Your First 3 Months Using Klaviyo Marketing Analytics - Klaviyo
2026-03-10 19:14 Diff
https://www.klaviyo.com/blog/first-3-months-using-klaviyo-marketing-analytics

Let’s cut to the chase: if you’re in the direct-to-consumer business, you’re also in the customer relationship management business. Either that, or you’re just a transactional business selling a commodity.

If you identify as the latter, then you’re competing with Amazon, or you will be once they decide to enter your category.

I’ve been working with Klaviyo Marketing Analytics since its inception, and I can’t emphasize this enough: it’s not just another feature. It’s the tool that can take you from acting like a transactional brand to a B2C CRM brand.

Stop guessing and let data guide your decisions. The brands I work with that adopt Marketing Analytics hit growth goals faster than they thought possible, because it’s precise data that’s guiding their strategy.

I sat down with some other marketing leaders to put together a week-by-week roadmap on how to make the most of your first 12 weeks on Marketing Analytics.

Whether you’re just getting started with Klaviyo’s analytics tools or you want to expand your use of advanced reports and predictive insights, this calendar gives you the structure and documentation you need to level up.

Each week focuses on one key initiative to keep your team moving without overwhelm.

Let’s dive in.

Week 1: Set your foundation

Before diving into the actual analytics, you’ll need a strong foundation of metric tracking and segmentation. Start here:

  • Confirm metric mapping (and remember, it must include a revenue metric).
  • Use “Group change over time” in “Customer insights” to see exactly where your biggest retention opportunities and threats are. This shows you right away whether customers are moving toward loyalty or drifting away.
  • Stop throwing darts at the wall or scrolling LinkedIn for inspiration. The answers to your marketing questions are already in your database. Marketing Analytics tells you where to focus.
  • Choose conversion metrics for your RFM settings.
  • Enable anonymous visitor tracking to help capture shoppers’ onsite engagement before they subscribe.
  • Enable extended ID to make sure you’re compliant in your subscriber tracking.
  • Create RFM segments so your marketing can be ultra-personalized.

These steps unlock segmentation based on behavior and customer value, which makes the rest of your analytics work more meaningful.

Week 2: Cross-sell smarter with product exclusions

This week is all about product-specific personalization. Exclude irrelevant or low-priority products from product analysis.

For the first two weeks, focus on the fastest lever for ROI: the Next best product flow, which you’ll find in your product analysis dashboard.

“The Next best product flow uses Klaviyo AI to predict the next best purchase date, and best next product profiles in Klaviyo,” says Ashley Ismailovski, email marketing director at SmartSites, a digital marketing agency based in NYC. “This creates the personalized shopping experience that shoppers have come to expect.”

Here’s how it works:

  • Set up a flow triggered by the “best cross-sell date”.
  • Use your new, dynamic product block to recommend the “next best product” to every customer.
  • Launch the flow.

Week 3: Build your retention flows

Retaining repeat purchasers is another lever for long-term growth.

This week, create a repeat purchaser retention flow tailored to loyal shoppers who are at risk of churning.

This early flow helps keep your high-value customers coming back.

Looking for inspiration? See how Ruffwear used this strategy to prevent churn.

Now that your RFM segments are set up, put them to use outside of your owned channels. Use RFM groups to personalize paid campaigns based on your objective:

Objective

Custom audience

Find lookalikes to send messaging to.

Champions Loyal customers

Reactivate dormant customers.

At-risk Needs attention Inactive

Get a second sale from recent buyers.

Recent buyers

“Your champion customers are already showing you what great looks like,” says Liz Hayes, CRM specialist at MESHKI, a women’s apparel brand. “By building lookalike audiences off them, you’re essentially cloning your best shoppers and finding more of the right people instead of spending without that knowledge.”

Read how 2(X)IST used this strategy for more personalized remarketing and saw a 61% return in Facebook ad spend.

By building lookalike audiences off your champion customers, you’re essentially cloning your best shoppers and finding more of the right people.
Liz Hayes, CRM specialist

MESHKI

Week 5: Implement linear multi-touch attribution

This week, update your attribution strategy:

  • Add “Active on Site” as an attributable touchpoint so that your attribution captures a holistic view of performance, recognizing both Klaviyo-owned and non-Klaviyo channels.
  • Implement linear multi-touch attribution instead of last-click to understand when multiple touchpoints influence conversion.

“By shifting to linear attribution in Klaviyo, marketers gain a more balanced understanding of campaign performance,” explains Ismailovski. “It highlights the cumulative impact of every email or SMS, guiding smarter optimization across the entire customer journey.”

Use it to prove the value of upper-funnel efforts and plan spend accordingly.

By shifting to linear attribution in Klaviyo, marketers gain a more balanced understanding of campaign performance.
Ashley Ismailovski, email marketing director

SmartSites

Week 6: Launch your churn prevention flow

Identify shoppers at risk of leaving, and bring them back with thoughtful, proactive messaging.

“Marketing Analytics gives brands the ability to trigger flows when a customer has moved from one RFM group to another,” says Ismailovski. “You can use this to trigger flows when a customer is at risk of becoming inactive, and send them a timely email with an incentive to encourage them to return to your site to make a purchase.”

Learn how New West KnifeWorks earned 49% of Klaviyo revenue from repeat buyers in their first 6 months with Marketing Analytics.

Marketing Analytics gives brands the ability to trigger flows when a customer has moved from one RFM group to another.
Ashley Ismailovski, email marketing director

SmartSites

Week 7: Engage your champions

Reward your best customers with the attention they deserve.“Your champions are more than just repeat customers,” says Zac Fromson, co-founder of Lilo Social. “They’ll advocate for you when they feel genuinely valued. When you nurture these relationships, you’re not only increasing loyalty but also creating powerful brand ambassadors.”Here are a few ways to speak to them directly:

  • Build a nurture flow for RFM champions.
  • Add RFM splits to your existing post-purchase flows.
  • Consider splitting your messaging by RFM state and emotional context. For example, recent purchasers might get a message saying “Your journey has just started,” to help build enthusiasm and guide discovery. Champions may get a message saying “We designed this with you in mind,” to make them feel seen and validated.

You can also take this RFM targeting lesson in Klaviyo Academy to sharpen your approach.

Read how Cara Cara curates their messaging for Champions to drive conversions.

Week 8: Dig into funnel analysis

This is your week to find out what’s preventing shoppers from converting. Here’s how:

  • Use funnel analysis to explore drop-off points and uncover optimization opportunities.
  • Focus on a few key customer journeys to prioritize improvements.

“Funnel analysis isn’t just about charting drop-offs, but about interpreting the story behind them,” says Fromson. “Each point of friction represents a moment when the customer’s intent met resistance. But what might have caused this?”“By understanding those moments,” he says, “ you can design more intuitive pathways that don’t just recover lost sales, but elevate the entire customer experience.”

Check out this Klaviyo Academy lesson on getting started with funnel analysis.

Week 9: Focus your analysis on the right segments

Keep your reporting clean and actionable by:

  • Reviewing and cleaning up your starred segments.
  • Using the audience performance dashboard to evaluate segment performance and track customer lifetime value (CLV) by segment.
  • Pairing the audience performance dashboard with the conversion overview report for a deeper look at segment trends.

Week 10: Use cohort analysis to reveal long-term trends

Step back and zoom out.

  • You’ve been tracking repeat purchase rate since Week 2. Now, use cohort analysis to understand retention over time and identify which journeys lead to higher lifetime value.
  • Fine-tune messaging cadence at key lifecycle touchpoints to keep reaching your people.

“By zooming out with cohort analysis, you start to see patterns in customer behavior that aren’t visible day-to-day,” says Christian Nørbjerg Enger, co-founder and CPO at Segmento, a fast-growing full-service marketing agency based in Denmark. “Those insights let you design journeys that systematically improve retention by analyzing category and product trends that you can use in your flows.”

Read how Naturium used cohort analysis insights to strategize their loyalty program.

By zooming out with cohort analysis, you start to see patterns in customer behavior that aren’t visible day-to-day.
Christian Nørbjerg Enger, co-founder and CPO

Segmento

Week 11: Customize your metrics and lifetime value predictions

Fine-tune reporting to your business by:

  • Creating up to 50 custom metrics to define your business’s key performance indicators (KPIs), like recurring revenue, point of sale, or discounted revenue
  • Adjusting your custom CLV prediction window based on buying cycle length

This step ensures your reports are accurate and action-oriented.

Week 12: Reflect and optimize

Take a beat to:

  • Review everything you’ve implemented.
  • Identify what’s driving the most value.
  • Sunset what’s not working.
  • Plan your next experiment.

Analytics isn’t a one-time setup. It’s a muscle. You’ve built a strong one. And Klaviyo Marketing Analytics is the tool to use your data to become an intelligent CRM brand.

Schedule a call with A-Game Digital.

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