Measuring the success of your CIAM implementation

Implementing a Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) solution is a big step toward improving user experience, security, and business growth. But how do you know if it's working well? Here’s a guide to the key metrics that different teams—architects, product managers, digital marketers, and digital transformation leaders—can use to measure the success of a CIAM implementation.

1. User experience and adoption (for product managers and marketers)

A smooth customer experience is essential for keeping customers happy and loyal. Product managers and digital marketers should focus on how easy it is for their customers to log in, register, and interact with your platform.

Key metrics to track:

• Login success rate: What percentage of customers successfully log in? A higher rate means fewer issues.
  
  
• Time to register/login: How quickly can customers sign up or log in? Shorter times correlate with a better experience. CIAM solutions with features like social login or passwordless authentication help to reduce login time.
  
  
• Drop-off rate: Where do customers give up during sign-in or registration? High drop-offs indicate frustration points in the customer journey, such as complex forms or confusing sign-in steps.
  
  
• Self-service adoption rate: How many users take advantage of recovery and profile management features? Higher adoption shows users can easily manage their accounts. 

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2. Security and compliance (for architects and product managers)

A CIAM system should protect both your business and users without being too complicated.

Key metrics to track:

• Fraud detection and prevention: Track the number of fraud attempts thwarted by the CIAM solution through capabilities like bot detection, risk-based authentication, and behavior analytics. A strong CIAM system should offer insights into blocked sessions and authentication triggers, helping you assess the effectiveness of your fraud prevention efforts.
  
  
• MFA adoption rate: How many customers are using multi-factor authentication (MFA)? A higher rate boosts security.
  
  
• Regulation compliance: For highly regulated industries, it's important to measure how well your CIAM solution supports compliance with laws like GDPR, CCPA, and WCAG. This includes tracking the ability to manage user consent, protect personal data, enforce privacy rights, and provide accessible user experiences.
  
  
• Account security: Measure the reduction in security incidents, including account creation fraud, account takeovers (ATO) and breaches, before and after the CIAM implementation. This can directly reflect the success of the platform’s security features.

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3. Performance and scalability (for architects) 

Your CIAM system must perform well under pressure, especially during times of high traffic. 

Key metrics to track:

• System uptime: CIAM should deliver high availability, especially if your business operates globally. Downtime can lead to lost revenue and damage to customer trust. Monitor uptime to ensure SLAs are met.
  
  
• Authentication load time: How fast is the login process? Slow load times can frustrate your customers and impact conversion rates. Measure the average time it takes to authenticate customers under various conditions, including peak events.
  
  
• Scalability: How well does the CIAM system scale during high-traffic events? Track performance metrics during spikes in customer activity to ensure the system can handle large increases in traffic without slowing down. 

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4. Customer retention and engagement (for digital marketing)

For digital marketing teams, CIAM plays a big role in keeping customers engaged and loyal.

Key metrics to track:

• Retention rate: Are customers staying with your service over time? Better login experiences often lead to higher engagement and retention.
  
  
• Cross-channel consistency: Are users having a seamless experience across different platforms (web, mobile, etc.)? A drop-off in one channel could indicate that users find the authentication experience less smooth in that environment. A/B testing experiences is one way to identify issues.
  
  
• Personalization capabilities: Are personalized experiences (based on user identity) increasing engagement and conversions? Higher engagement post-implementation can indicate that your CIAM system is contributing to more tailored user experiences.

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5. Business growth and revenue impact: the big picture 

Finally, business growth and revenue impact are critical metrics for all teams involved. A successful CIAM implementation can help increase revenue through improved experiences, uncomplicated security, and reduced friction at key touchpoints like login and checkout.

Key metrics to track:

• Revenue growth: Has the CIAM system helped reduce friction in processes like checkout or registration, leading to higher sales? A smoother experience should directly translate to conversion rates.
  
  
• Churn rate: Are fewer users leaving the platform thanks to a better experience? Look at metrics such as login success rates, password reset frequencies, account lockout incidents and self-service usage to gauge customer experiences.
  
  
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC): Has the improved login and onboarding process lowered your marketing costs? Assess how the CIAM system’s optimized login and onboarding processes have contributed to lowering marketing and acquisitions costs. 

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Measuring success across teams

Each team—product managers, architects, and digital marketers—views CIAM success through a different lens. By tracking these specific metrics, you can evaluate how well the implementation is achieving your goals. Whether it’s delivering a great user experience, improving security, ensuring compliance, or driving revenue, measuring these outcomes is essential to assess the ROI of your CIAM solution.

Want to learn more about key metrics to track? Get in touch with us or start by reading our CIAM Metrics Mind Map. 

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