KPI Examples That Actually Matter (For SaaS Teams That Want Results)

April 13, 2025

Let’s be honest — most KPI lists are fluff.
Half the metrics don’t matter. The other half? No one knows how to use them.

If you’re running a SaaS company and your dashboard is full of vanity metrics, you’re flying blind.
This guide gives you real KPI examples that actually help you make decisions — across product, sales, marketing, finance, and support.

Let’s break it down by what really matters

Product KPIs (Is Your Product Actually Working?)

SaaS lives and dies by product usage.
If people aren’t logging in, engaging, and sticking around — you’re burning cash.

Here are KPIs to watch:

Daily Active Users (DAU) / Monthly Active Users (MAU) – Are people using your tool or just signing up and ghosting?
Feature Adoption Rate – Which features are people using? Which ones are dead weight?
Time to Value (TTV) – How long until a user gets their first “aha” moment?
Churn Rate – Who’s leaving and why?
Read more on churn

Example:
SaaS company sees 40% of users drop in month one. They track feature adoption, realise no one’s using onboarding. Fix onboarding → churn drops 18%.

Marketing KPIs (Are You Driving The Right Leads?)

You don’t want more traffic. You want the right traffic.

Here’s how you measure that:

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) – How much are you spending to get one customer?
Deep dive on CAC
Cost per Lead (CPL) – If your CPL is low but CAC is high, you’re attracting tire-kickers.
Conversion Rate – Are visitors turning into leads or bouncing?
Marketing ROI – Are you getting anything back for your ad spend?
Read this if ROI’s confusing
Organic Traffic vs Paid Traffic – Which channel brings in better customers?

Bonus:
If you’re running email, watch Open Rate and Click-Through Rate (CTR) to measure engagement.

Sales KPIs (Are You Closing Deals or Just Talking?)

Too many demos? Not enough deals? These KPIs help fix that:

Sales Conversion Rate – % of leads that turn into paying customers.
Need help on this? Check this out
Average Deal Size – Bigger isn’t always better. But it tells you where to focus.
Sales Cycle Length – Are deals taking forever to close? Why?
Win Rate – Out of 10 opportunities, how many do you close?
Lead-to-Customer Ratio – Are you working too hard for each sale?
Here’s a breakdown

Tip:
Don’t just track deals. Track pipeline velocity — it tells you how fast money’s moving.

Financial KPIs (Are You Actually Profitable?)

You can’t grow a SaaS company if you don’t know your burn, margin, and revenue drivers.

Here are the KPIs you can’t ignore:

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) – How much are you making every month?
Gross Profit Margin – Revenue minus cost of service.
Read more here
Burn Rate – How fast are you spending?
Burn rate tips for startups
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) – Total value of a customer.
Maximise CLV with this guide
Return on Investment (ROI) – What’s the return on what you’re building or marketing?

Support KPIs (Can You Actually Keep Customers Happy?)

Support isn’t just tickets. It’s retention insurance.

Track these:

First Response Time – If you’re slow, people churn.
Average Resolution Time – Faster fixes = happier users.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) – Ask after every ticket. Simple 1–5 score.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) – Will they recommend you?