How to use Amplitude to track user retention and churn for B2B platforms

If you run a B2B platform, you know that keeping customers around is the real battle. Churn hurts, retention pays the bills, and gut feelings don't cut it—you need hard numbers. That’s where Amplitude comes in. But, honestly, most guides talk in circles about “insights” and “engagement,” and don’t show you how to actually set things up for B2B realities.

This is for product managers, growth folks, or anyone who wants a straight answer on tracking user retention and churn in Amplitude—without getting lost in vanity metrics or endless dashboards.

Let’s get to it.

1. Get Your Tracking Basics Right (Don’t Skip This)

Before you even open Amplitude, you need clean, reliable data. Garbage in, garbage out. For B2B platforms, this usually means:

Tracking both users and accounts (companies): In B2B, “retention” at the user level can be misleading. One user churning from Acme Corp doesn’t mean you lost Acme as a customer. So you need to track both.
Unique IDs: Assign persistent, unique IDs for both users and accounts. Don’t rely on email addresses or anything that can change.
Key events: Decide what “active” actually means. Is it logging in? Uploading a file? Completing a transaction? Be specific, and don’t overcomplicate it.

Pro tip: In Amplitude, you’ll want to send both user_id (for the person) and a custom property like account_id (for the company) with every event.

What to ignore: Don’t try to track every possible event “just in case.” More isn’t better—more is confusing.

2. Set Up Amplitude for B2B (Not Just B2C)

Amplitude’s default setup, docs, and templates are geared toward B2C. For B2B, you’ll need to tweak a few things.

Configure account-level properties

When sending events, always include an account_id property.
Store account-level info (plan type, signup date, industry, etc.) as user properties, but scoped to the account_id.

Create account-level cohorts

In Amplitude, you can define cohorts (groups of users/accounts) using properties.
For B2B, you’ll want cohorts like:
All users in a given company
All accounts on a particular plan
Accounts created within the last 90 days

Why it matters: Tracking retention at the user level might show high churn simply because individual users come and go. Account-level retention is what matters for revenue.

3. Define Retention and Churn (No, They’re Not Opposites)

Before you build dashboards, get clear on what you’re measuring.

Retention: The percentage of users/accounts who return and perform a key action over a specific period.
Churn: The percentage who stop coming back or performing that action.

Don’t just use the default “login” event. For most B2B products, logging in isn’t the best sign of engagement. Pick something tied to real value.

Examples: - For a project management tool: “Created a task” or “Commented on a task” - For a SaaS dashboard: “Exported a report” or “Invited a team member”

Set your definition in stone (for now) and communicate it with your team. You can always change it as you learn.

4. Instrument Your Events (And QA Like a Hawk)

Now that you know what matters, make sure your product is actually sending those events to Amplitude.

Use Amplitude’s SDKs (JavaScript, mobile, backend—whatever fits your stack).
Send your core “active” event with both user_id and account_id.
QA in a staging environment. Open Amplitude and check: are events coming through? Do properties look right?

Pro tip: Create a test account and run through all the key flows. You’ll catch mistakes before your data gets messy.

What to ignore: Don’t obsess over tracking every button click or field change. Focus on the actions that drive value and revenue.

5. Set Up Retention and Churn Charts in Amplitude

Here’s where most teams get tripped up: dashboards look shiny, but they’re set up wrong. Follow these steps for reliable numbers.

A. User-level retention

In Amplitude, go to “Analysis” → “Retention.”
Set your “starting event” as your core engagement action (not just “login”).
Set your “return event” as the same.
Choose the time window (weekly usually makes sense for B2B).
Filter by account properties if you want (e.g., “only paid accounts”).

B. Account-level retention

Amplitude doesn’t do account retention out of the box, but you can hack it:

Create a user cohort for each account (or use the “account_id” property to group).
Export user-level data and aggregate by account_id outside Amplitude, or use Amplitude’s advanced features (like custom user segments) if you’re on a higher plan.
Plot “accounts with at least one active user in a given week.”

C. Churn

Invert your retention numbers: churn = 1 - retention.
Or, set up a funnel where “Step 1” is “Did activity last week” and “Step 2” is “Did not do activity this week.”

Warning: Don’t trust “churn” dashboards that only look at users who haven’t logged in for X days. For B2B, an account might be “inactive” but not churned (they could come back, or billing hasn’t lapsed). Align with your business rules.

6. Build Cohorts to Track the Right Segments

Don’t just look at overall retention. The real insight comes from breaking things down:

By account size: Are small companies churning faster than large ones?
By plan type: Are free users sticking around? Are paid users getting value?
By onboarding status: Do accounts that complete onboarding retain better?

In Amplitude, set up cohorts for each segment. Compare retention curves side by side.

What to ignore: Don’t chase every possible segment. Start with the big, obvious ones. You can always slice deeper later.

7. Set Up Alerts and Reports (But Don’t Overdo It)

Amplitude can send you alerts if retention drops or churn spikes.
Set up weekly (not daily) reports—B2B usage is spiky, and daily data will just make you anxious for no reason.
Share dashboards with your team, but don’t get stuck in “dashboard land.” Use data to ask questions, not just to stare at charts.

8. What Works, What Doesn’t, and Where to Be Skeptical

What works: - Tracking both user and account retention gives you a real picture of customer health. - Focusing on key actions, not just logins, highlights genuine engagement. - Comparing cohorts (by plan, onboarding, etc.) actually uncovers problems you can fix.

What doesn’t: - Relying only on default Amplitude settings—B2B needs customization. - Drowning in metrics. Pick a handful and stick to them. - Measuring churn as “no login for 30 days” (too simplistic for B2B).

Be skeptical of: - Fancy “machine learning” churn predictions unless you have years of clean data (spoiler: you probably don’t). - Retention numbers that look great but don’t match revenue churn. Always sanity-check.

9. Keep It Simple, Review Often

Setting up Amplitude for B2B retention and churn tracking isn’t rocket science, but it does take some upfront thinking. Don’t get paralyzed by all the options. Get the basics right, check your data, and start tracking what matters.

Iterate as you learn more—your definitions and dashboards will change as your product grows. And don’t forget: the goal isn’t to have perfect dashboards, it’s to spot problems (and wins) faster so you can actually do something about them.

Keep it simple. Stay curious. Don’t let your data get dusty.