Our self-serve funnel converts at about 2 percent from signup to paid. Where do I even start looking?

Poyar replaces the sales funnel with a five stage new user journey (discover, start, activate, convert, scale) and attaches benchmark ranges to each. It is how you find out which stage is actually broken.

Your guide to PLG benchmarks

From Growth Unhinged by Kyle Poyar 10 min read

• Gartner data cited: only 5 to 6 percent of buying activity is spent meeting a vendor's reps.
• Product-led companies were 55 percent of respondents, up from 48 percent in 2020.
• Benchmarks drawn from 450+ software companies, from under $1M to $100M+ ARR.

A short, specific list of what to instrument on a self-serve funnel, including time to activation and time to convert, which are the two most people forget to track at all.

Top 10 Metrics to Measure Freemium and Free Trial Performance

From Amplitude by Carmen DeCouto 12 min read

• Average day-seven activation is 6.8 percent, 5.1 percent in retail and 10 percent in manufacturing.
• Amplitude's own freemium users tend to reach higher lifetime value than those who start paid.
• For B2B products a weekly metrics check is a good starting cadence.
• Track in-product calls to action to talk to sales as the bridge from PLG to sales.

Benchmarks from 500 plus products: 34 percent average, 36 percent for SaaS. If you have ever wondered whether your number is bad or normal, this is the answer, and it is free.

What is a good activation rate

From Lenny's Newsletter by Lenny Rachitsky and Yuriy Timen 12 min read

• Across 500+ products the average activation rate is 34 percent, the median 25 percent.
• For SaaS specifically the average is 36 percent and the median 30 percent.
• 60th percentile counts as a good activation rate, 80th percentile as great.
• A real activation metric shows at least 2x better retention for users who hit it.

A full 0 to 100M ARR guide from an Indian company that lived it, covering acquisition, activation, retention, monetisation and the metrics for each. The best single India-built reference on self-serve.

The Revenue Growth Guide for Self-Serve SaaS Businesses

From Chargebee 45 min read

• 20 to 40 percent of all churn is involuntary, driven by failed payments rather than unhappiness.
• Companies going public hold net dollar retention above 110 percent.
• Help Scout users pay 143 percent of average revenue per customer after 23 billing cycles.
• Virality only compounds when the k factor is greater than 1.

A diagnostic conversation about where self-serve funnels leak, which backs the answer's instruction to leave the pricing page alone and go looking at activation first.

Why PLG suck, and how to fix it (with Wes Bush)

On The Revenue Formula by Wes Bush with Toni Hohlbein and Raul Porojan 43 min