Your product is \u201cadopted\u201d when a user starts using your product to accomplish their goals.<\/p>\n
You need to ensure customer success so that they become loyal, long-term users and, preferably, advocates.<\/p>\n
What are the key product adoption metrics?<\/h2>\n
You can\u2019t have a great product adoption strategy<\/a> without tracking the right metrics to measure multiple aspects of adoption.<\/p>\n Here are the key product adoption metrics<\/a> that set adoption apart from engagement.<\/p>\n Time to value<\/a> is the time a user takes to realize the expected value of your product. It measures the time taken by a user to reach the activation point.<\/p>\n Thus, reducing the time to value is critical to ensuring that users find value as soon as possible.<\/p>\n A long TTV will likely lead to low trial conversion rates<\/a> since users are having difficulty experiencing value. This means that users won\u2019t move forward in their product adoption process<\/a>.<\/p>\n On the other hand, a short time to value suggests low friction in the journey, which creates an easier and faster route to finding value. The shorter the TTV, the greater the customer success and the lower the churn.<\/p>\n When we analyzed time-to-value across SaaS products, we found that high-performing teams deliver first value in roughly 1.5 days on average. Anything significantly longer increases the risk that users disengage before adoption ever begins.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re using Userpilot<\/a>, you can measure time to value by setting up an activation funnel with your key activation events as steps.<\/p>\n And you can easily spot friction that slows down time to value from there.<\/p>\n Activation occurs when new users perform specific key actions inside your product that make them experience its value. The user activation rate gives the percentage of users who reach the activation point.<\/p>\n At first, you need to define the in-app events<\/a> users need to complete to benefit from the product and activate it. Then, count how many users have performed these events in a given period.<\/p>\n To calculate the activation rate, divide the number of users who reached the activation point\/milestone by the number of users who signed up, then multiply the ratio by 100.<\/p>\n In our SaaS product metrics benchmark<\/a> research, we found that the average\u00a0activation rate\u00a0across SaaS products is ~37%. It means nearly two-thirds of users never reach a meaningful first value moment. This shows a strong signal that adoption problems usually start in onboarding, not engagement.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve seen this with Amplemarket<\/strong>, where the team used Userpilot to create in-app experiences that helped users reach key product value earlier. As a result, they increased feature adoption by 5\u201310\u00d7<\/a>, reinforcing that activation challenges are mostly rooted in onboarding.<\/p>\n As their product manager put it:<\/p>\n \u201cWhenever I add a nudge to a new feature, it boosts adoption by 5x, even 10x.\u201d \u2014 Awni Shamah, Staff Product Manager at Amplemarket<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n As customers move along their adoption journey, they adopt more and more features relevant to their use case. This is a critical factor in converting existing users from basic to power users.<\/p>\n You can measure the feature adoption<\/a> rate by dividing the number of monthly active users of a feature by the number of user logins in a specific period and multiplying the result by 100.<\/p>\n Along with other feature adoption<\/a> analytics, tracking the feature adoption rate helps you make informed decisions about your product adoption strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n This ultimately helps you build a set of experiences for improving user adoption where and to whom it matters most. For example, think of demo offers for new users with a low adoption rate.<\/p>\n User engagement<\/a> is the quality and frequency of your users\u2019 interactions with your product. It reflects the relationship your customers have with your brand.<\/p>\n User engagement varies based on the type of business and product. For SaaS businesses, user engagement differs according to the stage of the user journey a user is in.<\/p>\n As customers move further down the journey, it suggests they have meaningful experiences with your product that turn them into loyal users.<\/p>\n User engagement metrics<\/a> are the data points you can measure depending on individual user behavior and interactions.<\/p>\n To understand user behavior, product analytics tools<\/a> like Userpilot, user interviews, and session replays can help you see patterns in engagement.<\/p>\n So, let\u2019s go over the common engagement metrics to track:<\/p>\n Active users are one of the important engagement metrics<\/a> to measure. It is the number of users who regularly interact with your product within a specific time frame. It indicates the level of ongoing engagement and product usage<\/a>.<\/p>\n For example, if you see a decrease in the number of active users, it means something is not working. In this case, you should cross-check with user feedback<\/a> and user behavior analysis<\/a> to improve user engagement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Product managers typically track 3 types of active users:<\/p>\n With Userpilot, you can track DAU, WAU, and MAU out of the box in the analytics dashboard. Our interface shows engagement counts and trends over time so you can spot dips or growth at a glance.<\/p>\n We\u2019re also working on an AI agent that will automatically highlight unusual changes in these metrics and explain what\u2019s likely causing them. If you want early access, join our beta<\/a>!<\/p>\n The more customers are engaged with your product, the longer they\u2019ll stick around. This can be measured by the product stickiness<\/strong><\/a> ratio.<\/p>\n To calculate it, simply divide the number of daily active users (DAUs) by the number of monthly active users (MAUs).<\/p>\n To find the DAUs and MAUs, the total number of logins won\u2019t be able to shed much light on user engagement since many users can get frustrated by something after logging in and then leaving the app.<\/p>\n Instead of logins, you should look at whether users interact with core actions and how that changes over time.<\/p>\n With Userpilot\u2019s autocapture<\/a>, you can track user behavior and collect this interaction data automatically from day one.<\/p>\n You can then use such data to view engagement trends in the dashboard and break them down by plan to understand what\u2019s driving changes.<\/p>\n The overall goal should be to maintain a stickiness ratio of 1, meaning everyone is an active user who gets value all day, every day. Conversely, for a complex product, a ratio as low as 0.4 may be acceptable since users won\u2019t want to engage every day.<\/p>\n The customer engagement score<\/a> (CES) tells you about how your new and existing customers are engaging with your product. The greater the score, the higher the user satisfaction and engagement.<\/p>\n First, you need to fix specific engagement events to track, such as key features customers engage with (or not) and the frequency of product usage. The events you select should be based on the type of your product.<\/p>\n Then assign an engagement score to each event on a scale of 1-10, depending on its importance to your product and the user personas. Find the total event value by multiplying this score by the number of times the event took place in the past x days.<\/p>\n The CES is the summation of all the total event values.<\/p>\n Furthermore, you can track feature engagement<\/a> to dig deeper into user engagement as well as focus on the specific issues that affect your overall product adoption.<\/p>\n As previously mentioned, you can track feature engagement with our autocapture capability. And of course, code-free!<\/p>\n Disengaged customers are the most likely to churn, which makes it crucial for you to track and reduce churn<\/a>. It\u2019s impossible to reach zero churns, but you can lower it to a point where your revenue exceeds the amount you lose from cancellations.<\/p>\n Customer churn<\/a> rate is the percentage of users who leave your product over a specific period. It\u2019s equal to the number of customers lost during the period by the number of customers at the beginning of the period, multiplied by 100.<\/p>\n Churn is on the flip side of retention. The lower your churn, the better you are at retaining power users. According to Harvard Business Review, increasing the retention rate by 5%<\/a> can boost your profitability up to 95%!<\/p>\n You can use in-app churn surveys<\/a> to collect user feedback upon cancellation and take steps to address the issues.<\/p>\n Moreover, you can suggest alternatives to churning, such as pausing their account while you make a product improvement.<\/p>\n In our research across 547 SaaS products<\/a>, we\u2019ve seen that teams often track engagement early, but struggle to understand whether users are actually progressing toward value. This gap is what makes adoption and engagement easy to mix up and hard to act on.<\/p>\n While measuring engagement is similar to measuring adoption, the latter gives the percentage of key features your customers are using. Customers can be highly engaged by only using a few features, but the adoption metrics let you know the number of unique features in use.<\/p>\n Adoption may be a consequence of engagement. As users engage more with your product and find its features useful, they\u2019re likely to choose to subscribe to your business and adopt your product.<\/p>\n Now, let\u2019s see how you can get more of your users to adopt your product. Here are two tips for you:<\/p>\n Interactive walkthroughs<\/a> are powerful tools for user onboarding<\/a> for both web and mobile applications. The initial activation won\u2019t make your users adopt all the features of your product.<\/p>\n This is where secondary onboarding<\/a> comes in to familiarize your users with relevant secondary features and drive adoption.<\/p>\n Unlike product tours<\/a> that pour down too much information in one go, interactive walkthroughs capture users\u2019 attention by encouraging them to learn by doing.<\/p>\n Be it for a new feature or an existing one, you can offer walkthroughs contextually so that customers can educate themselves on the feature right when they need it.<\/p>\n Below is an example of Kommunicate\u2019s interactive walkthrough that provides a step-by-step guide on chat widget styling.<\/p>\n In-app self-service support<\/a> allows users to solve their own issues, especially the frequently occurring ones. Thus, they don\u2019t have to wait around for your support team to be available.<\/p>\n It’s a great tool to enhance customer support.<\/p>\n Users are less likely to get frustrated in their process of learning how to use your product and reach activation points. As the resolution time decreases, users can quickly perform all the actions needed to find value and activate.<\/p>\n Knowledge bases<\/a> and help centers<\/a> work best when it comes to providing self-service support. Here\u2019s an example of Userpilot\u2019s resource center with elements like FAQs and open chat options.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s move on to how your customer success team can make your product highly engaging<\/a> for customers.<\/p>\n Greet each user with a personalized onboarding<\/a> experience right after they sign up for your product. Welcome screens<\/a> aren\u2019t just for greeting, though.<\/p>\n Welcome screens help you create a good first impression by not only introducing your product but also setting the right expectations.<\/p>\n You can include a microsurvey<\/a> in the welcome screen asking for users\u2019 information, such as user role, jobs to be done, etc. Such data can be used for personalization or segmentation to trigger relevant in-app experiences<\/a>. You can easily create one without coding using Userpilot.<\/p>\n When onboarding users, add more excitement to the experience by introducing gamification<\/a>.<\/p>\n A gamification strategy<\/a> involves using a \u201creward\u201d as an incentive to encourage more of some desired behaviors. These rewards make the product experience<\/a> more fun, competitive, and thus, engaging.<\/p>\n The most widely used gamification elements are:<\/p>\n Moreover, gamification gives users a periodic reminder of how much closer they are to their goals, which serves as an inspiration to keep pushing forward. Users can freely choose to participate without you punishing them for failing to perform a task.<\/p>\n You can build this kind of experience with Userpilot. For example, at Groupize<\/a>, we helped the team deliver a gamified interactive assistant with checklists and a guided tour in their onboarding flow.<\/p>\n This reduced repetitive support questions and earned them a nomination for a Skift Idea Award.<\/p>\n Customers should engage with all important features they may need and experience value from them to drive both engagement and user adoption.<\/p>\n Tracking the right metrics is key to optimizing user engagement and picking out the right adoption strategies.<\/p>\n\n
1. Time to Value<\/h3>\n
![\"time](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/time-to-value-metric-userpilot.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"measure](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/measure-TTV-with-userpilot-scaled.png\")
<\/p>\n2. User activation rate<\/h3>\n
![\"activation](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/activation-rate-userpilot.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Amplemarket-tooltip\"](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Amplemarket-tooltip.png\")
<\/p>\n3. Feature adoption rate<\/h3>\n
What is user engagement in SaaS?<\/h2>\n
What are the key user engagement metrics?<\/h2>\n
![\"userpilot](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/userpilot-session-replay-scaled.png\")
<\/p>\n\n
1. Active users<\/h3>\n
\n
![\"product](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/product-usage-dashboard-userpilot-scaled.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"userpilot](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/userpilot-ai-agent_69e4c089ab0c062cdc0cbd25e07d50a8_800.jpg\")
<\/p>\n2. Product stickiness<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"autocaptured](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/autocaptured-events-in-userpilot-scaled.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"userpilot](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/userpilot-trend-analysis-scaled.png\")
<\/p>\n3. Customer engagement score<\/strong><\/h3>\n
4. Customer churn rate<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"churn](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/churn-survey-userpilot-scaled.png\")
<\/p>\nEngagement vs adoption: What\u2019s the difference?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Tips to improve product adoption<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n
Use interactive walkthroughs to drive user adoption<\/h3>\n
![\"interactive-walkthroughs.gif\"](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/interactive-walkthrough-activation-metrics_f6c89473df444c99321e4a25550cd065.gif\")
Offer in-app self-service support to help users reach activation points effectively<\/h3>\n
![\"Userpilot-resource-center.png\"](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/file-xG6cyoqsre.gif\")
Tips to improve user engagement<\/h2>\n
\n
Use welcome surveys to personalize the onboarding experience<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/welcome-survey-2.png\")
<\/p>\nUse gamification to increase user engagement score<\/h3>\n
\n
![\"groupize](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/groupie-gg_2217d90c75b892dccdd14d870a4e47c4_800.png\")
<\/p>\nConclusion<\/h2>\n