10 B2B SaaS Metrics & KPIs Every Founder Needs to Track to Optimize Performance

Tracking the right SaaS metrics might feel intimidating, but they’re the secret behind smarter decision-making and predictable growth for tech businesses.

In this guide, we’ll cut through the noise, show you the metrics that matter most, and help you turn data into action. And if you’re ready to track these metrics like a pro, grab our FREE SaaS Metrics Dashboard Template to get started.

Let’s dive in and ensure your SaaS company is set up for sustainable, scalable success.

What Are B2B SaaS Metrics?

B2B SaaS metrics are the lifeblood of decision-making in your company. They help you understand where you are, show you where you need to go and reveal the adjustments necessary to stay on course.

At their core, SaaS metrics are KPIs to measure how effectively your marketing, sales, and customer success efforts are driving growth. They answer critical questions like:

• Are your campaigns delivering real results, or are they draining resources?
• Which channels and tactics are actually bringing in qualified leads?
• Are your customer acquisition costs sustainable, or do you need to pivot?

Tracking these metrics allows you to move beyond guesswork and focus your time, money, and energy on strategies that deliver tangible outcomes. 

Imagine discovering that your customer acquisition cost (CAC) is climbing—without metrics, you might overlook this red flag until it’s too late. But with the right data in hand, you can adjust your approach to target more qualified leads or double down on high-performing channels.

B2B SaaS metrics also play a key role in aligning internal teams. They empower your marketing, sales, and product teams to speak the same language, which ensures everyone is rowing in the same direction. 

Whether you’re presenting to investors, justifying budget allocations, or guiding your next product development decision, these metrics become your best advocate. This is because they showcase your growth potential in a way that resonates with stakeholders.

B2B SaaS metrics reveal what’s working, what’s not, and where your next big opportunity lies. If you’re serious about scaling your business, understanding and leveraging these metrics is non-negotiable.

Why SaaS Marketing Metrics Are Unique

SaaS marketing metrics are different because they go beyond simple performance tracking—they measure the health of your recurring revenue model. 

In SaaS, success depends on maintaining long-term relationships with customers while scaling efficiently. And what sets SaaS metrics apart is their focus on the subscription-based nature of your business. 

Some SaaS metrics will highlight whether you’re keeping customers engaged, while others will show whether your acquisition costs align with the value each customer brings. These numbers don’t exist in isolation—they influence each other and, together, they paint a picture of your business’s performance.

Understanding the unique nature of SaaS metrics is just the first step. To truly harness their power, it’s crucial to organize your metrics into key areas that give you a comprehensive view of your business. Here’s how to structure your SaaS metrics dashboard for actionable insights.

Four Areas Your SaaS Metrics Dashboard Should Cover

Your SaaS metrics dashboard should be a tool for making smarter decisions. To get the full picture, your dashboard should focus on four key areas: Revenue, Growth, Acquisition, and Retention.

1. Revenue metrics: These metrics show how much money your business is bringing in and help you forecast future earnings. They’re the foundation for any data-driven strategy.
2. Growth metrics: Growth metrics show where you’re gaining momentum—and where you might need to adjust.
3. Acquisition metrics: How much does it cost to win a customer? These numbers tell you whether your marketing and sales efforts are efficient and whether your acquisition channels are delivering high-quality leads.
4. Retention metrics: High churn is a warning sign, while strong retention shows your product is delivering ongoing value.

By covering these four areas, your dashboard becomes a strategic tool. It helps you identify strengths, address weaknesses, and prioritize initiatives that drive meaningful results.

Download Our FREE SaaS Marketing Dashboard Template Here 👇

Start tracking the metrics that matter most to your SaaS business. Download our FREE SaaS Marketing Dashboard Template and get a ready-to-use framework to monitor performance, identify growth opportunities, and make data-driven decisions.

Track your critical SaaS KPIs and metrics

Get on your way to creating a marketing dashboard that helps you make data-backed decisions, hold your team accountable, and motivate them to succeed.  

With a clear understanding of why SaaS metrics are essential and the key areas your dashboard should cover, let’s go into the specific metrics that every B2B SaaS founder and executive should track. 

These 10 metrics form the foundation of a high-performing SaaS dashboard and give you the insights needed to drive sustainable growth and optimize your strategy.

The 10 Most Important SaaS Metrics to Include in Your Dashboard

The following key performance indicators (KPIs) provide a comprehensive picture of your company's health and performance, empowering you to make data-driven decisions. Let’s break down the top 10 B2B SaaS metrics every founder and executive needs to track:

SaaS Revenue Metrics

1. Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

This is the total revenue your SaaS company bills monthly. You should pull this straight from your billing system (like Recurly or Chargify).

Consistent growth in MRR is a positive sign of product-market fit and effective customer acquisition.

2. Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)

SaaS ARPU is also measured as Average Revenue per Customer/Account. Divide your total monthly recurring revenue (MRR) by the total number of paying accounts (customers who have paid their last bill and have a valid payment method status in your billing system for the next billing cycle).

3. Customer Life Time Value (CLV)

Now that you have ARPU, you can also calculate Customer Life Time Value (LTV) by dividing ARPU by your Churn rate. If your ARPU is $50/Month, and your churn is 0.5%/Month, your Customer LTV equals $50/0.5% = $10,000.

SaaS Growth Metrics

4. Unique Visitors 

This metric represents the number of individual visitors to your website, a strong indicator of brand visibility and reach. Growth in unique visitors shows that your content and campaigns are resonating with your target audience. Tools like Google Analytics make tracking this metric straightforward.

5. Conversions

Try to measure customer conversions through the funnel as granular as possible, as long as your data is accurate and meaningful. Here is a typical prioritized list of conversions to measure as your SaaS dashboard gets more granular:

• Leads to Customer (Wins) - How is your funnel turning opportunity into customers
• Leads/MQL to SQL - How are you converting hand-raisers into real opportunities
• Visitors to Leads - How are you turning traffic into an actual business opportunity?

Once you nail down the above three SaaS metrics, you can start measuring every step of the conversion funnel. 

SaaS Acquisition Metrics

6. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Ideally, the CAC includes all your sales and marketing costs, including people. Just divide your marketing and sales spend by the total number of paying customers for a given period of time. Don't overcomplicate this. Be generous and include all costs that you should allocate to your sales and marketing functions.

Using, for example, the LTV: CAC ratio to show the ROI on getting new customers is key to determining marketing investments.

7. Leads, MQLs, SALs, and SQLs

SaaS leads are the same as "contacts" or email addresses. When you get started, it's sufficient to define these as "hand-raisers," or people who have shown interest in an actual outreach by your SaaS team.

Examples of SaaS leads are people who have filled out an explicit "Contact me" form, or requested a product demo. Because of this, subscribers to your newsletter or people signed up to get a free gift or eBook don't count as leads.

When you get bigger, you should start differentiating your SaaS KPIs as follows:

• MQL (Marketing Qualified Leads) - These contacts have triggered multiple "buyer signals" like downloading product information, visiting a competitive comparison guide or asking for a sales conversation. These are "qualified" hand-raisers.
• SAL (Sales Accepted Leads) - You have reached out to an MQL, and have been able to get in touch. An appointment is scheduled for a phone call with a Sales Development Representative (SDR) for further qualifications.
• SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) - After the initial meeting (or sometimes the completion of an online questionnaire), these leads have been determined to be ripe for an Account Executive from the sales team to follow up and manage this lead as a sales opportunity. The sales team will now take over accountability from the marketing team and will add data like potential deal value, competitors in play, needs, budget and decision-makers (also see this article on BANT)

8. Contacts

Your SaaS contacts are also called "subscribers". This is the so-called "follow me home" metric and includes everyone who starts to follow you. Your SaaS contacts should include people who: 

• Give you their email as a newsletter subscription.
• Follow your RSS feed, podcast or Video Channel.

Contacts represent potential leads at the very top of your funnel and indicate growing interest in your SaaS offering.

SaaS Retention Metrics

9. Customer Churn

The most important SaaS KPI of all is customer retention, or the opposite, customer churn. Churn levels not only predict your future ability to grow revenue and profitability, but they also tell you if your product has reached Product-Market Fit (PMF) with your audience, and are a good indicator for the quality of your customer onboarding and support performance (Customer Success).

Initially, I recommend measuring real customer churn (# of customers churned as % of all paying customers). Don't get confused with concepts like "negative churn" where ARPU and revenue growth per customer are being mixed in. These are great SaaS KPIs to worry about later.

10. Cost-to-Service (CTS)

As you start understanding the all-up cost to service your paying customers, it's time to add this to the dashboard. Include the cost of your Customer Success team (onboarding, support), infrastructure and product (cloud capacity, engineering investments into the service) and the cost of retaining your customers with special programs (loyalty campaigns, incentives, promotions).

For a SaaS company, the ongoing cost of running a service is the key to profitability. As you get insights into your CTS you can start targeting the customers who are the ideal customers for your bottom line.

These SaaS metrics work together to tell the full story of your SaaS business. By analyzing their relationships, you can identify bottlenecks, double down on what works, and drive sustainable, profitable growth.

Secondary B2B SaaS KPIs to Track

While the top 10 SaaS metrics form the backbone of your dashboard, these secondary metrics provide additional insights into your marketing and website performance. They help refine your strategy and ensure you’re capturing every opportunity for growth.

- Website Views: At first glance, website views may seem like a vanity metric. But when paired with conversion data, they become a critical indicator of your brand’s visibility and reach. Website views feed directly into the top of your funnel. It creates opportunities for lead generation.

A steady increase in high-quality traffic often translates to higher conversion rates—provided the traffic is relevant and your messaging resonates. For example, if you notice a spike in website views but no corresponding lift in leads or MQLs, it might signal a mismatch between your content and your audience’s expectations. 

- Click-Through Rate (CTR): CTR measures how effectively your content compels users to take action, whether that’s clicking on an ad, email link, or CTA. It’s a vital link between awareness and engagement metrics, revealing how well your messaging resonates with your audience.

For instance, a high CTR on a paid ad campaign paired with low conversions might indicate that your landing page isn’t aligned with the ad’s promise. On the flip side, improving CTR can have a direct impact on MQL growth and ultimately on CAC by reducing the cost per lead.

- Average Time on Site: This metric sheds light on how engaging and relevant your website is to your visitors. While a longer average time on site often correlates with valuable content, the real insight comes when you connect it to downstream actions like form fills, demo requests, or resource downloads.

If your visitors are spending a lot of time on your site but not converting, this could indicate unclear CTAs or content that fails to guide them toward the next step. Conversely, when paired with metrics like ARPU or LTV, you can see how well your content strategy contributes to nurturing high-value customers.

- Return on Investment (ROI): ROI is a critical metric that measures the financial impact of your marketing and sales efforts. But it doesn’t exist in isolation—its true value emerges when viewed alongside metrics like CAC and CLV.

For example, a high ROI might mask inefficiencies if your CAC is climbing or your LTV is shrinking. Tracking ROI in conjunction with these core metrics ensures you’re balancing short-term wins with long-term sustainability. Use ROI as a strategic check to validate whether your efforts are not only profitable but scalable.

Now that we’ve covered the most important metrics and their supporting cast, it’s time to connect the dots. These metrics don’t exist in silos—they’re deeply interconnected. Understanding these relationships is the key to unlocking their full potential.

The Relationships Between These Key SaaS Metrics

SaaS metrics don’t operate in silos—they’re deeply interconnected. Understanding how they influence each other is key to making smarter decisions and driving sustainable growth.

• Your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Lifetime Value (LTV) reveal the balance between cost and revenue. A strong LTV-to-CAC ratio (ideally 3:1) signals efficient growth, while a weak ratio suggests the need to refine retention strategies or optimize acquisition efforts.
• Churn directly impacts Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR). Reducing churn keeps customers onboard longer, which helps stabilze and grow your revenue base—a critical factor in SaaS success.
• Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) increases when conversions turn leads into high-value customers. Optimizing your funnel improves ARPU by attracting customers who see greater value in your product.
• Cost-to-Service (CTS) determines how much it costs to serve your customers. Keeping CTS low while maintaining ARPU ensures your growth translates into healthy margins.
• More visitors mean more leads—if they’re the right audience. If visitor growth doesn’t convert into qualified leads, it’s time to revisit your content strategy.

Knowing what to track is only half the battle. To leverage these metrics effectively, you need a robust tracking process that ensures accuracy and consistency. Here’s how to set up your tracking for actionable insights.

How to Track Your B2B SaaS Metrics

Follow these steps to ensure your data is actionable and drives growth:

1. Define Clear Goals

Start by identifying your business objectives. What do you want to achieve? Whether it’s increasing customer retention or lowering CAC, your goals will determine which metrics to track.

2. Choose Relevant Metrics

Not all metrics are created equal. Focus on those that align directly with your goals. For example:

• To improve acquisition efficiency: Track CAC and ROI.
• To optimize customer success: Monitor churn, CLV, and NPS.
• To enhance marketing performance: Measure website views, CTR, and MQLs.

3. Leverage Analytics Tools

Use reliable tools to collect and analyze your data. Some popular choices include:

• Google Analytics: For website traffic and behavior.
• HubSpot or Marketo: For lead tracking and campaign performance.
• Recurly or Stripe: For revenue metrics like MRR and ARPU.

4. Set Up Accurate Tracking

Implement tracking codes and integrations to ensure data accuracy. This may include:

• Adding tracking pixels to your website.
• Enabling event tracking for key actions (e.g., demo requests, form submissions).
• Configuring your CRM to sync with marketing and billing tools.

5. Monitor and Analyze Regularly

Schedule regular reviews of your metrics to uncover trends and bottlenecks. Ask yourself:

• Are your campaigns hitting performance benchmarks?
• Which channels are driving the most qualified leads?
• Are there any unexpected spikes or declines in key metrics?

6. Share Insights with Stakeholders

Communicate findings to key team members and executives. Create simple yet insightful reports that highlight:

• Progress toward goals.
• Recommendations for improvement.
• Any urgent adjustments needed.

7. Optimize Based on Data

Act on the insights you’ve gathered. For example:

• Low CTR? Update ad copy or CTAs to better resonate with your audience.
• High churn? Revisit onboarding and customer success strategies.
• Inefficient CAC? Shift resources to higher-performing channels.

Best Practices for Monitoring and Analyzing SaaS Metrics

It is important to note that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to tracking metrics. 

Every B2B SaaS company is unique, and the metrics that matter most for them will depend on factors such as the stage of growth, target market, and business model. Therefore, you must identify the metrics that matter most for your specific goals and objectives and track them consistently over time.

When it comes to B2B SaaS metrics, keep an eye on the big picture. Metrics such as CAC, CLV, and ROI are interdependent, and optimizing one metric at the expense of another can lead to suboptimal results. By taking a holistic approach to metrics and regularly evaluating their performance, you can effectively drive growth and increase the likelihood of your success.

Unlock Hidden Opportunities in Your SaaS Metrics with Kalungi

Unlock the full potential of your SaaS metrics with Kalungi. 

Whether you’re refining your funnel, reducing churn, or optimizing your LTV-to-CAC ratio, our team specializes in helping B2B SaaS companies like yours turn data into actionable strategies that drive growth. Let us show you how to build a metrics-driven foundation for scalable success. 

Book your free discovery call today and start seeing measurable results!

Track your critical SaaS KPIs and metrics

Get on your way to creating a marketing dashboard that helps you make data-backed decisions, hold your team accountable, and motivate them to succeed.