𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀
You cannot optimize what you do not measure.
Most developers treat analytics as an afterthought. They drop a script on a page and stop there. This leads to broken, useless data.
Stop tracking noise. Start tracking your funnel.
A funnel is the path from discovery to payment. For SaaS, it looks like this:
- Discovery: User visits your site.
- Engagement: User explores features.
- Intent: User clicks "Sign Up".
- Conversion: User completes signup.
- Revenue: User pays for a plan.
Track these four foundational events first:
- Page View: Capture the URL and UTM parameters.
- Sign Up Started: Track the click on your CTA. This shows intent and helps you see form abandonment.
- Sign Up Completed: Track the successful account creation.
- Subscription Created: Track when a user pays. Include the plan name and amount.
Do not track every button click. Most clicks do not change business decisions. Avoid tracking mouse movements or scroll depth unless you have a specific reason.
Use UTM parameters to understand your traffic.
- utm_source: The platform (Twitter, Google, Newsletter).
- utm_medium: The format (Social, Email, CPC).
- utm_campaign: The specific project.
Store these in sessionStorage. This ensures you know which campaign drove the sale even if the user signs up days later.
To improve your numbers, look at step-by-step conversion rates:
- Low visit-to-signup? Fix your landing page.
- Low signup-to-activation? Fix your onboarding.
- Low activation-to-paid? Fix your product value.
Build a minimal stack to start:
- Web analytics: Plausible or Fathom.
- Product analytics: PostHog.
- Revenue: Stripe.
- Errors: Sentry.
Focus on revenue per visitor and trial-to-paid rates. Ignore vanity metrics like total page views. They do not pay bills.