Net Promoter Score
A customer-loyalty index, from −100 to +100, based on how likely customers are to recommend a brand.
Definition
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a customer-loyalty metric — developed by Fred Reichheld with Bain & Company and Satmetrix and introduced in the 2003 Harvard Business Review article 'The One Number You Need to Grow' — that gauges loyalty from a single question: 'How likely is it that you would recommend [company/product] to a friend or colleague?' on a 0–10 scale. Respondents are grouped into Promoters (9–10), Passives (7–8), and Detractors (0–6), and the score is the percentage of Promoters minus the percentage of Detractors, yielding a number from −100 to +100.
Examples
100 responses: 60 promoters, 10 detractors, 30 passives → NPS = 60% − 10% = +50
A score above 0 is positive; above 50 is excellent; above 70 is world-class
A −20 NPS means detractors outnumber promoters and word-of-mouth is working against the brand
Calculation
How to Calculate
Survey customers with the single likelihood-to-recommend question (0–10). Calculate the percentage of Promoters (9–10) and the percentage of Detractors (0–6); Passives (7–8) are counted in the total but not in the subtraction. Subtract the Detractor percentage from the Promoter percentage. The result ranges from −100 (all detractors) to +100 (all promoters).
Formula
NPS = % Promoters − % DetractorsOperation Type
subtract
Formula Variables
Industry Benchmarks for Net Promoter Score
Typical performance ranges by industry segment. Benchmarks vary by platform, audience maturity, and attribution window — treat these as starting points, not targets.
All industries (median)
- Typical range
- Positive (>0); industry medians ~30–45
- Median
- ~42 (2025)
Benchmarks vary widely by sector; compare within your industry, not across. Interpretation bands (directional): >0 is good, >50 excellent, >70 world-class — trend over time matters more than a single absolute score. Bain finds NPS leaders grow at more than ~2x the rate of competitors over time.
Sources: Retently NPS Benchmarks 2025
Comparison
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How AdSights helps you track Net Promoter Score
Promoters are the engine of organic, word-of-mouth acquisition — and the stories they tell are the raw material of high-performing social proof creative. AdSights helps teams identify which testimonial angles, proof points, and customer narratives actually move ad performance, turning the loyalty that NPS measures into creative that compounds. It also surfaces when acquisition is attracting poor-fit customers likely to become detractors, before they erode the score.
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