The Vanity Metric Trap
Every founder knows the feeling. You launch on Product Hunt or Twitter, the upvotes pour in, your site traffic spikes, and the dopamine hits hard. You feel like you've made it. But a week later, the traffic is gone, and you have exactly zero new paying customers.
This is the vanity metric trap. We chase numbers that feel good but have little correlation to the health of our business. Page views, social media likes, and follower counts are easy to measure but often impossible to act on. They don't tell you if your product is valuable or if your business is sustainable.
5 Actionable Metrics for a Healthy SaaS
To build a real business, you need to track real metrics. These are the numbers that give you a true signal of your product's health and your financial viability. Here are five to start with.
1. Activation Rate
What it is: The percentage of new users who complete a key "aha!" moment action within your app (e.g., creating their first project, inviting a teammate).
Why it matters: It tells you if users are successfully discovering the core value of your product. A low activation rate is a sign of poor onboarding or a confusing UI.
How to track it: (Users who complete key action) / (Total new signups)
2. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
What it is: The total cost of sales and marketing to acquire a single new paying customer.
Why it matters: It determines the profitability of your growth. If your CAC is higher than what a customer will pay you over their lifetime, your business model is broken.
How to track it: (Total marketing & sales spend in a period) / (Number of new customers in that period)
3. Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)
What it is: The predictable revenue your business earns every month from all active subscriptions.
Why it matters: MRR is the lifeblood of a SaaS business. It's the single most important indicator of growth and financial health.
How to track it: Most payment providers like Stripe offer a dashboard that calculates this for you automatically.
4. Churn Rate
What it is: The percentage of customers who cancel their subscription in a given period.
Why it matters: Churn is the silent killer of SaaS businesses. A high churn rate (often called a "leaky bucket") makes growth nearly impossible, no matter how many new customers you acquire.
How to track it: (Customers who canceled in period) / (Customers at start of period)
5. Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)
What it is: The total revenue you can expect to earn from a single customer before they churn.
Why it matters: LTV is the other side of the CAC coin. A healthy SaaS business needs an LTV that is significantly higher than its CAC (a common rule of thumb is LTV > 3x CAC).
How to track it (simplified): (Average Revenue Per User) / (Churn Rate)
How This Philosophy Shapes LaunchBoost
We're obsessed with these actionable metrics because they're what our founders care about. A deal on LaunchBoost isn't designed to get you a spike in traffic; it's designed to get you activated, paying customers with a high potential LTV. We focus on connecting you with real users who will provide valuable feedback and help you build a sustainable business.
Stop chasing vanity. Start measuring what matters.