You Got Sign-ups 👏 (But Does Anyone Stick Around?)

Your SaaS has a regular flow of sign-ups. That's great – but just the start. What really matters now is activation.

Many SaaS founders chase sign-up numbers, then wonder why users disappear as fast as they arrive. Activation is straightforward: it's when users first experience real, tangible value from your product. Without activation, your growth stops before it starts.

Here's the harsh reality: Most SaaS businesses get activation wrong. Users arrive, explore briefly, and vanish. Sound familiar? You're not alone (and yes, this problem is solvable).

In this guide, you'll learn exactly what metrics matter, spot the flaws in your onboarding process, and get actionable advice to turn sign-ups into loyal, paying customers.

Key Metrics for SaaS Activation

To fix activation, first know what to measure. These are the metrics that actually matter:

Activation Rate

How many new users reach a meaningful milestone (often called "aha-moment"). Low activation means users aren't getting value quickly enough.

(Number of users who reach the activation milestone ÷ Total new users) × 100

Early Churn Rate

How many activated users quickly leave your product. High churn right after activation signals deeper onboarding or value issues.

(Number of churned users within X days of activation ÷ Total activated users) × 100

Time-to-Value (TTV)

How fast new users experience their first "aha moment". Faster is better.

Average time (in days or sessions) from sign-up to first "aha moment"

Feature Adoption Rate

Are new users actually engaging with your product’s core features? Low adoption signals onboarding confusion.

(Number of users who use a specific core feature ÷ Total activated users) × 100

Watch these metrics closely, and you'll know exactly where to improve.

Bad Onboarding = Bad Business

Your activation rate directly impacts revenue. Consider these scenarios:

Scenario A 📉

You get 1,000 sign-ups/month. With a 10% activation rate, only 100 users see value. If 10% convert to paying customers ($50/mo), that's just 10 paying customers monthly.

Scenario B 📈

Improve your onboarding. Boost activation to 30%. Now you have 3x activated users (30 instead of 10). Even with the same marketing spend, you've tripled your potential revenue.

Real-world examples confirm these numbers. A small bump in activation can make a huge difference.

Most Users Never Activate

The majority of SaaS sign-ups don’t stick around. Industry benchmarks (*) suggest that 70-80% of users sign up and never log in again. Many more churn before ever reaching an activation milestone. That’s a lot of wasted potential.

(Side Note: Activation rates can vary depending on the type of software and target audience, B2B vs. B2C, etc. More complex products tend to have lower activation rates due to longer learning curves. Also, Freemium models naturally may attract more sign-ups, which results in relatively lower activation rates.)

But why?

If activation is so important, why do so many SaaS companies get it wrong?

Too often, onboarding is not regarded as a priority. Companies spend months perfecting their product, but when it comes to guiding users through it, they slap on a generic onboarding flow at the last minute.

→ The result: Users don’t see value fast enough, get lost in unnecessary steps, and leave before they ever experience what makes the product great.
This is a massive mistake. Onboarding isn't just a feature - it’s the bridge between a sign-up and a paying customer. Without it, users won’t experience the product’s value quickly enough to stick around.

A major issue is the gap between marketing and product. Marketing sells a promise, but if onboarding doesn’t deliver, users feel misled and leave. Selling simplicity but offering a complex experience? Expect high drop-off rates.

Friction is another silent killer. Long sign-ups, forced tours, or unclear steps push users away before they even try the product. The faster they reach value, the better your activation rate.

Many SaaS companies also fail at activation by relying on assumptions instead of data. Everyone thinks they know how people use their product, but they actually don't. Without the right tracking of the right metrics, fixing activation is just guesswork.

Acquisition vs. Activation

Finally, there’s a tendency to focus too much on getting sign-ups rather than ensuring those sign-ups actually succeed. Vanity metrics like “number of sign-ups” might look good in reports, but they mean nothing if users don’t convert into active customers. (They are also much less cost-effective to improve!)

The real metric that matters is how many of those users reach success. Without a shift in focus from acquisition to activation, your SaaS company will keep pouring money into a leaky bucket, attracting users who ultimately never stick around.

The good news: Every one of these problems can be fixed with the right onboarding. Let’s dive into how.

How to Fix Your Onboarding (Checklist ✅)

As you've now learned, for most companies the root cause isn't actually an activation problem, but an onboarding problem. Let's look into how to fix that.

The key to fixing onboarding is making it effortless for users to reach their first win. The faster they see value, the more likely they are to stick around. Here’s how to do it in five actionable steps - starting with the most important: (1) simplify onboarding, (2) personalize the experience, (3) use data to identify drop-off points, (4) re-engage users after sign-up, and (5) continuously optimize.

Simplify Onboarding (!!!)

This is the most important step. If you take away just one thing from this article, let it be this: onboarding should be effortless. Users didn’t sign up to use another tool – they signed up because they have a problem they need solved. Your onboarding should be designed to get them to that solution as quickly as possible. Remove all unnecessary friction:

• Ditch long sign-up forms

• Reduce the number of steps before users can start engaging

• Avoid forcing them to learn everything upfront

Let them experience the product intuitively and with minimal barriers. If users can’t start getting value quickly, they’re more likely to leave before ever understanding what your product can do for them.

Personalize the Experience (!!)

Not every user needs the same path. If a user signs up with a specific goal, tailor the onboarding to help them achieve it faster.

• Use conditional onboarding and

• in-app messaging based on their actions

… to nudge them in the right direction. The more relevant the experience, the better the activation rate.

Use Data to Identify Drop-Off Points (!!)

If users consistently abandon onboarding at a specific step, that’s a red flag.

• Run A/B tests to refine the process

• Experiment with different onboarding flows

• Track which changes lead to higher activation rates

Analytics can help drive onboarding decisions. Make sure though that what you measure makes sense and that your analytics is set up correctly.

Re-Engage Users After Sign-Up (!)

Engagement doesn’t stop after day one. Many users sign up, poke around, and forget about the product.

• Follow up with lifecycle emails, in-app nudges, and reminders to bring them back

• Highlight features they haven't explored yet and showcase success stories from other users to reinforce why they should stick around

A user who disengages isn’t necessarily lost – you just need to pull them back in.

Optimize Continuously (!)

Onboarding is never "done." The best SaaS companies treat it as an evolving process, continuously tweaking and optimizing based on user behavior. What worked six months ago may not work today.

• Keep testing, refining, and improving

The more you refine it, the higher your activation (and ultimately, retention) will be.

Activation → Retention

Activation is just the first step. The next goal is retention (=turning activated users into long-term customers). If users activate but don’t stick around, your business won’t grow. To keep users engaged, you need to make your product a habit. Use in-app nudges, education, and community to bring them back. Spot disengagement early and step in before they churn. We'll cover retention in a separate article.

Conclusion 💡

So, to wrap things up, if you’re struggling with activation (getting signups but not converting them into users), start with this:

• Simplify, focus and remove all friction

• Get users to their first win fast

• Personalize the journey so users feel guided toward their individual goals

Now, take action: Start by auditing your onboarding process. Identify friction points, see where users drop off. Make activation a priority. Small improvements in these areas can drive massive growth. :)