Cost per Trial Activated: Track Activation Cost

Cost per Trial Activated measures the average advertising spend required to generate one activated trial user.

Formula

Cost per Trial Activated = Channel Spend ÷ Trial Activated Events

Formula Components

Metric	Definition
Channel Spend	Total advertising spend across channels
Trial Activated	Total trial activation events

Metadata
Type	Currency
Data Source	Upstack Pixel
Aggregation	Ratio

Example

Your SaaS spent $18,000 on ads and generated 300 activated trials this month.

Channel	Spend	Activations	Cost per Activation
Google Ads	$9,000	135	$66.67
Facebook	$6,000	110	$54.55
LinkedIn	$3,000	55	$54.55
Total	$18,000	300	$60.00

How It Works

This metric divides your total channel spend by the number of activated trial users. Activated users convert at much higher rates than non-activated users, making this a more predictive CAC metric than cost per trial start alone.

When to Use

Scenario	Action
True CAC proxy	More accurate than cost per trial start
Channel quality	Compare activation rates by source
Budget optimization	Prioritize channels with low activation cost
LTV/CAC analysis	Pair with activation-to-paid conversion

Metric	Relationship
Trial Activated	Count of activations
Cost per Trial Started	Top-funnel cost
Trial Activated Value	Value of activations

See all Conversions metrics →