---
title: "MRR by acquisition channel report | Cometly Academy"
description: "Trial counts and signup numbers don’t pay the bills — MRR does. This report rolls every paying customer up to the channel that acquired them and shows MRR added per source over time. It’s the headline number for PLG founders and CFOs because it links ad spend directly to the line on the income statement."
source: "https://www.cometly.com/academy/mrr-by-acquisition-channel"
---

# MRR by acquisition channel report

Stop reporting on signup volume. Start reporting on dollars added.

- Module 03: Product-Led Growth Reports
- Lesson: 3.8
- Track: PLG
- Format: Report
- Read time: 7 min

Trial counts and signup numbers don’t pay the bills — MRR does. This report rolls every paying customer up to the channel that acquired them and shows MRR added per source over time. It’s the headline number for PLG founders and CFOs because it links ad spend directly to the line on the income statement.

## Key takeaways

- Use the New Customer event with gross-revenue (MRR) as the value parameter
- Group by Source and time-bucket by month for a clean MoM trend
- Pair with churn data from Stripe to see net-MRR added per channel
- Compare against ad spend in the same period for a simple MRR / spend efficiency ratio
- Surface this report on the executive dashboard so attribution stops feeling theoretical

MRR by acquisition channel is the report that finally connects marketing’s work to the revenue line in the financial model. It’s the headline most founders want, and the most direct answer to 'is paid acquisition working?'

## Why it matters

Counting trials, signups, or even new customers as a marketing KPI hides the part that matters: dollar value added. A channel can deliver 1000 free signups and zero MRR, or 10 enterprise trials and $50k of new MRR. The MRR-by-channel report makes that distinction unambiguous.

## Building the report

Use the New Customer event with the first-month MRR (or expected first-month MRR) as the value parameter. Group rows by Source and time-bucket the report by month. Add a column for cumulative MRR contribution and another for cumulative spend per source.

The simplest headline metric is MRR Added ÷ Spend by source — a unit-less ratio that tells you how many dollars of new MRR each dollar of ad spend produced. Most healthy paid channels show 0.3–0.7 in their first month and 1.5–3x by year 1.

- Rows: Source
- Columns: New Customers, MRR Added, Spend, MRR / Spend ratio, Net-MRR (after churn)
- Time bucket: monthly
- Compare MoM trends and surface the MRR/spend ratio as the headline

## Pairing with churn

MRR added is only half the picture. To get net MRR added per channel, subtract the MRR lost from customers who churned that month — preferably attributed back to their original acquisition channel.

Channels with high MRR added but high early churn are often misaligned audiences. Channels with lower MRR added but very low churn are usually high-fit channels worth scaling cautiously.

## Common pitfalls

### Ignoring churn

Gross MRR added is misleading. Pair with churn for a net view, especially when comparing across channels.

### Mixing one-time and recurring revenue

Setup fees and one-time payments shouldn’t flow into MRR. Filter them out at the event level.

### Reporting only on monthly snapshots

MRR is volatile month-to-month. Use a 3-month trailing average for trend analysis.