Product managers in crypto face a unique set of challenges. User journeys are fragmented, spanning from a social media click to an onchain transaction. Traditional analytics tools like Mixpanel and Google Analytics, while powerful in web2, create blind spots by missing this crucial onchain data. They can't see what happens after a user connects their wallet, which is where the most important actions occur.
This is why crypto PM metrics are fundamentally different. Instead of tracking emails and sign-ups, we track wallet-based interactions, cross-chain behavior, and onchain events. This guide provides a clear framework for tracking acquisition, conversion, and retention in the crypto space. We'll explore the metrics that matter and show you how to get a complete picture of your user journey with modern web3 analytics.
The Unique Data Challenges of Crypto PMs
Tracking users in web3 is not as simple as dropping a cookie and watching a session. The user journey is broken into pieces across different platforms and chains.
A user might discover your dApp on X, visit your site, connect a wallet, and then perform a swap on your protocol. Traditional analytics tools only capture the initial visit. They have no visibility into the onchain transaction, making it impossible to attribute the conversion to the original marketing campaign.
This creates data silos that crypto teams struggle with daily. You have website data in Google Analytics, campaign data in your ad platforms, and onchain data on Etherscan. Stitching this together is a massive engineering challenge. Adding to the complexity, users often interact with multiple chains and use several wallets, making a single user view nearly impossible to achieve with standard tools.
Essential Acquisition Metrics for Crypto Products
In crypto, acquisition isn't just about site visits; it's about attracting active wallets. To measure this effectively, you need to track crypto-specific metrics.
Wallet Connections: This is the first major step in a web3 user journey. It's the equivalent of a sign-up in web2 and signals a user's intent to interact with your protocol.
First-Time Transactions: This metric shows you how many new users are performing a core onchain action, like a swap, stake, or deposit. It's a strong indicator of successful activation.
Cost Per Acquired Wallet (CPAW): Forget traditional Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). In web3, the goal is to acquire active wallets. CPAW measures the cost to get a user to connect their wallet, giving you a more accurate measure of your marketing spend's effectiveness.
A critical component of this is onchain attribution. This allows you to connect offchain marketing efforts directly to onchain actions. By tracking which campaigns lead to actual transactions, you can measure your true marketing ROI and stop wasting money on channels that only generate clicks.
Conversion Tracking in the Crypto Ecosystem
The conversion process in crypto is a multi-step journey from wallet connection to transaction. To optimize this, you need to analyze the entire funnel.
Key conversion events happen onchain, and you need the ability to track them. This includes actions like:
Swaps
Stakes
Deposits
NFT purchases
Building a funnel analysis for these crypto-specific user journeys is essential. It helps you see where users are dropping off between connecting their wallet and completing their first transaction. Are they getting stuck on the approval step? Are gas fees too high? This analysis provides the answers.
Two other important conversion metrics are time-to-first-transaction and transaction velocity. A shorter time-to-first-transaction indicates a smooth onboarding experience. High transaction velocity suggests users find your product valuable and are using it frequently.
Retention Metrics That Matter for Crypto Products
Retention in crypto isn't about daily logins; it's about sustained onchain activity. To measure this, you need to redefine retention metrics for the web3 context.
Wallet Return Rates: Instead of tracking returning users by email, you track returning wallets. This shows how many unique wallets are interacting with your protocol over time.
Transaction Frequency: How often are wallets transacting? This metric helps you understand user engagement and habit formation.
Protocol Stickiness: Are users interacting with multiple features of your protocol? Deeper engagement across different smart contracts is a strong sign of a sticky product.
Cohort analysis based on wallet addresses is a powerful tool here. By grouping wallets by the week they first transacted, you can see how their activity trends over time. This helps you understand long-term user behavior and identify patterns in churn specific to DeFi and other crypto applications. Measuring user lifetime value (LTV) in both token terms and its USD equivalent gives you a complete view of a user's value to your protocol.
How Formo Solves These Measurement Challenges
Formo was built to address these specific challenges. Our platform unifies web and onchain data, giving you a single, complete view of the user journey.
With Formo, you get the web3 analytics capabilities that traditional tools lack. Our wallet intelligence features turn anonymous addresses into rich user personas, helping you understand who your users are and what they do onchain. This allows for powerful segmentation and targeting.
Our onchain attribution capabilities connect your marketing spend directly to onchain conversions, so you know exactly which campaigns are driving real ROI. This helps product, marketing, and data teams work together to optimize growth. For example, marketing teams can see which channels drive actual usage, not just clicks, while product teams can understand how users interact with the app to optimize onboarding and boost adoption.
Key Features for Better Onchain Product Reporting
Formo provides a full suite of tools designed for crypto product management.
Product Analytics Suite: Track key blockchain product metrics like wallet visitor tracking, DAU/WAU/MAU for wallets, and transaction monitoring in one place.
Wallet Profiles: Get a 360-degree view of your users by combining onchain and offchain data to build detailed wallet profiles and segment your audience.
Custom Event Tracking: Track any protocol-specific action, whether it's a click in your dApp or an event emitted from your smart contract.
Real-Time Dashboards and Alerts: Build custom dashboards to monitor your key metrics and set up real-time alerts to get notified about high-value user actions.
API and SDK: Our powerful SDK and APIs give you full control to integrate Formo with your existing data stack.
Make Data-Driven Decisions
To succeed in crypto product management, you need a unified view of your data. Relying on fragmented, incomplete information leads to poor decisions and wasted resources. With real-time insights into the full user journey, you can iterate faster, build a better product, and grow your user base more effectively.
If you're ready to stop guessing and start making data-driven decisions, it's time to upgrade your analytics stack.
Try Formo for free and see what unified metrics for crypto PMs can do for your project.
FAQs
What are crypto product metrics?
Crypto product metrics track user interactions within web3 products. They focus on wallet-based activity and onchain events, unlike traditional web2 metrics.
Why are traditional analytics tools insufficient for crypto?
Traditional tools can't track onchain activities after a wallet connection. This creates blind spots for critical user actions and conversions in web3.
What is Cost Per Wallet (CPW)?
CPW measures the cost to get a user to connect their wallet. It's a key metric for evaluating marketing spend effectiveness in crypto.
How does onchain attribution help crypto marketing?
Onchain attribution links offchain marketing efforts to actual onchain transactions. This shows you which campaigns drive real usage and ROI.
What are key retention metrics in crypto?
Important retention metrics include Wallet Return Rates, Transaction Frequency, and Protocol Stickiness. They measure sustained onchain activity over time.
How does Formo address data challenges for crypto product managers?
Formo unifies web and onchain data for a complete user journey view. It offers web3 analytics, wallet intelligence, and onchain attribution.
