Started segmenting users by acquisition source last month and found something weird.
Organic users convert 40% better than paid but have terrible retention after day 7. Complete opposite of what I expected.
Anyone else seen patterns like this when they dug deeper into their data?
Check if your organic users are actually completing setup after converting. High conversion with bad retention usually means they’re hitting friction points you’re not tracking. Maybe they convert on a simple email signup but never finish onboarding. Paid users might convert less initially but they’re completing the full setup flow because your ads set proper expectations about what’s required.
Paid users know what they want from the start. They engaged with targeted ads.
Saw this exact pattern with a budgeting app I ran campaigns for. The organic users were coming from finance blogs and YouTube mentions - they’d sign up immediately but bounce within a week.
Turns out organic traffic quality varies wildly by source. When we dug deeper, organic users from specific finance forums had amazing retention, but the ones from general productivity content were terrible.
Paid users took longer to convert because our ads were more specific about the commitment needed. They knew it wasn’t a quick fix.
Try breaking down your organic sources further. You might find some channels deliver both high conversion AND retention while others are just vanity installs.
Your organic users might be impulse downloaders who found you through random searches or recommendations.
They convert fast because there’s no friction, but they don’t stick around because they weren’t actively looking for your solution. Paid users already showed intent by clicking your ads, so they stay longer even if conversion takes more work.
Organic users might just be browsing more than paid users