What is user activation?
User activation is the point where a user completes a key action (or set of actions) that signals that they are receiving real and functional value from your product.
User activation vs active users
At first glance, active users and user activation may seem interchangeable, but they’re not.
Active users are those who are interacting with or using your product. However, while they’re using your product, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re experiencing its core offerings or full value.
Let’s understand this with Slack as an example. For Slack, an active user is one who may simply log in and browse a channel. An activated user, on the other hand, may be someone who has sent 100 messages, invited teammates and created a second channel. That person has crossed into habitual use.
So, an active user opens your app, browses a few pages, and maybe even clicks a button or two. But this activity doesn’t necessarily indicate value realization. They might be curious, but curiosity alone won’t drive retention.
An activated user, on the other hand, has crossed a significant threshold; they’ve experienced value. This could be through a milestone action (like adding a sender ID in Mailmodo or uploading a file in Dropbox) or an "aha" moment (like seeing an interactive email render beautifully or receiving a meeting confirmation in Calendly).
Think of it this way: activity shows presence, and activation shows purpose. Activation isn't just a growth stage in the marketing funnel; it's a pivotal checkpoint that strongly correlates with retention, monetization, and product-led growth.
Why does user activation matter for SaaS growth?
User activation is more than just a box to check in the onboarding flow. It’s an action or series of actions that makes the users understand the real value of your product, or at least moves them towards it.
User activation matters for the growth of your SaaS business because:
- It's a leading indicator of retention.
- A strong activation rate helps improve customer acquisition cost payback time.
- Faster activation means quicker habit formation and faster revenue generation.
- It correlates strongly with customer lifetime value.
When you get activation right, you set the stage for:
- User habit formation
- Account expansion
- Customer advocacy
In theory, it may seem easy to activate users, but that changes in the real world. Any SaaS marketer will tell you that user activation is one of the hardest metrics to move.
Here's why:
- User activation requires your product to deliver value fast, with minimal friction, and across a wide range of user intents.
- If users don't reach their "aha" moment early, they're likely to churn before experiencing your product’s core value.
- Many SaaS products require chunky onboarding flows with too many steps to understand the actual value of the product.
In Mailmodo, for instance, users are required to complete a sender ID setup, design an email template and send their first campaign to realize the true value of the product. This may seem like too many steps for some users and they may drop off in the middle.
What counts as user activation?
What counts as an ‘activated user’ or ‘activation’ depends entirely on your product, your audience, and how you deliver your product to your audience. Depending on your go-to-market model, the definition of activation can vary dramatically:
Sales-led growth models
In sales-led growth models, user activation often happens through human interaction. For example, in a B2B CRM like Salesforce, a discovery call followed by importing deal data into the system can be counted as an activation. The activation could also be as specific as a sales manager uploading pipeline details and assigning ownership.
Product-led growth models
In product-led growth models, user activation actions are self-serve and happen inside the product. For instance, actions like adding contacts, designing a template, or sending a campaign might be counted as an activation for a company like Mailmodo.
💡 Related guide: PLG vs SLG: Which One Is Better for Your SaaS
Hybrid models
Hybrid models combine both sales-led and product-led approaches so their user activations can happen outside the product in the sales pipeline or inside the product. For instance, in HubSpot, a user might first interact with a sales rep through a demo or consultation, which is a sales-led motion. Simultaneously, they may engage with product-led elements by exploring in-app tools like CRM automation. In this model, user activation may involve completing key actions across touchpoints, like setting up a deal pipeline or configuring a marketing workflow.
Therefore, it becomes crucial to understand your business model as that can help shape your activation strategy.
Defining user activation metrics for your SaaS product
While there is no universal user activation metric, there are several metrics that SaaS marketers use to track these numbers. Nonetheless, what counts as user activation for one product could be irrelevant for another. So, the key here is to define the smallest unit of meaningful success where users take action that indicates they’re moving towards value or their aha moment.
For example:
- Mailmodo: Sending the first email campaign
- Notion: Creating a workspace and adding a page
- Canva: Completing and downloading a design
- Calendly: Booking and confirming a meeting
However, you need to beware of mistaking setup steps (like logging in or verifying an email) as activation metrics. These actions, while necessary, don’t reflect value delivery. Instead, use tools like Amplitude, Mixpanel, or Heap to analyze behavioral patterns and identify the moments that successful users go through or actions they perform early on in their journey.
You may find that activation includes multiple milestones:
- A technical milestone (e.g., connecting a data source to transfer data)
- A value milestone (e.g., seeing a successful campaign delivery)
- A collaborative milestone (e.g., inviting a teammate)
These layers deepen the user's connection to your product and signal readiness for long-term engagement.
4 proven strategies to improve user activation
Driving activation requires more than a welcome email or a linear onboarding tour. You need personalized, context-aware experiences that guide users toward value with clarity and speed. Here are some things you can try to increase user activations in your product.
Progressive onboarding flows
Start simple, and build complexity as users move deeper into the product. Use modals to introduce core actions, tooltips for in-context tips, and milestone nudges when users complete key steps. This helps avoid overwhelming new users with a lot steps at once and respects their pace.
Behavior-based journeys
Create user journeys triggered by real-time actions—or inactions. For example, if a user designs a template but doesn’t send it, trigger a targeted email or an in-app nudge. These interventions help users move forward with a specific action without feeling pushed into the whole user activation flow at once.
Product-led tactics
Tactics like reverse trials, embedded tutorials, and interactive tours boost user activation by reducing friction and helping users quickly experience the product’s core value. Reverse trials let users explore premium features upfront, making it easier to hit that “aha!” moment. Embedded tutorials and tours guide users step-by-step, cutting down confusion and showing exactly how to get value without needing external help. Also, follow-up is key: users who disengage after one session often just need the right nudge via lifecycle emails, in-app reminders, or personalized check-ins to re-engage. Together, these strategies shorten the learning curve, increase engagement, and drive users toward meaningful actions faster.
Optimizing and tracking user activation
Every SaaS marketer knows that you can’t improve what you don’t measure. Therefore, you need to track user activation performance across key metrics like:
- Activation rate: The percentage of new users who complete the activation event
- Time to activate: The average duration from sign-up to activation
- Drop-off points: The points where users are getting stuck in or dropping off from the journey
Once you’ve started tracking these metrics, you can identify trends and friction points and test different variations of onboarding flows to make it optimized for user retention.
How Mailmodo can help you drive user activations
Mailmodo enables you to set up dynamic, behavior-based email flows that respond to real-time user actions (or inactions). By leveraging event data from your product, you can automatically send personalized, context-aware emails to keep users progressing in their activation journey. For example, if a user starts a task but doesn’t complete it, Mailmodo can trigger a targeted email nudging them to finish the specific step.
Additionally, Mailmodo allows you to:
- Personalize emails using contact properties
- Send emails at the best time to maximize engagement
- Track performance to optimize and improve email effectiveness over time
This approach ensures that your activation emails are relevant, timely, and impactful, significantly increasing user engagement and activation rates.
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Takeaways
User activation should be looked at as a flywheel and not just a checklist to cross off. As an engine that powers habit formation, growth loops, and revenue generation, it’s something your marketing team needs to get right. You can use the strategies we’ve discussed to define what user activation means for you and plan your strategies for driving user activation. By understanding how well your product is being used, you can prioritize activation across teams, from marketing to product to support. This will allow you to design personalized, progressive, and interactive journeys that reduce time-to-value.
Finally, you'll be able to measure, test, and iterate on your activation metrics constantly, ensuring that your product becomes something people love to use.
