Definition
Customer advocacy reflects how willing customers are to recommend, review, or co-market with you.
Example
A customer agrees to a case study, leaves a public review, and refers two peers in a quarter.
How to use it
- Track advocacy signals like referrals, reviews, and case study participation.
- Advocacy is a leading indicator for expansion and retention.
- Build structured advocacy asks into renewal or success milestones.
- Reward advocacy with visibility, not just discounts, to avoid incentives bias.
- Measure advocacy by segment to identify the happiest customer profiles.
Common mistakes
- Using NPS alone without tracking actual advocacy actions.
- Ignoring advocacy drop-offs after product changes.
- Over-asking the same advocates and burning goodwill.
- Treating advocacy as a one-time campaign instead of a program.
Why this matters
This term matters because small changes compound in SaaS metrics. Use consistent definitions by cohort and segment so you can diagnose retention, payback, and growth quality.
Practical checklist
- Write a 1-line definition for "Customer Advocacy" that your team will use consistently.
- Keep the time window consistent (weekly/monthly/quarterly) when comparing trends.
- Segment results (channel/plan/cohort) before drawing big conclusions from blended averages.
- Sanity-check with a related calculator from the same category on MetricKit.
- Read the related guide (e.g., Retention & churn hub: cohorts, GRR/NRR, and retention curves) for context and common pitfalls.
Where to use this on MetricKit
Calculators
- ARR Calculator: Estimate Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) from customers and ARPA.
- ARR vs MRR Calculator: Convert ARR to MRR (and MRR to ARR) and understand the ARR vs MRR relationship.
- ARR Growth Rate Calculator: Calculate ARR growth over a period and convert it to CMGR and annualized growth (CAGR).
- ARR Valuation Calculator: Estimate a SaaS valuation from ARR and a revenue multiple (ARR valuation).
- ARR Valuation Sensitivity Calculator: Estimate valuation sensitivity to ARR and revenue multiple assumptions (simple 3x3 grid).
Guides
- Retention & churn hub: cohorts, GRR/NRR, and retention curves: A practical hub for retention measurement: churn rate, GRR/NRR, cohort retention curves, and how to set retention targets without getting misled by noise.