Bubble Chart
A scatter chart that also knows what each dot is worth. A bubble chart is a scatter chart with a third measure encoded as the area of each point. Two positional dimensions, one size dimension.
| Engagement score | Churn risk (%) | Annual contract value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northwind Systems | 14 | 86 | 148000 |
| Halcyon Group | 71 | 74 | 96000 |
| Vertex Labs | 26 | 68 | 122000 |
| Bright Harbor | 82 | 63 | 74000 |
| Kestrel Co | 34 | 57 | 41000 |
| Lumen Retail | 19 | 78 | 28000 |
| Ardent Media | 58 | 44 | 36000 |
| Pinecrest | 44 | 39 | 19000 |
| Meridian Health | 76 | 24 | 88000 |
| Foxglove Inc | 88 | 16 | 54000 |
| Tidewater | 63 | 21 | 23000 |
| Aster Digital | 91 | 12 | 31000 |
| Quill & Co | 51 | 33 | 12000 |
| Basalt Ltd | 38 | 47 | 16000 |
Four accounts account for more revenue-at-risk than the other sixty at-risk accounts combined.
Handle those four as named account reviews; automate the long tail.
What is a bubble chart?
A bubble chart is a scatter chart with a third measure encoded as the area of each point. Two positional dimensions, one size dimension.
Why is a bubble chart useful?
Risk without value is a to-do list in the wrong order. Sizing each account by revenue turns 'which accounts are at risk' into 'which risk is expensive', which is the question that actually decides where a team spends its week.
How RetainCLM uses it
Plot engagement against churn risk and size each bubble by annual contract value. The big bubble in the high-risk region outranks a dozen small ones next to it.
The chart above is drawn from illustrative demo data chosen to make the visualization legible. It does not describe real RetainCLM customers. On a live account the same chart is drawn from your own customer, usage, billing and support data.
How to read it
Size must be encoded by area, not by radius - doubling a radius quadruples the area and quadruples the apparent value. Always include a size legend.
Limitations to keep in mind
People judge area far less accurately than length, so bubble size communicates rank and rough magnitude, never precise value. Large bubbles also occlude small ones.
Related concepts
A bubble chart is most useful alongside revenue retention, churn prediction, customer intelligence. RetainCLM builds these views on one unified customer record, so a pattern you notice in one visualization can be followed into the next without exporting anything.
Questions about the bubble chart
What is a bubble chart?
A scatter chart with a third variable mapped to point area, letting you show two positional measures and one magnitude measure on the same plot.
Why is bubble size encoded by area rather than radius?
Because the eye reads area. Mapping the value to radius makes the perceived difference the square of the real one, exaggerating large values dramatically.
Related visualizations
See a bubble chart built on your customers
Book a demo and we will build this chart, and the rest of the library, against your own retention and revenue data.
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