Frameworks > Metrics

Metrics: Aligning with Your Org's Strategy

Data-driven strategies for SaaS leaders building and scaling education initiatives 

Turn Metrics into Strategic Leverage

Investing in an Academy program is a business decision, not just a content initiative. 

Your Academy must drive measurable value across your users' journey:

  • Accelerating onboarding
  • Increasing product adoption
  • Improving retention and expansion revenue
  • Greater operational efficiency
  • Deeper customer engagement and loyalty 

Without the right metrics strategy, it's impossible to demonstrate education's ROI - or to optimize it for scale. 

At SaaS Academy Advisors, we help B2B SaaS companies define and track the right metrics, so education isn't just seen as helpful - it's seen as essential to business success and tied directly to business, departmental, team, and user outcomes. 

saas academy program metrics

The Four Layers of Academy Program Metrics

01 | Business Metrics

Proving strategic ROI

At the highest level, education must contribute to core business growth. This is how you earn and sustain leadership support. 

Key Business Metrics:

  • Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC):
    Can education-driven lead generation reduce CAC?
  • Customer Lifetime Value (LTV): 
    Are educated users upgrading, expanding, and staying longer? 
  • Retention & Churn Rate:
    Are trained customers staying longer and using the product more effectively?
  • Upsell/Cross-Sell Rate:
    Does education influence customers to buy more or expand their usage?
  • NPS & CSAT Scores:
    Is education improving overall customer satisfaction and advocacy?
SAA Tip from Lindsay:
"Customer education isn’t just a cost center—it’s a growth lever. If your training isn’t influencing retention, expansion, or efficiency, it’s time to rethink your strategy."

02 | Department Metrics

Empowering teams across the business

Education must do more than teach - it must fuel critical functions across Customer Success, Sales, Marketing, and Product. 

Key Department-Level Metrics:

Customer Success (CS):

  • Time-to-Value (TTV):
    Does training help customers adopt faster?
  • Cost per Support Ticket:
    Is education reducing Support load?
  • CSM/AM Capacity:
    Does training allow fewer CSMs to manage more customers effectively?

Marketing:

  • Lead Generation & Inbound Traffic:
    Are training materials bringing in new leads?
  • Brand Awareness & Thought Leadership:
    Is education increasing mentions, backlinks, and authority?

Sales:

  • Sales Cycle Length:
    Do trained leads convert faster than "untrained" ones?
  • Average ARR/Expansion Revenue:
    Are users who go through your Academy driving higher-value deals?

Product:

  • Feature Adoption Rates:
    Is education accelerating usage of key features?
  • User Engagement Metrics:
    Does training increase active usage over time?
SAA Tip from Lindsay:
"Education should be a force multiplier for CS, Sales, and Marketing. Academy programs don't just report on their own success - they amplify the success of Sales, CS, Marketing, and Product too.

03 | Team Metrics

Operational execution and content impact

At the team level, metrics focus on learner behaviors, engagement, and training effectiveness. These help instructional designers and education teams fine-tune content to maximize impact.

Key Team-Level Metrics:

  • Learner/User Growth:
     What percentage of customers are engaging with training?
  • User Engagement Over Time:
    Are users returning for more education?
  • Course Completion Rates:
    Are users completing training, or dropping off?
  • User NPS & Satisfaction:
    How valuable do users find the training?
  • Content Development Efficiency:
    How long does it take to create/update content? At what cost?
SAA Tip from Chris:
"Operational excellence behind the scenes fuels visible success. The more structured and efficient your Academy operations, the faster you scale." 

04 | User Metrics

Transforming individual habits and behaviors

At the foundation, education must change user behavior,  helping individuals succeed inside your product and achieve their goals.

Key User Metrics:

  • Activation Rates:
    How many users complete onboarding training and activate their account?

  • Feature Adoption by User:
    Are individual users learning and using key features?

  • Time-to-First-Value (User Level):
    How quickly does each learner realize value post-training?

  • Ongoing Engagement:
    Are users regularly accessing and completing educational content?

  • Self-Sufficiency Indicators:
    Are trained users opening fewer support tickets or needing less direct CS intervention?

SAA Tip from Lindsay:
"Education creates the greatest impact when it’s designed for individual success. Every user's achievement is a small business win, and together, they build unstoppable momentum for company growth."

Metrics are the language of growth

SaaS executives don’t invest in an Academy program because it's “nice to have", they invest because it accelerates revenue, increases customer lifetime value, scales customer success without scaling headcount, and strengthens product adoption and advocacy

  • If you want more investment, prove it with Business Metrics.
  • If you want more alignment with Sales, CS, and Marketing, prove it with Department Metrics.
  • If you want to scale education operations smartly, prove it with Team Metrics.
  • If you want your users to be your best advocates, prove it with User Metrics.

Ready to turn education into a growth engine?

At SaaS Academy Advisors, we build customer education programs that leaders can confidently champion in every board meeting.

Contact us to build a metrics-driven education program that drives real, measurable business impact.