Each metric guide includes the definition, formula, benchmarks, and proven strategies to improve it. Pick the metric that matters most to your business right now.
Activation rate measures the percentage of new users who complete a key action that predicts long-term retention. This action varies by product - for Slack it's sending 2,000 messages, for Facebook it was adding 7 friends in 10 days.
Retention rate measures the percentage of users who continue using your product over a given time period. It's typically measured as day-1, day-7, day-30, or monthly retention.
Churn rate is the percentage of customers who stop using your product during a given period. It's the inverse of retention.
Conversion rate measures the percentage of visitors or users who complete a desired action - signing up, purchasing, upgrading, or any other goal. Different conversion rates exist for each stage of your funnel: visitor-to-signup, signup-to-activation, free-to-paid.
Customer lifetime value (CLV or LTV) is the total revenue a customer generates during their entire relationship with your business. It accounts for average revenue per period, gross margin, and how long customers stay.
Monthly recurring revenue (MRR) is the predictable revenue your business earns each month from active subscriptions. It's the heartbeat metric for subscription businesses.
Net promoter score (NPS) measures customer loyalty by asking 'How likely are you to recommend us to a friend?' on a 0-10 scale. Respondents are grouped as promoters (9-10), passives (7-8), and detractors (0-6).
Viral coefficient (K-factor) measures how many new users each existing user brings in. It combines the number of invitations sent per user with the conversion rate of those invitations.
Cost per acquisition (CPA or CAC) is how much you spend to acquire one new customer. It includes all sales and marketing costs divided by the number of new customers.
Free-to-paid conversion rate measures the percentage of free users who become paying customers. This applies to both freemium models (free tier with paid upgrades) and free trial models (time-limited full access).
Onboarding completion rate measures the percentage of new users who finish your onboarding flow - whether that's a setup wizard, tutorial sequence, or checklist. It's a leading indicator of activation.
Revenue per user (ARPU - average revenue per user) measures how much revenue each user generates on average, typically per month. For SaaS, this is average subscription revenue.
Golden Gecko helps you identify the right metric to move based on your current stage and goals.