Getting Started
Migration Guide
Setup
- Influencer Marketing: How do I create and use Workspaces?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I connect my Instagram account?
- Influencer Marketing: Organization Default Settings Overview
- Influencer Marketing: General Settings Overview
- Influencer Marketing: How do I manage users and user permissions?
- Influencer Marketing: Single Sign-on
Users
Profiles
- Influencer Marketing: How can I search for Creators?
- Influencer Marketing: What information is contained in a Creator's Profile?
- Influencer Marketing: How should I use Topics they talk about section of a Creator Profile?
- Influencer Marketing: How should I use the Brand Fit Score for a Creator Profile?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I use Brand Safety when evaluating creators?
- Influencer Marketing: How should I use the Analytics section of a Creator Profile?
Campaigns
- Influencer Marketing: How do I create a Campaign?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I set up a Campaign?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I use Boolean logic for queries?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I add users to a campaign?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I manage user access in a campaign?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I add teams to a campaign?
Creators
- Influencer Marketing: What is Sprout Social Creator Hub?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I make a Creator Hub account?
- Influencer Marketing: How can I change a creator's email?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I use Creator Flow?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I manage and monitor creator connections?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I use Review in the Creator View?
TikTok Creator Marketplace
- Influencer Marketing: What are the benefits of using TikTok Branded Content?
- Influencer Marketing: How can creators create TikTok Branded Content using TikTok One?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I connect my TikTok One account?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I boost TikTok posts with Spark Ads?
- Influencer Marketing: How does a creator accept a Spark Ads Request?
- Influencer Marketing: What if a creator isn't part of the TikTok Creator Marketplace?
Reports
- Influencer Marketing: How do I create a Report?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I create a new Custom Report?
- Influencer Marketing: What’s included in a Report?
- Influencer Marketing: What are the components of a Report?
- Influencer Marketing: Report settings
- Influencer Marketing: How do I view estimated fees in Reports?
One-Sheet Builder
- Influencer Marketing: How do I create a One-Sheet Builder?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I use the Profile One-Sheet Builder?
- Influencer Marketing: What’s included in a One-Sheet?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I create a Custom Field?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I customize EMV?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I use Link Tracking?
Integrations
- Influencer Marketing: How do I boost Instagram posts with Partnership Ads?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I use the Meta Partnership API to request permissions?
- Influencer Marketing: What integrations are available?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I connect my Dropbox Sign account?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I activate and use Affiliate Marketing?
- Influencer Marketing: Getting Started with TUNE
Influencer Marketing FAQs
- Influencer Marketing: How is data collected?
- Influencer Marketing: How can I verify if a creator's profile is authenticated?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I hire creators in bulk?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I customize email footers and signatures?
- Influencer Marketing: How do I customize the Collaborator Portal?
- Influencer Marketing Creators: Can I share access to Profiles?
Influencer Marketing: How to Track Creator Retention & Brand Ambassadors in Reports
Table of Contents
Measuring how consistently creators post about your brand—or your competitors—over time is essential for identifying long-term brand advocates, spotting churn, and building sustainable ambassador programs.
In Sprout Social Influencer Marketing, the Retention Component within Custom Reports lets you run cohort analyses on creator posting behavior. This guide covers how to set up the Retention component, practical use cases for ambassador tracking, and how each calculation mode works.
Key Use Cases
Identify True Brand Ambassadors: Pinpoint creators who consistently mention your brand month-over-month versus those who only post one-off sponsored deliverables.
Analyze Competitor Loyalty: Track whether creators mentioning competitor handles or campaign hashtags stay loyal to them over time or become open to outreach.
Measure Creator Churn & Reactivation: Discover when long-term partners stop posting about your brand so your team can re-engage them.
Track Topic & Hashtag Consistency: Evaluate creators who repeatedly post within specific niches, product categories, or industry trends over custom timeframes.
How to Add and Configure the Retention Component
Navigate to Reports from the left navigation bar.
Open an existing Custom Report or click + Create Report.
Click + Add Component in your report canvas.
Select Retention from the component library.
Configure your analysis parameters in the right-hand settings panel:
Intervals: Choose the cadence (Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly) or create custom date ranges for each cohort column.
Rows (Entities to Track): Select the dimension to evaluate (e.g., Mentioned Profiles for brand handles, Keyword Groups for campaign hashtags, or Content Types).
Values (Metrics to Display): Select the cohort metric to display in the grid:
Retention: Number of creators from the initial cohort who continued posting in subsequent periods.
Lost: Number of creators who posted in an earlier period but stopped posting.
New: Number of creators posting for the first time in that specific period.
New to File: Total unique creators who have posted up to and including that period.
Select your Calculation Mode (On, On or After, or Funnel—see details below).
Click Save to generate the retention matrix.
Understanding Retention Calculation Modes
The Retention component supports three distinct calculation modes to fit different reporting questions:
1. On (Exact Interval Posting)
How it works: Measures creators who posted in the initial baseline interval and also posted specifically during the selected subsequent interval.
Best used for: Measuring strict, month-over-month posting consistency (e.g., identifying creators who post every single month without missing a cycle).
Example: If a creator posted in January and March, but not in February, they will show as retained in March under
Onmode because they published content in that specific month.
2. On or After (Activity Window Retention)
How it works: Measures creators who posted in the initial baseline interval and posted at least once in that interval or any interval after it.
Best used for: Tracking overall creator lifetime and ongoing brand affinity over extended campaign flights.
Example: If an initial cohort of 100 creators posted in Q1, and 45 of them posted at any point during Q2, Q3, or Q4, the matrix shows the decaying curve of overall active creator relationships.
3. On and Before / Funnel (Continuous Retention)
How it works: Measures creators who posted in the initial interval and posted continuously in every single preceding interval up to that point.
Best used for: True ambassador loyalty funnels. The moment a creator misses an interval, they drop out of the cohort permanently.
Example: If a creator posts in January and March, but misses February, they are excluded from March retention because their continuous monthly posting streak was broken.
Configuration Matrix Summary
Setting | Options | What it Measures |
|---|---|---|
Cadence | Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Custom Ranges | Defines the time intervals across the columns of the cohort table. |
Tracked Rows | Mentioned Profiles, Keyword Groups, Content Types | The brand handles, hashtags, or formats you want to evaluate. |
Values | Retention, Lost, New, New to File | Determines the numerical values and percentages displayed inside the cohort cells. |
Calculation |
| Controls whether retention requires continuous posting or periodic activity. |
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What data source powers the Retention component?
The Retention component calculates data from Signals and public post listening connected to your report's underlying query (including tracked social profiles, brand mentions, and campaign keywords).
Can I click into a cohort cell to see the specific creators?
Yes. Clicking on any number within the retention grid opens a filtered creator list showing the exact handles, profiles, and post links that make up that cohort data point.
What is the difference between "New" and "New to File"?
New: The count of unique creators who published a matching post during that specific interval who did not post in the immediately preceding interval.
New to File: The cumulative sum of all distinct creators who have posted matching content since the start of your report tracking window.
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