Put simply, pirate metrics is a system for grouping and tracking metrics across different stages of the user journey: acquisition, activation, retention, referral, and revenue. In short- AARRR.<\/p>\n
The idea laid down a metrics framework that helps product marketers and managers define and measure their customer lifecycle stages and optimize their funnel for specific goals at each stage.<\/p>\n However, not all businesses need to follow McClure\u2019s AARRR framework in its original form.<\/p>\n Depending on your business nature and stage, you may be focusing on a different arrangement of AARRR metrics and the version of your funnel may also look different. But the basic AARRR stages will still be applicable.<\/p>\n As Dave McClure explained them, AARRR stands for:<\/p>\n These probably apply to most businesses nowadays, but the product-led SaaS business model is a little different, and so, Dave\u2019s pirate metrics framework needs to be adapted to suit the product-led funnel.<\/p>\n Product-led<\/a> SaaS businesses rely on the product as the primary driver of acquisition. Using a freemium or free trial model, users get to try and experience the value of the product before making a purchase decision.<\/p>\n Unlike the sales-led growth model where marketers hand signups over to sales for further nurturing, product-led growth involves marketers throughout the customer\u2019s lifecycle.<\/p>\n Yes, that includes the account expansion and retention stages<\/a>, not just acquisition.<\/p>\n Here’s how the customer lifecycle might look<\/a> in SaaS.<\/p>\n You will notice that things are a little different here which is why the original pirate metrics framework should be adapted to:<\/p>\n Almost the same, but not exactly. Let’s go over each stage in more detail.<\/p>\n The acquisition stage is the moment when the user decides to signup for a free trial or a demo of your product.<\/p>\n You can use metrics like the number of signups or demos booked to track how well your website and landing pages are converting.<\/p>\n Users who convert in this stage are called MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) as these types of users are interested in testing and experiencing the value of your product.<\/p>\n There’s a lot of confusion between the activation <\/a>point and the \u201cAHA moment<\/a>\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n Let’s clarify what these are.<\/p>\n Most people think they are the same thing, but with different names and that’s not quite true. The \u201cAHA moment\u201d is when users perceive the value of your product. It’s a thought, a feeling, a moment when they think the product holds value for them.<\/p>\n Reaching the activation point is a different thing. User activation happens when your users actually experience the value. This is all about engaging with your product’s key features relevant to each specific user persona.<\/p>\n To measure activation you must first define what the key features are for your product as these will depend on your type of product and use cases. Then track success using the activation rate<\/a> metric.<\/p>\n The next stage in the user journey is product adoption<\/a>.<\/p>\n This is when users are past the activation point and are discovering and engaging with secondary features. These are meant to provide additional value and determine the users to convert from a trial to paying customers<\/a>.<\/p>\n You can measure this stage using adoption metrics<\/a> such as feature adoption <\/a>rate or trial-to-paid conversion rate.<\/p>\n There are multiple product adoption tools<\/a> that will help you automate processes and drive better results at this stage.<\/p>\n The retention <\/a>stage is all about making sure users keep using your product and continue to pay for it after the initial purchase. To achieve this you need to reduce the churn rate by constantly engaging with your users in-app and collecting user feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n Feedback from users is packed with insights you can act upon: both about what makes customers happy and what’s frustrating them.<\/p>\n Plus, it’s easy to collect these using in-app microsurveys<\/a>. One type of micro survey that will help reduce churn is the exit survey<\/a> – sent when a user wants to cancel their account.<\/p>\n Important retention metrics to track at this stage include the retention rate <\/a>and churn rate.<\/p>\n I like to call the revenue stage in the pirate metrics, \u201cexpansion\u201d. This is more relevant for SaaS as your focus is on not only generating repeated purchases (monthly subscription) but also increasing the average revenue per account.<\/p>\n This is done through upselling, cross-selling, and add-ons – in other words, customer expansion.<\/p>\n There are several metrics to track in SaaS to measure growth<\/a> but an important one here is Expansion MRR<\/a>.<\/p>\n The referral stage is when the users become product advocates and start recommending your product. Use Net Promoter Score surveys and you’ll know when users reached this stage and become promoters. Also, it will give you insights into why some users are not there yet, giving you a bunch of opportunities to act on NPS feedback and improve<\/a>.<\/p>\n Metrics to track at this stage are the NPS metric<\/a>, the number of new accounts generated from referrals, and the number of reviews you get on platforms like G2<\/a>.<\/p>\n SaaS Pirate Metrics framework allows you to measure user behavior<\/a> across different stages in the user journey and identify areas where you need to take action and improve the user experience to drive better growth results.<\/p>\n You can use product analytics tools <\/a>to track metrics at each stage<\/a> in the user journey (we’ll cover this in a bit).<\/p>\n Let’s go over the three steps you need to implement to start using the pirate metrics framework and drive results for your SaaS.<\/p>\n As mentioned before in this article, each product is different. This means you’ll want to track metrics that make sense for you. Especially if we are talking about the activation stage.<\/p>\n Identify all your acquisition channels and determine what metrics you are going to track. SaaS businesses generally acquire users through their website, so you will want to track both the number of MQLs and the channels that perform best.<\/p>\n Start by tracking:<\/p>\n Activation point differs from one business to another due to the differences in product types, user persona, and their Jobs-to-Be-Done.<\/p>\n Start by tracking:<\/p>\n Here are some insights on what the activation rate is among SaaS products.<\/p>\n In the adoption stage, you should focus on understanding how users engage with your product.<\/p>\n What features are they using? How and how often are they engaging with them? Here you should be focusing on product usage<\/a> metrics.<\/p>\n Start by tracking:<\/p>\n Retention is all about making sure users continue to get value from your product and don’t churn.<\/p>\n Start by tracking:<\/p>\n In the revenue stage, you should be looking at how healthy is your SaaS from a financial point of view. So you’ll mostly want to look at revenue metrics both from existing users and new ones.<\/p>\n Start by tracking:<\/p>\n The referral stage is about tracking customer satisfaction so you can understand the likelihood of your customers recommending you.<\/p>\n Start by tracking:<\/p>\n That is quite a lot of metrics, right?<\/p>\n Before you feel overwhelmed, know that tracking a bunch of metrics across each stage of the journey doesn’t have to be a burden.<\/p>\n This leads me to the next step in how to use the pirate metrics framework.<\/p>\n To properly track all metrics, the simplest solution is to start using a product analytics tool<\/a>.<\/p>\n They let you track and improve product adoption through onboarding<\/a> users across the AARRR stages.<\/p>\n Once you have your tools set up, there’s one step left before you can say you are properly using the pirate metrics framework.<\/p>\n Track metrics are only relevant when you act on the insights collected too.<\/p>\n Otherwise, what’s the point in going through the process of using the Pirate Metrics framework?<\/p>\n You need to use it and remove friction points in the user journey and discover upselling opportunities for account expansion.<\/p>\n You do that by engaging with users through in-app experiences and conducting A\/B testing <\/a>to determine which have the best impact on your goals and increase the metrics that matter.<\/p>\n There you have it. You should now be ready to start using the pirate metrics framework right away.<\/p>\n No matter which way you choose to use the framework (either the original one developed by Dave or the one I suggested here) you will still have to start by understanding what each stage means for your users and product, and what metrics are relevant at each stage.<\/p>\n![\"pirate-metrics-framework\"](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/userpilot-user-journey-flow_8936c256043783e05aceb6d75f75e270_800.png)
<\/picture>What is AARRR and why is it called Pirate Metrics?<\/h2>\n
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Pirate metrics for product-led SaaS<\/h2>\n
![\"User](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Activation-Rate-SaaS-Metrics_cf6b7146798e321f8302c9e71c560a16_800.png)
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AAARRR SaaS pirate metrics<\/h2>\n
Acquisition stage pirate metrics<\/h3>\n
Activation stage pirate metrics<\/h3>\n
![\"activation](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/user-adoption-stages-from-aha-topromoter_513ee9b802fa250da4375be428758364_800.png)
<\/picture>Adoption stage pirate metrics<\/h3>\n
![\"adoption](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/churn-survey-built-withuserpilot_2936702601787351ae86a6da4bc7ac72_800.png)
<\/picture>Retention stage pirate metrics<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Expansion-MRR-rate_9109ccfbbe18b0be220f147efe5d30d6_800.png)
<\/picture>Revenue (expansion) pirate metrics<\/h3>\n
![\"expansion](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/User-journey-stages-userpilot_ed618a738dc8b16c9f27454f6d17bab2_800.png)
<\/picture>Referral stage metrics<\/h3>\n
How do SaaS pirate metrics work? How to use SaaS pirate metrics?<\/h2>\n
![\"User](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/activation-rate-survey_037a654fda94a59fe478cace62f185a1_800.jpg)
<\/picture>Step 1: Identify the pirate metrics specific to your SaaS<\/h3>\n
Acquisition stage metrics examples<\/h4>\n
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Activation stage metrics examples<\/h4>\n
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![\"activation](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AB-test-userpilot1_d4c729e2cc9412a51f29059a97ce5834_800.png)
<\/picture>Adoption stage metrics examples<\/h4>\n
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Retention stage metrics examples<\/h4>\n
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Revenue (expansion) stage metrics examples<\/h4>\n
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Referral stage metrics example<\/h4>\n
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Step 2: Track pirate metrics using analytics<\/h3>\n
Step 3: Run experiments and improve pirate metrics with A\/B testing<\/h3>\n
![\"A\/B](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AB-test-userpilot1_d4c729e2cc9412a51f29059a97ce5834_800.png\")
<\/picture>Conclusion<\/h2>\n