How the Subscription Dashboard Works

Analyze the complete journey of your subscriptions! Learn how the subscription dashboard works.

Summary of explanations for what you will find in each tab of the dashboard:

• How to access the subscription management panel
• Overview: What is Lifetime (LT)
• Retention (%)
• Churn (%)
• Status Distribution
• Renewal
• Average Subscription Retention (%)
• Future Renewals per Month
• Delays
• Delay Range
• Ongoing Automatic Recovery Attempt
• Cancellations

How to access the subscription management dashboard

To access the subscription management dashboard, you should:

1) Log in to Hotmart

2) Click on Subscription Management in the left menu

3) Click on the section called Subscription Dashboard 

Overview: What is Lifetime (LT)

LT (Lifetime) refers to the average duration of a customer's relationship with your subscription service, the average time a subscription tends to remain active in your subscriber base. The longer this period, the greater the potential value a customer can bring throughout their journey as a subscriber.

A shorter retention period than desired may indicate the need to understand in detail why this is happening. With the visualization of retention by period in a graph, you can get a sense of when users are canceling their subscriptions. By downloading the subscription status report (link), you can identify which subscribers are staying retained for less time than desired, trying to understand if it could be related to the selected payment method profile, user language, age range, or other reasons. You can also use contact, in the case of requesting this information on the payment page, to send surveys to specific users. Having a plan for how long a subscription will remain active can help you prepare for steady revenue over a certain period or know the best time to offer a renewal or a new offer to your content users.

Let's say in a specific crop, you had 10 users subscribing to your service at $10 per month.

Out of these 10 users, 8 remained active for 2 months. In this case, the 8 users, over the 2 months, yielded a gross sale of $160. 8 users, active for 2 months each, paying $10 each per month (8 * 2 * 10).

Out of these 8 subscribers, 5 remained active for 12 months.

The Lifetime (LT) of these 5 would have been 12 months, and the LTV would be $600. 5 users, active for 12 months each, paying $10 each per month (5 * 12 * 10)

In this way, a longer Lifetime (the time they remain active) will also have a positive direct impact on the LTV (how much revenue they generate for you throughout the active subscription period) of your customers. Retaining customers, encouraging repurchases, and maintaining active accounts without delays and cancellations represent a healthy long-term outlook for your business.

Retention (%)

Analyzing the retention profile of your subscriber base is a fundamental step to understand the health and sustainability of your business. This indicator shows the percentage of subscriptions that remain active (even with payment delays), meaning those that joined within the specified period and completed at least one successful recurring payment, divided by the number of subscriptions with at least one successful recurring payment. It offers valuable insights into the effectiveness of your acquisition, engagement, and retention strategies.

Imagine you observe a retention rate of 80% over a year. This means that of the subscribers who joined your service at the beginning of that period, 80% remained active after a year. This value not only indicates the quality of your efforts to retain your customers but also points out possible areas of improvement. For instance, if you notice a sharp drop in retention in a particular month or for a specific product, you can investigate and adjust strategies to mitigate this loss.

Analyzing the retention profile enables you to make more informed decisions, identifying what's working well and where improvement opportunities lie. Furthermore, understanding this indicator is crucial for estimating Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) and optimizing investments in marketing and retention. In summary, the percentage of retained users not only reflects customer satisfaction and loyalty but is also a direct reflection of your long-term business success.

Churn(%)

Churn is the term that represents the cancellation of your subscriptions. Understanding this rate is essential to assess the health and profitability of your business.

This metric represents the percentage of canceled and overdue subscriptions divided by the number of subscriptions with at least one successful recurring payment.

A high cancellation rate may indicate issues with value offering, content attractiveness, retention strategy, general market problems, or other areas of your service. On the other hand, a low cancellation rate indicates higher retention and greater potential for recurring revenue.

By performing these analyses and gaining insights into the monthly subscription cancellation rate, you'll be better prepared to take actions aimed at reducing the cancellation rate, increasing subscriber retention, and consequently improving your business's profitability.

Status Distribution

The distribution of users by subscription status is a valuable indicator to assess the profitability of your subscription content business. This metric primarily signals the proportion of users who remained with active subscriptions compared to those who canceled during the reference period or are overdue on payments.

Understanding this distribution helps identify trends and take proactive measures to maximize your business's profitability.

Renewal

Cohort Subscription Retention (%) and Cohort Subscription Retention (#)

A user cohort retention table starts from the month when the user first became active in a subscription product. A cohort is a set of people who share the period in which they acquired the subscription service.

Retention in column 0 indicates, of the users who became active in that subscription product in that cohort reference month, how many remained active in the same month. In other words, for any reference month, the value in column 0 will show how many of these users remained active at the end of that same month, before more than a month had passed since their subscription.

Each row in this table represents a different monthly cohort.

If we look at a row referring to the date 2022/01, we would have the following:

The first column, 0, shows how many users who acquired a subscription product in 2022/01 remained active in the same month, meaning they ended the month of 2022/01 as active and did not cancel their subscription.

In the second column, the column corresponding to the number 1, shows how many users from the 2022/01 cohort remained active in the first month after activating the subscription and so on, up to 12 months after the start of the activation of that product in that specific cohort.

The number of columns for monitoring depends on the selection made in the "Adoption Period" filter. If you select the last 24 months period, you can monitor retention over this period.

This way, it's possible to understand behaviors by cohorts, which actions or strategies were taken by specific cohorts or specific products in certain periods that positively or negatively impacted retention.

When comparing different cohorts, it's possible to understand if the long-term retention between them had very different profiles.

Another important analysis is whether a stabilization pattern occurs at some point. If the retention pattern doesn't stabilize at any point, it will eventually reach 0%. This is not good, as if few users from a cohort remain in the long term, this signifies a decrease in the total LTV and indicates that the cost of acquiring new users (CAC) is only compensating for lost users. If retention remained stable, it would mean that LTV (the total revenue a customer generates over the time they remain paying for the service) is increasing.

Suppose the retention stabilizes at, let's say, 20%. In this case, we know that out of every 100 users who acquired your subscription product from that specific cohort, 20 of them remained active for a long period (loyal).

Average Subscription Retention (%)

The average subscription retention graph shows the average behavior of your subscriber base. It indicates your retention profile for the selected product, or in the case of all products, the overall average.

Retention at point 0 indicates how many users who became active in that subscription product remained active in the same month. In other words, for any reference month, the value at point 0 will show how many of these users remained active at the end of that same month, before more than a month had passed since their subscription.

At the second point, corresponding to number 1, it indicates how many users remained active in the first month after activating the subscription and so on, up to 12 months after the start of the activation of that product in that specific cohort.

This way, it's possible to understand behaviors by cohorts, which actions or strategies were taken by specific cohorts or specific products in certain periods that positively or negatively impacted retention.

When comparing different products or joining months, it's possible to understand if the long-term retention between them had very different profiles.

Another important analysis is whether a stabilization pattern occurs at some point. If the retention pattern doesn't stabilize at any point, it will eventually reach 0%. This is not good, as if few users from a cohort remain in the long term, this signifies a decrease in the total LTV and indicates that the cost of acquiring new users (CAC) is only compensating for lost users. If retention remained stable, it would mean that LTV (the total revenue a customer generates over the time they remain paying for the service) is increasing.

Suppose the retention curve stabilizes at, let's say, 20%. In this case, we know that out of every 100 users who acquired your subscription product from that specific product or month, 20 of them remained active for a long period (loyal).

Another example to explain the importance of LT (Lifetime) and LTV (Lifetime Value).

Let's say in a specific crop, you had 10 users subscribing to your service at $10 per month.

Out of these 10 users, 8 remained active for 2 months. In this case, the 8 users, over the 2 months, yielded a gross sale of $160. 8 users, active for 2 months each, paying $10 each per month (8 * 2 * 10).

Out of these 8 subscribers, 5 remained active for 12 months.

The Lifetime (LT) of these 5 would have been 12 months, and the LTV would be $600. 5 users, active for 12 months each, paying $10 each per month (5 * 12 * 10)

In this way, a longer Lifetime (the time they remain active) will also have a positive direct impact on the LTV (how much revenue they generate for you throughout the active subscription period) of your customers. Retaining customers, encouraging repurchases, and maintaining active accounts without delays and cancellations represent a healthy long-term outlook for your business.

Future Renewals per Month

The Future Renewals per Month graph projects, based on subscriptions scheduled for billing, over a period of up to 12 months ahead, the number of subscriptions expected to be in the active or renewed statuses each month. This visualization not only provides clarity about projected revenue but is also directly related to the essential concepts of LT (Lifetime) and LTV (Lifetime Value).

By graphically analyzing the number of projected subscriptions, you can establish a direct connection between sustainable business growth and future revenue projection. The value of renewed subscriptions over time not only contributes to financial health but also creates a solid base of engaged and loyal customers.

LT (Lifetime) refers to the average duration of a customer's relationship with your subscription service. The longer this period, the greater the potential value a customer can bring throughout their journey as a subscriber. On the other hand, LTV (Lifetime Value) represents the total financial value a customer can generate during the time they remain as a subscriber.

By projecting the number of renewed subscriptions over the next 12 months, you are, in fact, anticipating the revenue potential and growth of LTV. This not only helps guide your acquisition and retention strategies but also optimizes the value each customer brings over time.

Delays

The delay information pertains to subscriptions with a delayed status, both recent and old.

In this tab, you'll find details about the total number of subscriptions in delayed status, the quantity per delay time frame, how many attempts at automatic recovery are in progress, or how many attempts were unsuccessful.

Delay Range

Understanding the distribution of users by delay time frame is a powerful way to act on payment dynamics and optimize customer retention.

Delayed Overview by Product and Periodicity (%) information corresponds to the percentage of late subscriptions categorized by delay time intervals for each plan and product.

Each line represents a specific type of subscription (monthly, semi-annual and annual subscriptions, for example) and the delay status, which when clicked allows you to view the details of the delay.

For example, you might understand this as: 'Product A's subscriptions have delays
of up to 5 days, constituting 1.45% of total late subscriptions.

This may indicate that they may have forgotten the due date or are facing some momentary difficulty. In this scenario, a direct communication strategy , like a friendly reminder, can be highly effective in encouraging these subscribers to quickly and easily settle their payments.

On the other hand, subscribers with longer delays, such as over 30 days, may be facing more complex issues. In this case, a more comprehensive and personalized approach is necessary. In addition to reminders, you can offer personalized solutions, such as installment options or more attentive support to help them rectify the situation.

Analyzing this distribution of delays not only provides insights into subscriber behavior but also guides the creation of more effective communication strategies tailored to each group's specific needs. This way, you can not only improve customer retention but also enhance the building of a strong relationship with them.

Ongoing Automatic Recovery Attempt

Here, we inform you how many subscriptions are in the process of attempting automatic payment recovery.

When you don't work to recover sales, you're leaving money on the table.

The fact is, there's an opportunity to recover sales that didn't go through, and if you're not using this kind of strategy yet, you're losing money.

But don't worry! Let's change that right now.

The customer tries to make a purchase of a product through installment payments, and due to an issue with the credit card, such as insufficient funds, the purchase cannot be completed. What happens?

If you don't have a strategy, the sale is lost. ☹️

By enabling Hotmart's Automatic Sales Recovery, you have a chance to not lose these sales! And the best part: the process is 100% automated. In other words, you don't need to set up the sales solution for each sale, as Hotmart does it for you.

To prevent the sale from being lost, our system will create a new transaction to charge the Buyer's monthly amounts in the form of recurrences.

Know that the Automatic Sales Recovery is free of extra costs, and there are two ways to use it.

In the first method, the Automatic Sales Recovery is enabled without the Producer needing to take any action. This happens for most producers, for all new products created on Hotmart.

If this automatic enabling hasn't occurred, the second way to use it is manual enabling. This is done by the Producer at the time of creating a one-time billing product or when creating a new price for an existing product.

After configuring it, it will work automatically and always, at the moment the customer tries to make the installment purchase and a payment problem is identified.

Automatic Recovery Attempt Ended

Here, we inform you how many subscriptions have ended the process of attempting automatic payment recovery without successful recovery.

Cancellations

In this section, we help you understand the subscription cancellation rate. It's essential for evaluating the health and profitability of your business. This metric considers users who have had their subscriptions canceled. A high cancellation rate can indicate issues with the value offering, content attractiveness, retention strategy, general market problems, or other areas of your service. On the other hand, a low cancellation rate indicates higher retention and a greater potential for recurring revenue.

By conducting these analyses and gaining insights into the monthly subscription cancellation rate, you'll be better prepared to take actions aimed at reducing the cancellation rate, increasing subscriber retention, and consequently improving the profitability of your business.

We have three types of cancellation statuses:

• Cancelled by the customer: Subscriptions canceled by the buyer.
• Cancelled by the vendor: Subscriptions changed to this status directly by the producer.
• Cancelled by the administrator: Subscriptions canceled by the Hotmart Support Team when irregularities are identified.

Suggested Analyses:

• Cancellation reasons: Identifying the reasons subscribers are canceling their subscriptions is essential to reduce the cancellation rate. Conduct surveys or analyze subscriber feedback to identify the main factors contributing to cancellations. It could be lack of interest in content, payment difficulties, usability problems, or any other relevant aspect. Understanding these reasons will allow you to take specific and targeted corrective measures.

• Analysis by subscription period: Evaluating the cancellation rate over time can reveal patterns and behaviors. For example, it's possible to identify if cancellations are more frequent at the start of the subscription or after a certain period. This analysis helps identify potential improvements in the initial subscriber experience or create strategies to increase loyalty over time.

• Comparison between subscriber segments: By segmenting your subscriber base and comparing the cancellation rate among different segments, you can identify which groups have a higher or lower propensity for cancellation. For example, you might discover that subscribers of a certain age range or with a specific interest have a lower cancellation rate. This information allows you to direct retention efforts and personalize strategies for each segment. Remember that to access certain user information, you need to request it at checkout.

• Improvement tracking: When making enhancements to the content, platform, or other aspects of your service, it's crucial to monitor the impact of these changes on the cancellation rate. Compare the cancellation rate before and after the improvements to evaluate the effectiveness of the actions taken. This will enable you to identify which improvements have a positive impact on subscriber retention.

• Analysis of churn rate in relation to the customer lifecycle: By examining the cancellation rate in relation to the customer lifecycle, you can pinpoint critical moments when subscribers are more likely to cancel their subscriptions. For instance, you can observe whether there is an increase in cancellations after the free trial period or during specific months of the year. This analysis allows you to devise specific strategies to enhance retention during these periods.