of your CFO, marketing and sales team into a complete and unbiased one. And giving you a complete overview of important startup metrics to track.
It keeps track of all the alternating variables - efficiency trends, seasonal trends, customer behaviour trends - and connect them all the way down to a 5-year cash position forecast. This means always-on forecasting, so you place every bet with surgical precision.
