Brian Balfour

MARCH 21, 2017

Most growth communities, forums, and email lists will inevitably have that thread that goes: “Hey, what are the benchmarks everyone’s seeing for X?” I constantly find people seeking out benchmarks or pointing to benchmarks, and we’ve all been there -- who doesn’t want some normalizing data to understand whether we’re on track or not?

Benchmarks 40

Benchmarks Business Model Acquisition Subscription 40

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 21, 2014

This post is part of a continuing series evaluating the S-1s of publicly traded SaaS companies in order to better understand the core business and build a library of benchmarks that might be useful to founders. All of the businesses we’ve looked at in the past have been purely SaaS businesses.

Benchmarks 100

Benchmarks SaaS Payments Metrics Scale 100

OpenView Labs

SEPTEMBER 17, 2019

This week we released our third annual Expansion SaaS Benchmarks report. But benchmarks alone are not enough. We’ve got to make the leap from benchmarks to action. Here’s our advice on how to use the benchmark data to grow even faster in 2020. This finding doesn’t come as a major surprise. Your action items for 2020.

Benchmarks 41

Benchmarks Underperforming Technical Team Scale SaaS 41

OPEXEngine

JUNE 23, 2021

The CAC Payback Period, also known as Months to Recover Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), measures the number of months of subscription revenue it takes to recover the costs to acquire one customer. This metric is one of the many ways to look at the capital efficiency and profitability of a SaaS business.

Benchmarks 52

Benchmarks Acquisition SMB Subscription 52

Andreessen Horowitz

AUGUST 22, 2023

Investors often use 3x LTV:CAC as a rough benchmark of a consumer company’s financial health. If your customer lifetime value (LTV) is 3 or more times your customer acquisition cost (CAC) within 5 years, that means your company has efficient returns on sales and marketing spend. and thus COGS (cost of goods sold) structures.

Customer Lifetime Value 71

Customer Lifetime Value Benchmarks Investment Metrics 71

ProfitWell

NOVEMBER 13, 2019

Comparing KPI data against benchmarks highlights whether your company’s performance is improving or not in that area. A business is only as successful as the cash flow it’s likely to generate in the future, and this is where KPIs really come in handy. KPIs are also useful for establishing internal benchmarks for progress.

Subscription 80

Subscription Payment Features Customer Lifetime Value Benchmarks 80

OPEXEngine

AUGUST 31, 2021

High customer acquisition costs, like some low conversion rates, shouldn’t automatically be considered a bad signal. Although any CFO would like to pair low customer acquisition costs (CAC) with high lifetime value (LTV), instances in which these metrics move in opposite directions aren’t necessarily bad.

Metrics 52

Metrics SaaS Acquisition Business Model 52

Stax

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

And because of the digital nature of SaaS businesses and their subscription-based business models, the ability to collect data on how the company is performing is easier and faster than ever. It helps businesses understand the effectiveness of their customer acquisition and retention strategies.

SaaS Payments 88

SaaS Payments Payments Payment Services Stax 88

Totango

DECEMBER 28, 2021

Knowing how to fight customer churn is critical for keeping SaaS business models sustainable. The more customers you lose to churn, the more you have to invest in new customer acquisition to maintain your revenue, and the harder it becomes to grow your business.

Churn 95

Churn Strategy Technical Review Benchmarks 95

CustomerSuccessBox

MARCH 25, 2021

Financial Mathematics of a SaaS business model. SaaS business models are different from traditional business models. Unlike the traditional business model, where once the opportunity is marked closed-won, it’s time to celebrate, but when it comes to SaaS, the acquisition is not the end game.

Retention 52

Retention SaaS Payments B2B Business 52

Baremetrics

APRIL 21, 2021

Forecasting your SaaS financing position to improve your business model is made exponentially easier with Baremetrics. If you’re curious about how your churn stacks up with similar companies, our Open Benchmarks show you average churn rates based on average revenue per user. You may not even have a product yet.

Finance 98

Finance Scale SaaS Forecasting 98

Chaotic Flow

MAY 13, 2014

These stages define a SaaS Metrics Maturity Model that provides a SaaS metrics roadmap along with benchmarks at each stage of development for SaaS companies that aspire to become a Metrics-driven SaaS Business. SaaS Metrics Maturity Model Stage 1: SaaS Financial Metrics Mastery.

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Metrics SaaS Compensation Benchmarks 135

OPEXEngine

JANUARY 25, 2022

Though the SaaS segment hasn’t emerged untouched from market-wide volatility, SaaS continues to attract high multiples and significant investment interest in companies with strong business models and strong growth rates. G&A Spend in IPO Year. Substantial variances related to your accounting and organization do not go unnoticed.

Venture Capital 52

Venture Capital Cybersecurity Forecasting Finance 52

CustomerSuccessBox

JUNE 30, 2022

This eventually translates into the importance of keeping track of the User Adoption Rate , especially when you’re running a subscription-based business model. Which acquisition channels have the highest adoption rates? User Adoption Rate benchmarks in SaaS. What is User Adoption?

Business 52

Business SaaS Customer Lifetime Value Benchmarks 52

Baremetrics

AUGUST 8, 2021

For most SaaS businesses, customer acquisition is one of the most challenging stages of growth. For most, the easiest ways to increase customer acquisition rates are to offer a freemium model or price your product on the lower end of the spectrum. Table of Contents. Results in an Increase in Revenue 2.

Pricing 111

Pricing SaaS Scale Churn 111

User Pilot

MARCH 14, 2023

However, before we dive into different techniques you can use to drive conversions and analyze some successful examples, we look at the upsides and downsides of using the freemium model along with some useful benchmarks. With greater awareness come lower customer acquisition costs and a larger customer base.

SaaS 98

SaaS Onboarding Benchmarks B2B 98

Chart Mogul

JUNE 9, 2023

After analyzing data from over 2,100 SaaS startups to publish the SaaS Benchmarks Report 2023 Sid is full of insights on the topic at hand. Logo acquisition is harder: upselling and retention are crucial. Sid Jain, Senior Analyst at ChartMogul, joins to moderate the discussion.

Trends 52

Trends SaaS Payments Payment Solutions 52

Totango

AUGUST 25, 2022

For software service providers, customer engagement SaaS strategies play a central role in a successful business model. Proactive interactions with your customers can increase satisfaction and retention, driving repeat business and referral revenue. Balancing Customer Acquisition Costs and Lifetime Value.

Engagement 96

Engagement Strategy SaaS Scale 96

Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

APRIL 14, 2014

Publishing an insightful white paper, a blog post, benchmark data, or some other valuable content reinforces your credibility and makes a positive impression. It's part of the customer acquisition costs that make the SaaS business model so challenging. A "one and done" approach won't work.

SaaS 113

SaaS Acquisition Benchmarks Finance 113

OPEXEngine

MAY 22, 2020

And I’d point out that you need to benchmark both the performance metrics and the underlying individual metrics to diagnose exactly where to focus on improvement. Operators like looking at individual metrics but to understand them, you need good benchmarks to identify those metrics that are out of whack for your model.

Metrics 52

Metrics SaaS Deferred Revenue Benchmarks 52

Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

Unfortunately, in most cases neither that metric nor that benchmark are very useful for SaaS providers. SaaS marketers are usually better off with a metric more appropriate to the unique SaaS business model: marketing spend as a percentage of the lifetime value of the customer.

Marketing 100

Marketing SaaS Benchmarks Acquisition 100

OPEXEngine

MAY 18, 2021

To look at how NRR is analyzed as a valuation metric, the company stage isn’t as important as the sales model. NRR benchmarks depend on whether you are selling into the SMB or enterprise market. . Equally as important, NPS underpins referral marketing as a driver of new customer acquisition and growth.

SaaS Payments 98

SaaS Payments Metrics Payments Payment Services 98

OPEXEngine

JUNE 11, 2020

The terms aren’t universally understood, nor are the implications of each on the financial model of a company, so the following is an effort to provide an overview. At OPEXEngine, we pull apart the different nuances of each business model to make sure we are benchmarking companies correctly.

SaaS Payments 52

SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Subscription Payment Features 52

ProfitWell

JULY 21, 2020

That’s why today I’m sharing tips and tricks on how to reduce your customer acquisition costs while maintaining customer lifetime value. But, as you grow, you learn that your customer acquisition efforts need to be strategic—or else you risk spending more money than you rake in. Let’s first dive into customer acquisition cost.

Customer Lifetime Value 54

Customer Lifetime Value B2B Acquisition Forecasting 54

ProfitWell

JANUARY 13, 2020

Setting an effective price for your subscription business requires an understanding of the optimal pricing method to support not only the goals of your business but your acquisition strategy as well. The impact of value metrics on company growth via Pricing and growth benchmarks. Using pricing as a growth lever.

Pricing 52

Pricing Subscription Payment Features Strategy 52

ProfitWell

NOVEMBER 11, 2019

Customer churn is the silent killer of the subscription business. With rising customer acquisition costs (CAC) over the past five years and more market competition than ever, anything you can do to keep customers around longer is vital to your business. Learn more here: How involuntary churn is killing business.

Churn 40

Churn B2C Benchmarks Software Review 40

OpenView Labs

MARCH 24, 2020

There weren’t any tried-and-true methods for measuring the health of a business with revenue that cost quite a bit of capital to acquire, and then paid itself back over long stretches of time with annual (or monthly) contracts. Think monitoring customer acquisition costs (CAC), LTV: CAC and the magic number. Why do we love PLG?

Metrics 43

Metrics Scale SaaS Sales Hiring 43

OPEXEngine

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). Especially now, since the onset of the pandemic, most companies have shifted some acquisition resources to customer retention—especially in 2020, look at what was spent on acquiring new customers and back-out anything that doesn’t apply. Take CAC, for example.

Systems Review 52

Systems Review Technical Review Payment Features Scale 52

User Pilot

OCTOBER 31, 2022

Engaged users keep using your product for a long time, which increases revenue and helps you minimize customer acquisition costs. So your best bet would be to observe your users for a while to create a benchmark and then compare the data with individual users. High engagement leads to retention and drives revenue.

Engagement 98

Engagement Metrics Strategy Churn 98

OPEXEngine

FEBRUARY 22, 2022

Instead, SMM SaaS companies will leverage Inside Sales and Channel Partners coupled with digital marketing to drive down Customer Acquisition Costs. This strategy allows for a portfolio approach giving the company more flexibility in managing its Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)/Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio. Direct Sales.

SaaS Payments 52

SaaS Payments Payment Services Payment Methods Marketplace as a Service 52

OpenView Labs

JANUARY 29, 2020

How to optimize your freemium model. Stories of ditching a freemium model. When is freemium the right strategy for your business? Is Freemium The Right Business Model? Is freemium an effective lead generation, conversion, and revenue driving strategy for your recurring revenue-based business?

Pricing 82

Pricing Payments SaaS Payments Payment Solutions 82

ChurnZero

MARCH 18, 2022

Yours is, you have a super low Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) so you can justify that with the super high churn. If they don’t get 150% NRR, then it actually breaks the business model. To me, you should have a narrative about what your business model is. A [Dave]: Yeah, in general. What’s your NRR?”

Customer Success 98

Customer Success Metrics SaaS Banking 98

Chargify

OCTOBER 21, 2020

Finally, the metrics selected need to be benchmarked against industry best practices, your peers, and, when available, past organizational performance. There is no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to identifying metrics to monitor your business’ performance. Customer Acquisition Cost. Identifying Metrics.

Subscription 63

Subscription Payment Features Payment Services SaaS Payments 63

Casey Accidental

JUNE 9, 2020

These plans included a lot of the goals you likely have in your company: improvements in acquisition, activation, and retention. across business models, customer types, etc. For acquisition, retention is the enabler of the best acquisition strategies. But long term, how high could we push this retention number?

Retention 145

Retention Benchmarks Payments Payment Methods 145

Point Nine Land

MARCH 18, 2019

The SaaS component should also be able to operate as a standalone tool, which is becoming increasingly tricky as the number of SaaS tools available continues to rise and customer acquisition costs skyrocket. In certain cases, it can even become a core revenue driver of your business with the marketplace acting as the hook to acquire users.

Marketplace as a Service 50

Marketplace as a Service Payment Features Scale Pricing 50

CustomerSuccessBox

NOVEMBER 9, 2021

The SaaS Business Model. But the SaaS vendor must pay all its expenses on acquisition right away. Here are 7 customer success metrics to record if you are a SaaS business. Why SaaS Business Model works? How do we know the model is working if there is a huge negative cash flow? SaaS is magic!

Business Model 52

Business Model SaaS Business Software Review 52

Baremetrics

JANUARY 24, 2021

The benchmark customer churn for SaaS for SMBs is 5%. We knew if we wanted to keep our business growing, we needed to figure out why so many customers were leaving, and provide the value-add they need to stay. We were looking to relaunch the user-driven, SaaS side of our businesses. At 19.20%, we were dramatically off-base.

Churn 71

Churn SaaS Payments Payment Methods Payment Solutions 71