If you’re working on activation for your B2B SaaS, here is an important metric you’re likely not looking at:
The % of mobile signups / total signups.
I’m willing to bet that 15-30% of your new users sign up on mobile, but they activate 2-4X worse compared to those who sign up on the desktop.
This is entirely normal because:
- Your product may not be designed for mobile use (e.g. visual builder, integrations with work apps).
- These users may have a low buying intent (e.g. casually browsing during commute).
- They may come from mobile-first geo-market (read: price sensitive) that your product does not target.
What this means is that changes in your mobile signup ratio will have a far greater impact on your overall activation rate compared to most changes you make to your onboarding flow.
If you don’t break the data down, real uplifts can easily be hidden in the summary metric, and you might reject ideas that actually worked (or worse, keep doing things that didn’t).
For this reason, you should always segment your activation data by the device user signed up on.
If you are using a product analytics tool like Mixpanel or Amplitude, you are already tracking this data by default. You can create cohorts by filtering the signup event using either the operating system or screen width property.
Doing this will help your team gain a much better understanding of the progress you’re making in activation. Sometimes, you might realize that a declining trend has nothing to do with your product onboarding but rather with who you attract to the door in the first place. If that’s the case, then you likely have an acquisition problem rather than an activation one, and you should take appropriate actions accordingly.
