Stickiness: Why It’s Important for User Engagement

Ever wondered how often your users come back to your service? That’s exactly what stickiness measures. It shows how “sticky” your service is—how essential and engaging it is to users. A sticky service keeps users coming back, and that’s the key to building a loyal audience.

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What is Stickiness? Breaking Down the Basics

Stickiness is calculated by comparing daily active users (DAU) to your weekly or monthly active users (WAU or MAU). Here’s a quick breakdown:

• DAU (Daily Active Users): The number of users who engage with your service in a single day.
• WAU (Weekly Active Users): Users who engage within a week.
• MAU (Monthly Active Users): Users who engage at least once in a month.

The formula is simple:

• Stickiness = DAU / MAU
• Stickiness = DAU / WAU

This tells you how many of your total active users are returning on a daily basis.

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Let’s See Stickiness in Action

Here’s how we calculate stickiness for January 28th using two different services:

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A Service

User	Jan 22	Jan 23	Jan 24	Jan 25	Jan 26	Jan 27	Jan 28
A	O
B		O
C			O
D				O
E					O
F						O
G							O

Data:

• DAU on January 28th: 1 (User G)
• WAU (January 22–28): 7 (Users A, B, C, D, E, F, G)
• Stickiness: 1/7=14%1 / 7 = 14\%1/7=14%

This means only 14% of A Service’s weekly users returned on January 28th. Not great—this might indicate low engagement.

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B Service

User	Jan 22	Jan 23	Jan 24	Jan 25	Jan 26	Jan 27	Jan 28
A	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
B	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
C	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
D	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
E	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
F	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
G	O	O	O	O	O	O	O

Data:

• DAU on January 28th: 7 (All users)
• WAU (January 22–28): 7
• Stickiness: 7/7=100%7 / 7 = 100\%7/7=100%

Here, every weekly user returned on January 28th. That’s a stickiness rate of 100%, showing strong user engagement.

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Real-World Example: Facebook Stickiness

The graph above shows Facebook’s DAU/MAU ratio over time. As you can see, Facebook’s stickiness improved steadily between 2010 and 2014. This means more users were engaging daily, making Facebook an integral part of their routines.

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What If Stickiness Is Low?

Let’s focus on the Asia region in the graph. Notice how stickiness is lower compared to other regions? That doesn’t necessarily mean the service is underperforming—it could be due to a high influx of new users.

 

When lots of new users sign up, the MAU increases, but many of them may not stick around, temporarily lowering stickiness. If this happens to your service, don’t panic! Analyze your new vs. returning user data to understand what’s happening.

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Why Stickiness Matters

For platforms like Facebook or Instagram, high stickiness is essential. These services rely on users engaging frequently, which increases ad exposure and boosts revenue. The same applies to e-commerce platforms selling daily essentials—users who visit often are more likely to convert.

 

Takeaway: Stickiness isn’t just about numbers; it reflects how valuable your service is to users. The more often they return, the more deeply integrated your service becomes in their lives.

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How to Improve Stickiness

If your stickiness is low, here are a few steps you can take:

1. Analyze Drop-Offs: Identify where users lose interest and improve those areas.
2. Encourage Regular Engagement: Use notifications, rewards, or new content to bring users back.
3. Segment Users: Compare new users vs. loyal users to understand behavior patterns.

Start tracking stickiness today, and use these insights to create a service that users can’t resist coming back to!