12 Go-To-Market (GTM) Metrics You Should Track for SaaS

What GTM metrics should you track as a product marketer? And how?

On your way to building a go-to-market strategy to launch a new product, you might wonder the former question a lot. And with so many indicators you could be tracking, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

That’s why we’re going to show you 12 of the most important product analytics metrics that you’ll need in order to measure your product success.

So, let’s start with the basics:

TL;DR

• A Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy is an action plan that outlines the time, the place, the positioning, the audience, and the goal of a new product or service.
• The main parts of a GTM strategy involve understanding the target audience, shaping an effective value proposition, establishing effective distribution channels, and comprehending the competitive landscape.
• GTM metrics are pieces of data or indicators that help product marketers like you keep track of the success of their strategy. They can reveal customer interactions, patterns, and preferences.
• There are 12 essential GTM metrics that every SaaS should know about:

1. New user growth rate. Represents the speed at which your customer base increases over a specific period.
2. Customer acquisition cost. The total expense of bringing a new customer on board.
3. Customer churn rate. The percentage of subscribers who discontinue their subscriptions within a given time period.
4. Customer lifetime value. The total revenue a company can expect from a single customer over the course of their relationship.
5. Customer activation rate. The percentage of new users who accomplish a significant action within your product during a specific time frame.
6. Monthly and annual recurring revenue. The consistent and predictable revenue a company can expect to receive over a period of time, either monthly (MRR) or annual (ARR).
7. Number of qualified leads. Leads who meet some criteria that make them more likely to become customers. They can either be marketing-qualified leads (MQLs), sales-qualified leads (SQLs), or product-qualified leads (PQLs).
8. Net Promoter Score. Gauges customer satisfaction and loyalty by asking users how likely they are to recommend your product to a friend or colleague.
9. Demo bookings. The number of people who are interested in your product or service enough to schedule a demo.
10. Website traffic. The number of visitors frequenting your site, and is a basic metric that every business should track to know the impact of GTM strategies. It can be organic or non-organic.
11. Support tickets. Documented customer queries, issues, or needs related to your product.
12. Return on ad spend. The profitability of your advertising expenditure provides a clear picture of the effectiveness of your ad campaigns.

• Since you need a reliable platform to track any relevant data, why not book a Userpilot demo to see how you can keep track of your GTM strategy performance?

What is a go-to-market strategy?

A Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy is an action plan that outlines the time, the place, the positioning, the audience, and the goal of a new product or service. It involves identifying your unique selling proposition, target customer segment, sales and marketing strategies, and competitive analysis.

While there is an overlap, a GTM strategy differs from a marketing strategy and a product strategy in its scope. This is because a GTM strategy is strictly focused on product launches and campaigns and involves both product and marketing strategies in order to release a successful product that meets the market demands.

What are the main parts of a GTM strategy?

From defining a unique value proposition to outlining the key performance indicators (KPIs), each component of your GTM strategy will directly impact the success of a product. So, let’s break down what your strategy document should include:

• Objectives and Key Results (OKRs): Where objectives are measurable goals, key results are the effect of the process used to meet these goals. It acts as a framework to set, implement, and monitor progress towards your GTM goals.
• Unique Value Proposition: Your brand’s competitive advantage that distinguishes your product or service from the competition. Its goal is to reveal the value customers receive for the money paid.
• Target Market and Audience: This is the people your product is designed for. Make sure to create data-backed user personas to understand how your product meets their needs and JTBDs.
• Marketing and Sales Plan: A robust plan detailing how you’re going to reach out and attract customers, including channels, messaging, campaigns, and tasks.
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): These measure the effectiveness and performance of your actions at achieving a key result.
• GTM metrics: The data and statistics you’ll use to determine how your GTM strategy and overall business performance are faring in reality.

What are go-to-market metrics?

Go-to-market metrics or GTM metrics are pieces of data or indicators that help product marketers like you keep track of the success of their strategy.

In SaaS, these marketing metrics can reveal customer interactions, patterns, and preferences, allowing you to make a diagnosis on how well you’re attracting, converting, and retaining customers—and fix potential problems if you spot a bottleneck.

12 important GTM metrics to track for SaaS

Now, what are the most essential GTM metrics for a SaaS business?

Let’s explore 12 of them, see why they’re so important, and how you can measure them successfully:

1. New user growth rate

Looking at your new users is good, but it won’t provide a big enough picture if you don’t calculate how your number of new customers is growing.

The new user growth rate represents the speed at which your customer base increases over a specific period. It tells you how effective your GTM strategy is in attracting new customers, or if there’s a decline and you need to recalibrate your tactics.

That said, keeping track of this metric aids you in making informed product marketing decisions during your product releases.

How to measure

Calculating the new user growth rate is simple. Start by subtracting the number of lost users from the number of new users at the end of a period. Then, divide that number by the total number of users.

Finally, multiply the result by 100 to get your new user growth rate in percentage.

2. Customer acquisition cost

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total expense of bringing a new customer on board. For marketing and sales teams, it’s an essential metric to understand how many customers you’re generating from your investments—making it a metric that’s closely tied to profitability.

In short: The lower the CAC, the more effective your GTM strategy is.

How to measure

To calculate customer acquisition cost (CAC), divide your total marketing and sales costs by the number of new customers acquired during a specific time period. So, if you spent $5000 on marketing and sales in a month and acquired 50 new customers, your CAC would be $100.

As a benchmark, note that the average CAC in SaaS is $702, although it varies drastically based on the industry and business model.

3. Customer churn rate

The churn rate represents the percentage of subscribers who discontinue their subscriptions within a given time period. It makes aware of customer dissatisfaction problems and spots trends that cause customer abandonment.

A high customer churn can mean that the user experience is frustrating, that customer service is unhelpful, or worse, that there’s no product-market fit.

How to measure

The churn rate is calculated by dividing the number of customers you lost during that period (say, a quarter or year) by the number of customers you had at the start of that period. For example, if you started with 500 customers and lost 20 during the year, your churn rate would be 20/500 = 0.04, or 4%.

4. Customer lifetime value

Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) is the total revenue a company can expect from a single customer over the course of their relationship. It helps forecast the long-term profitability of your sales and marketing efforts—allowing you to iterate your strategy to maximize the longevity and profitability of customer relationships.

How to measure

To calculate LTV, you’ll first need to find the average purchase value of your product, then multiply that by the average number of purchases a customer makes in a year—which results in the customer value per year.

Then, multiply this figure by the average customer lifespan to get your customer lifetime value.

Pro tip: Additionally, you can pair it with CAC to calculate the LTV/CAC ratio and measure the real long-term profitability of acquiring customers. All you need to do is divide your average LTV by CAC, so the higher the ratio, the more profitable your GTM strategy is.

5. Customer activation rate

Customer activation rate measures the percentage of new users who accomplish a significant action within your product during a specific time frame. This “activation action” could be anything from creating a project to making a purchase or any indication that the user has realized the value of your product.

In SaaS, this metric provides an early indicator of your product’s stickiness. So, the higher it is, the more likely it is that users will find value in your product and become repeat customers.

How to measure

To calculate the customer activation rate, divide the number of activated users by the total number of users acquired in that same time frame, then multiply the result by 100 to get a percentage.

Pro tip: With a customer success tool like Userpilot, you can define and monitor multiple “activation points” throughout the user journey to see how many users are successfully progressing from one milestone to the next. This way, you gain enhanced visibility into your GTM strategy performance and how effectively it engages users.

6. Monthly and annual recurring revenue

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) and Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) sound self-explanatory and similar but serve different purposes.

Monthly Recurring Revenue gives you a short-term view of your revenue, providing insights into monthly trends, growth rates, and more pressing problems.

On the other hand, ARR reflects your yearly revenue based on your current customers, enabling long-term planning, decision-making, and forecasting (plus gauging long-term profitability).

How to measure

Measuring MRR and ARR is straightforward. For the MRR, you sum up the recurring revenue from all your customers in a given month. For ARR, you multiply your MRR by 12.

Now, note that you need to count the revenue that’s recurrent, either coming from the value of subscriptions or an agreed monthly payment from a long-term contract.

For instance, if you have three customers paying you $100, $200, and $300 respectively, your MRR would be $600, and your ARR would be ($600 x 12) = $7200.

7. Number of qualified leads

Qualified leads are potential customers who have expressed interest and meet some criteria that make them more likely to become customers. This qualification can be based on the actions they’ve taken, the information they’ve provided, or how they’ve engaged with your brand.

In general, there are three types of qualified leads you should be aware of:

1. Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs): These are leads that have engaged with your marketing team’s efforts but are not yet ready to receive a sales call.
2. Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs): Unlike MQLs, SQLs are ready for direct sales follow-up. They have typically gone through a lead qualification process by your sales team, determining their intent and ability to purchase.
3. Product Qualified Leads (PQLs): PQLs have tried your product (often via a freemium or trial model) and had a positive experience. They have experienced the value of your product firsthand and are considered likely to convert to a paying customer.

How to measure

To measure the number of qualified leads, you begin by looking at leads coming from various sources, including website visits, demo requests, and marketing campaigns. And then, you subtract the number of disqualified leads.

However, not all leads are created equal, and you can also calculate the conversion rate from MQL to SQL to measure the effectiveness of your sales process. For this, divide the number of SQLs by the number of MQLs, then multiply the result by 100 to get a percentage:

8. Net Promoter Score

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) gauges customer satisfaction and loyalty by sending one straightforward survey asking, “On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our product/service to a friend or colleague?”

Responses are then segmented into three groups:

• Promoters (score 9-10). Loyal supporters who are likely to refer others to your product, boosting organic growth through positive word of mouth (WoM).
• Passives (score 7-8). Users who are satisfied yet vulnerable to competitors’ offers.
• Detractors (score 0-6). Unhappy clients who are likely to leave negative reviews or word of mouth.

How to measure

To calculate the Net Promoter Score (NPS), you start by sending an NPS survey asking the question we mentioned earlier.

Then, based on their responses, you calculate NPS by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters.

9. Demo bookings

Demo bookings are the number of people who are interested in your product or service enough to schedule a demo.

It not only helps you understand your product’s appeal but also impacts your sales pipeline directly. If your demo bookings increase, your sales opportunities likely will too.

That said, by keeping an eye on this number, your sales team will be able to spot trends and adjust your strategies accordingly to ensure product marketing success.

How to measure

To measure the number of demo bookings, you need to use a tool like Userpilot. That’s because these tools can track different types of unique events in your app so you can easily stay on track.

However, tracking can be further refined by applying filters to your data. For instance, you might want to view demo bookings by a particular segment of users or see the channels where these leads are coming from (social media, ads, SEO, etc.).

10. Website Traffic

Website traffic is the number of visitors frequenting your site and is a basic metric that every business should track if they want to know the impact of GTM strategies.

Traffic also has many forms. For instance, there’s organic traffic, which refers to visitors who land on your website naturally as a result of unpaid search results, direct URLs, or social media. Meanwhile, non-organic traffic comes from paid search and social media ads, reflecting your paid marketing tactic’s success.

How to measure

To measure website traffic, you need a platform like Google Analytics where you can keep track of both page views (total number of pages visited) and unique visitors (the number of distinct individuals visiting your website).

Plus, these platforms also provide other types of data such as bounce rates, time on page, and pages visited by session. These can give you an idea of the quality of the traffic you’re bringing and avoid being fooled when receiving high traffic but low traction.

11. Support tickets

As a metric, support tickets refer to documented customer queries, issues, or needs related to your product. They’re crucial because if your product continually accumulates a high number of support tickets, it could indicate underlying product issues or gaps in user education.

Plus, tracking support tickets can also help you detect common problems and resolve them quickly, resulting in an improved user experience.

How to measure

Customer service platforms like Zendesk can reliably measure support tickets, thus providing vital insights into customer interactions.

However, these platforms also track important metrics, including response time, time to resolution, first contact resolution rate, and more.

These indicators help categorize and analyze your support tickets data to get a deeper understanding of your team’s performance and pinpoint areas for improvement. For instance, a longer time to resolution might indicate a need for additional training for your support staff or complex issues that may require a more efficient solution.

12. Return on ad spend

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) indicates the profitability of your advertising expenditure and provides a clear picture of the effectiveness of your ad campaigns.

With this metric, you can know which ads you should invest in for maximum impact. This way, you can effectively control your marketing spend, optimize ad performance, and ultimately generate leads and grow your business by focusing on what works best.

How to measure

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is a simple calculation: just divide the revenue your business earns from a particular paid ad campaign by the total amount of money you spent on that same campaign. Note that this will often require having a robust tracking system in place to correctly attribute revenue to the specific campaign.

If the result is greater than 1, it means you’re gaining more than you’re spending. If it’s less than 1, it means the campaign is costing more than it’s bringing in.

Measure and improve GTM metrics with Userpilot

There’s very little you can measure for your GTM goals if you don’t use anything more than Google Analytics.

That’s why we think Userpilot acts as a solid option for product marketers looking to measure and enhance their GTM metrics. It can help you track most metrics we covered in this article, trigger personalized in-app flows, build a knowledge base, and conduct product research.

Here are the key features that you can use for your GTM strategy:

• In-app surveys: Userpilot helps gather qualitative data through in-app surveys, allowing you to gain direct feedback from your users and thereby helping enhance your product experience.
• In-app flows: It aids in creating personalized user flows that can boost user retention and engagement by guiding users to find value in your product faster.
• In-app resource center: You can build an on-brand knowledge base so users don’t need to leave your app in order to find answers.
• Event-tracking: This provides valuable data about your users’ behavior, enabling you to better understand their needs, their struggles, and their points of success.
• Advanced product analytics: This is where you can visualize how users advance through the user journey, convert across the funnel, and engage with your app.

Conclusion

Interpreting GTM metrics is key for product marketing success.

The ability to measure new user growth rates, customer acquisition costs, churn rate, customer lifetime value, and other key performance indicators is powerful. These metrics can give you comprehensive insights to optimize your strategy and drive your product to market more effectively.

But since you need a reliable platform to track any relevant data, why not book a Userpilot demo to see how you can keep track of your GTM strategy performance?