Digital MarketingGlossary
Strategy & Growth

Pirate Metrics (AARRR)

growth framework

01 Definition

Pirate Metrics (AARRR) meaning: A five-stage growth framework covering acquisition, activation, retention, referral, and revenue.

Pirate Metrics, or AARRR, is a framework by Dave McClure that tracks a customer journey in five stages: acquisition, activation, retention, referral, and revenue. The nickname comes from the letters sounding like a pirate. Teams use it to pick a few key metrics per stage and find the biggest growth bottleneck.

Also called

AARRRAARRR metrics

Why it matters

How Pirate Metrics (AARRR) fits the work

AARRR gives startups a simple, shared scoreboard so they can focus on the one stage limiting growth instead of chasing every metric at once.

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In context

Using AARRR, the startup found strong acquisition but weak activation, so it fixed onboarding before spending more on ads.

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Practical note

The original order lists retention before referral. Choose one or two metrics per stage; tracking too many numbers hides which stage actually needs work.