Visit to activated user

• Metric

  Cost per activated user

  acquisition cost per user who reaches value

  Acquisition spend divided by the new users it brought who reached first value. Judging channels on activated users instead of sign-ups keeps spend away from traffic that never sticks.

• Metric

  Organic share of new activated users

  unpaid share of new activated users

  Share of new activated users who arrived without paid acquisition. A rising organic share corroborates product-market fit; a falling one is a warning even when total sign-ups grow.

• Metric

  Paying customers per visitor

  buyers per visitor or install

  New paying customers divided by the visitors (or installs) of the same acquisition cohort. The fair way to compare paywall and trial designs that trade sign-up volume for conversion rate.

• Metric

  Sales-cycle length

  days from first contact to signed deal

  Median days from a qualified opportunity to a signed contract. Shorter cycles with a steady win rate mean buyers find the proof they need faster.

• Metric

  Store sessions to orders

  store conversion rate

  Orders divided by store sessions in the period. Benchmarks hover around 1.4-1.8%, with the top tenth of stores near 4.7%; definitions and device mix move it a lot.

• Metric

  Spike-cohort day-30 retention

  do launch spikes stick

  Day-30 retention of users who signed up during a press, launch or store-feature spike, relative to organic cohorts. A spike that doesn't stick is borrowed attention, not demand.

Sources

Book content is paraphrased, never quoted at length. Last verified October 24, 2026.