Signal Decay Window

Social listening data loses decision value at a measurable rate. A negative mention spike on a client's product launch is actionable for hours, not weeks; a competitor's pricing shift is actionable for days; a category trend is actionable for a quarter. The Signal Decay Window framework asks agencies to match review cadence to signal half-life, not to dashboard access. A monthly report on crisis-prone accounts is a liability, because by the time the client reads it the window has closed. Conversely, hourly monitoring on a stable B2B brand burns analyst hours with no decision attached. The commercial model should price the cadence the client actually needs: real-time escalation for launch weeks, weekly synthesis for reputation management, quarterly deep dives for market research. YouScan's visual detection and Exolyt's TikTok trend data illustrate how different sources carry different decay rates, and the retainer must reflect which windows the agency is contractually obligated to cover.