AARRR Framework — Primer for Plan Sequencing

AARRR (Dave McClure's "pirate metrics") is the spine of every plan produced by this skill. This doc is the primer + the decision rules for when each stage gets prioritized.

The five stages

Signup boundary rule. Signup intent (a stranger landing on the signup page) is Acquisition. Signup completion and everything after (first key action, trial-to-paid) is Activation. Apply this rule consistently across all docs and the plan template.

Why AARRR for plan sequencing

Three reasons.

1. Funnel-stage tagging forces prioritization. Without AARRR, marketing plans become channel-organized ("here's the SEO plan, here's the social plan, here's the paid plan"). Channels can address multiple stages; tagging by stage instead asks the more useful question: what stage of the funnel is the binding constraint right now?

2. Fix the leak before pouring water in. The Activation/Retention question ("does the funnel convert at acceptable rates given exposure?") is usually higher leverage than the Acquisition question ("how do we get more exposure?"). AARRR sequencing surfaces this naturally.

3. The Revenue / Referral conversation is honest. Most marketing plans bury monetization under "growth" and treat referral as wishful thinking. AARRR forces explicit treatment of both.

Brand and content — not a stage, cross-cutting

A common mistake: making "Brand" or "Content" the sixth bucket. They're not — they serve every stage.

• Brand voice governs every piece of copy across every stage
• Content feeds Acquisition (SEO, social), Activation (onboarding copy), Retention (email lifecycle), Referral (ambassador talking points), Revenue (pricing pages, sales material)

In the plan, brand/content shows up as the strategic frame (Section 2) and cross-cutting in Section 11's ops stack — never as its own AARRR section.

Diagnosing the binding constraint — which AARRR stage is highest leverage?

For every client, one or two AARRR stages will be the binding constraint. The plan sequences moves there first.

Decision rules:

If you don't have any users → start with Acquisition

• Pre-launch / day-0 / waitlist stage
• No funnel data exists
• Leverage = building the first 100 users

If you have users but they bounce → start with Activation

• Signups happen but activation rate is low
• App Store conversion is poor
• Onboarding completion is broken
• Day 1 → paid rate is much lower than Day 30 → paid (means product converts given time but onboarding doesn't bridge to it)
• Leverage = bridging signup to first felt value

If activation works but users churn → start with Retention

• Month 1 retention is below category norms
• Activated users stop using within 7–14 days
• LTV is short
• Leverage = lifecycle, deepening engagement, churn prevention

If retention is strong but growth is slow → start with Referral / Revenue

• Retained users love the product but don't share
• Inbound referrals come in unstructured
• Pricing hasn't been pressure-tested
• ARPU is low for the value delivered
• Leverage = WOM mechanics + pricing optimization (these often cluster)

If everything works at small scale → start with Acquisition (scaling)

• Funnel is healthy
• Question is just "more"
• This is the "post-fit" scaling problem

Stage-by-stage strategic patterns

Acquisition

The diagnostic question: Where is the gap between TAM-level awareness and current funnel volume? What channels are saturated by competitors vs. open?

Common Acquisition moves:

• SEO content strategy (organic compounding)
• Founder-led channels (LinkedIn, X, Substack for B2B; Instagram/TikTok for D2C)
• Paid acquisition (when budget unlocks)
• App Store / Play Store / marketplace listing optimization
• PR and credibility-anchor amplification
• Events (live, webinar, conference speaking)
• Partnerships (newsletter swaps, integration co-marketing, reseller / agency partners)
• Hardware / commerce surface (Shopify SEO + Amazon for hybrid businesses)
• B2B sales support (case studies, partner pages, vertical content)

Sequencing principle: Build the organic compound first (SEO + founder-led + content + PR amplification + ambassadors). Only layer paid on top of a working organic baseline. Premature paid amplifies what's broken.

Activation

The diagnostic question: Where in the user's first session do they decide "this works for me" or "this doesn't"? What stops them from reaching that moment?

Common Activation moves:

• Bedrock fixes (broken gates, broken signup steps, broken paywall)
• Onboarding tests / rebuild (often the most leveraged single move)
• App Store listing rewrite (the threshold to the trial)
• Lifecycle Flow ship order (when to ship onboarding emails)
• Paywall structure + trial length
• Free → paid bridge (in-app upsells, soft paywalls)

Sequencing principle: Get to first felt value as fast as possible. Everything that adds friction between "user opens app" and "user has the experience that converts them" is a candidate to cut.

Retention

The diagnostic question: Why do users churn? What would have made them stay? What's the "second moment of value" after the first one?

Common Retention moves:

• Lifecycle email flows: onboarding, lapsed user re-engagement, post-purchase, win-back
• Subscription / preference centers
• Churn reconciliation (often metric definitions don't match across surfaces)
• Hardware → software activation paths (for hybrid businesses)
• Annual plan defaults / pricing structure (cross-cuts Revenue)
• Support as marketing (high-touch moments that drive stories)
• Community + practitioner networks

Sequencing principle: Ship lifecycle flows in the order their content is most stable. Hardware post-purchase flows ship first (they don't reference in-app screens that might change). Onboarding emails ship last (they reference UI that might change). Win-back is a quarterly campaign, not a one-time flow.

Referral

The diagnostic question: Is there inbound referral interest that isn't being captured? What's the share-after-value moment that's natural to the product?

Common Referral moves:

• Ambassador / affiliate program (start with inbound interest, not cold recruitment)
• Share-after-value moments built into the product (reflection prompts, milestone celebrations)
• Founder amplification (founder as referrer-zero)
• Long-game expert / Guides / certified-host networks (for category-creating businesses)
• Gifting flows (consumer / hardware)
• Two-sided referrals (reward both referrer and referred)

Sequencing principle: Lead with whoever is already raising their hand. If there are 5 inbound ambassadors, launch with those 5 — don't wait for a "complete program." Iterate based on what they tell you.

Revenue

The diagnostic question: Is the company underpricing? Underpackaging? Missing an upsell? What's the "right" price discipline given LTV and brand voice?

Common Revenue moves:

• Pricing audit (what's actually charged today vs. listed?)
• Annual plan defaults
• Hardware → software bundling formalization
• Storefront / commerce page optimization
• B2B case studies + sales material
• Long-term value pool flags (data, expansion, enterprise) — flagged not executed

Sequencing principle: Run the pricing audit before testing changes. Surprisingly often, the "implied" pricing on the dashboard doesn't match the listed price — discounts, trials, or plan mix distorts the read. Surface the ground truth first.

How to assign a move to a stage

Some moves clearly belong to one stage. Others span. The rule:

Assign to the stage where the move's primary measurable impact lands.

Examples:

• "Rewrite App Store listing in voice" — spans Acquisition (organic discovery) and Activation (threshold to trial). Primary impact = Activation (trial conversion rate). Assign to Activation, mention crossover.
• "Eye mask Shopify page rewrite" — spans Acquisition (organic search for sleep mask) and Revenue (sale conversion). Primary impact = Revenue (transaction). Assign to Revenue, mention crossover.
• "Alex's LinkedIn cadence" — Acquisition (top of funnel for D2C subscribers).
• "Customer.io Flow 6 (eye mask post-purchase)" — Retention (deepens hardware buyer engagement) with crossover to Activation (hardware → app premium activation path).

When in doubt: where would removing this move hurt the most? Assign there.

When the AARRR breakdown isn't equal

For most clients, the plan won't have equal volume across stages. That's fine — and worth surfacing as a diagnostic.

• Heavy Acquisition section = client has product-market fit but top-of-funnel is the bottleneck. Common for early-stage with strong retention metrics.
• Heavy Activation section = client has traffic but conversion is broken. Often beta-stage products.
• Heavy Retention section = client has churn problem. Often mid-stage products that scaled past PMF without lifecycle infrastructure.
• Heavy Referral section = client has loyalty but no WOM mechanics. Often consumer products with passionate users.
• Heavy Revenue section = client is underpricing or missing monetization layers. Common for tools transitioning from free to paid.

If a plan ends up evenly distributed across all five stages, the diagnostic was probably weak — re-examine the funnel state intake to find where the binding constraint is.

A note on the order of presentation

Always present AARRR in order (Acquisition → Activation → Retention → Referral → Revenue) regardless of priority order.

This is for the reader's mental model. Founders expect the funnel to flow top-to-bottom. If Retention is the most-leveraged stage but you lead with Retention, the reader has to context-switch.

To signal priority, use the executive summary (Section 1) — name the biggest bets there. The AARRR breakdown then walks the funnel in order, with the most leverage-positive section being the longest and most-detailed.