You can hire the best team, design a flawless interface, and even attract your first users - but if you’re not tracking key metrics, your product is flying blind. And a startup without data isn’t a business - it’s just an experiment with expensive hosting.
Metrics are not just numbers - they’re the language your product uses to tell its story: whether it’s growing or dying, if users love it, and if it’s actually making money.
Today, we’ll talk about seven essential metrics every founder should know. Without them, it’s impossible to manage growth, optimize your strategy, or make informed decisions. And no - ROI alone isn’t enough.
A great product doesn’t just attract - it keeps users coming back.
Analyze where users drop off and improve their experience: onboarding, early value, and time to success.
If users leave after the first session, no amount of marketing will save you. Retention shows how many users return to your product after a day, a week, or a month.
1. Retention Rate - the measure of user love
If activation is weak, users never reach that “aha!” moment - and they leave.
Define your activation point and design the user journey so they reach it as quickly and naturally as possible.
Activation is the moment when a user finally gets it - when they understand why your product matters. In Notion, it’s creating the first page. In Slack, it’s sending the first message.
2. Activation Rate - that “wow” moment
CAC helps you measure the efficiency of your marketing. Compare it to LTV (more on that below). If CAC is higher than the revenue a user generates, you’re not earning - you’re paying for traffic.
How much does it cost to acquire one paying customer? If you don’t know - you’re not managing your budget.
3. CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) - how much you pay to get a user
ARPU helps evaluate monetization efficiency and identify which customer segments are most valuable. A growing ARPU means users are finding more value in your product - or that your upsells and premium features are working.
If you want to understand your product’s profitability on a per-user level, track ARPU. It shows how much revenue one user brings in over a given period (month, quarter, year).
4. ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) - the average revenue per Customer
If your LTV is growing, it means users stay longer, spend more, and recommend you to others. The golden rule: retention is cheaper than acquisition.
Invest not only in ads but also in customer service, support, and product quality.
LTV shows how much profit a customer generates throughout their entire relationship with your product.
5. LTV (Lifetime Value) - the long-term worth of a customer
CPO should always be analyzed together with LTV - it tells you how quickly your acquisition costs are paid back.
CPO shows how much you actually spend to acquire one paying customer or order. It’s one of the key indicators for understanding marketing efficiency and business scalability.
6. CPO (Cost Per Order) - the real price of conversion
Analyze every step: where do users drop off? UX, copywriting, design, page speed - every detail matters.
Conversion rate is the mirror of your user experience.
Your conversion rate - from landing page to payment - defines the efficiency of your entire funnel.
7. Conversion Rate - the power of first impressions
The best founders don’t just build products - they read the numbers and act on them. Metrics don’t limit creativity - they give it direction.
Conclusion: Metrics are your compass, not investor reports
Want to understand which metrics matter most for your product and how to build an analytics system that drives growth?
Start measuring - and your product will show you where the acceleration point is. We’ll gladly help you identify the metrics that matter most for your project and set up the tools to track them effectively.
06/11/2025
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