17 Web Conversion Metrics You Should be Tracking in Your SaaS in 2023

17 Web Conversion Metrics You Should be Tracking in Your SaaS

Are you focusing on the right conversion metrics?

Quite often, marketers get hung up on sales and bookings (aka ‘macro-conversions’) – which only give a skewed idea of how your efforts are going.

There are so many other metrics to consider – including newsletter signups, customers favoriting items, social media shares, product usage – basically, all the small steps that indicate you’re doing the right thing.

They aren’t a sale but could lead towards one.

Let’s check which conversion metrics you should be tracking and why.

Macro-conversions vs. Micro-conversions: which is more important?

The proof is in the pudding, or so the saying goes – and as a digital marketer, web agency, or developer, being able to prove the things you’re doing are working (or not) is pretty important.

So should you be focusing on tracking macro or micro-conversion metrics?

Trick question! The answer is both.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve rarely landed on a website and bought something right away. I like to shop around, compare shipping costs, reviews, and generally make sure I’m not about to get ripped off.

If it’s a really big purchase, I might follow the company on social media for a bit to see how their customer service is – or it might be their amazing social media presence that put them on my radar in the first place.

Long story short: every little interaction a customer has with your brand counts (and you can track this with user behavior analytics software!).

So what exactly are micro-conversions and macro-conversions?

Let me explain.

What is a macro-conversion?

Macro means big, and this is an accurate description: a macro-conversion is a purchase or booking.

It’s the ultimate goal of your site, and when we say ‘conversions’, this is what we usually mean.

What is a micro-conversion?

A micro-conversion is the catch-all term for all the little steps that lead towards macro-conversions.

Here are some common examples of conversion micro-conversion metrics:

  • Seeing your business’ name on a banner ad
  • Visiting your site and signing up for the newsletter
  • Following your brand on social media
  • Signing up for a free trial
  • Going back to the site and visiting specific pages
  • Allowing push notifications
  • Watching a video
  • reaching the activation point by engaging with your product’s features

Why are micro-conversions important?

Few people take the leap on their first visit, and this is especially true for big purchases or the B2B crowd.

This is why it’s important to pay attention to the little breadcrumbs that lead your customer to the sale.

To give you a better idea of how this works, here’s a typical customer journey made up of micro-conversion metrics.

  1. The customer sees one of your paid search ads on Google
  2. Lands on an optimized landing page
  3. Signs up for your newsletter
  4. Sees relevant emails
  5. Returns to the site
  6. Sign up for a free trial
  7. Engages with your onboarding in-app flows
  8. Receives reminder emails with offers to upgrade to paid
  9. Converts from free trial to a paid account

Of course, every customer journey will look a little different – but these are illustrative of some typical steps you might encounter in your own analysis.

Seeing how your customers engage at each touchpoint gives you a better idea of how well each thing is working, as well as giving you the opportunity to measure your ROI.

You’ll be able to consider your sales funnel as a whole, spot drop-off points, see which touchpoints are most effective – and generally be better informed to make smarter decisions.

17 conversion metrics you should be tracking in your SaaS in 2023

Here are some of the most relevant conversion metrics to keep an eye on.

#1 – Sessions

This is the most well-known conversion metric – and for good reason.

It shows you your number of website visits. With this data, you can work out how many people are visiting your site, and most importantly, what their referral source is.

Most analytics platforms will display this as a graph so you can see how you’re doing over a period of time.

If you spot a downward trend, you can spot which referral sources aren’t performing and address the issue. If you spot an upswing, you can work out where your best referrals are, and ramp up your spending in this area.

This conversion metric can also help you work out your conversions via a formula. With this, you can get your macro-conversion rate in seconds (depending on how good your maths is).

conversion rate formula
Conversion Rate Formula

#2 – Unique users

Website visits refer to your total number of visits – including multiple visits by one person. User data will show you how many unique visitors you have.

So if someone visits your site 3 times over the course of a week, it still just counts as ‘one’. With this data, you can see who your most interested prospects are.

#3 – Signups

Customers making a purchase, or signing up for a trial, should be at the top of your list when it comes to conversion metrics to track.

The higher the number, the healthier your business – so it makes sense to make this one of your primary goals. A high number of signups means your marketing efforts are working and your product is good.

#4 – Customer lifetime value (LTV)

Customer lifetime value (LTV) is a key metric for understanding your customers’ staying power.

While it doesn’t fall under the conversion metrics definition, it can help you understand how a long-term relationship will be an asset to your business – and therefore show you the value in nurturing that relationship.

Customer lifetime value formula

#5 – Churn indicators

When customers get less and less value from a service, it’s only a matter of time before they stop using it.

Learn to understand user behavior patterns and spot churn indicators early.

With this information, you can create a customer health score, then use that to focus your efforts on guiding users to more features to help them get the most out of your product.

The user journey should include a gradual uptake of features until the user is experiencing the full product

#6 – Feedback

Customer feedback gives you detailed, real-life information on what your customers think and feel about your brand and product.

Ask them how they feel about your service, your site, new features, and get a deeper understanding of their overall satisfaction.

#7 – User success

If a user isn’t making the most of your product and service, then they’re getting less value – which increases the likelihood of them churning.

This is why it’s important to track user success with different conversion metrics.

If a customer isn’t fully realizing the value of your product, offering them extra help or assistance, or giving them an opportunity to talk about their problems with an expert is a great way to increase their motivation and loyalty.

This is especially important during a free trial phase if you run one: by helping your prospective customer get the most out of your product, you can increase the likelihood of a purchase.

Track user success by looking at important milestones a user must reach during their trial period and after, such as activation point or adopting secondary features.

#8 – User journeys touchpoints

A user journey shows you how a customer made their way through your sales funnel.

It won’t look the same for everyone – and some people won’t make it all the way through. Reaching different touchpoints on this journey should be considered important conversion metrics to track.

Looking at the user journey of customers that churn can help you see where customers are dropping off and where you should focus your attention. A successful user’s journey can help you see what’s working so you can replicate that for new users.

You can also compare successful users’ journeys.

For example, say one customer signed up, but they went for the cheapest option; and another signed up for the full plan.

Using analytics, you can uncover how their journeys were different, and then work out how you can encourage prospects towards the more profitable choice.

Check out our guide to upsells for tips on how to get more out of each customer

#9 – Feature usage

Seeing which of your features is most popular will help you understand how your users engage with your product.

In turn, this can help you develop new features and enhance the feature adoption of your most popular ones.

It can also give you insight into which features aren’t being used so much – helping you decide whether you need to channel more efforts into helping users get the most out of them, or cutting them from your service offering.

#10 – Mobile vs. desktop bounce rate

Mobile usage is continuing to rise – so it’s important your site or platform is fast-loading and mobile-friendly.

Pay attention to your bounce rate on both mobile and desktop and compare – if it’s higher for mobile, chances are you need to improve your mobile experience so it’s on par with your desktop stats.

#11 – Load times

Providing a fantastic user experience is key to attracting users and getting them to stay. Load times play an important role in this.

When it comes to the latest conversion statistics, load times are important: one study showed that 53% of mobile visitors to a website left a website if it took them longer than 3 seconds to load.

Use a tool for speed insights and work out where there’s room for improvement.

#12 – Time on site

Working out how long your users are spending on your site or platform is calculated using session visits divided by the total duration of all sessions.

The higher this figure, the better your conversions are likely to be.

On the other hand, if you notice visitors are spending a long time on a certain page before bouncing, it could be an indication that they’re getting stuck or confused.

#13 – Interactions per visit

Every single interaction helps you better understand your visitors – whether that’s a blog post share, a comment, or favoriting an item.

The more you get to know what it is your users like and what they’re looking for, the easier it is to spot ways to improve their experience and your conversion rates.

#14 – Value per visit

Value per visit is closely linked to interactions per visit.

It’s calculated by dividing the number of visits by the total value created – which isn’t quite as simple as it sounds. Value can mean money spent if you’re an eCommerce store.

But it could also mean reviews left, social media posts shared – and so on. Decide what constitutes ‘high value’, then use your analytics tools to track the data.

Identifying top customers can help you see how their journeys are different and can help you hone your marketing efforts.

#15 – Customer acquisition cost (CAC)

This shows you how much you pay to acquire one customer.

This figure is reached by dividing your marketing spend by the number of customers – giving you an average for each one.

With this data, you can begin to understand whether your marketing efforts are delivering good ROI. (check out LTV:CAC ratio metric for more insights)

#16 – Trial-to-paid conversion rate

The end of a free trial is a crucial moment: either the customer loves your product and signs up for a paid account, or they churn.

And it’s your job to make sure users experience the value your product has to offer by providing the best onboarding experience.

Analyzing product usage after trial signup and using in-app guidance will help you increase the trial-to-paid conversion metric.

#17 – Cost per action

Whether it’s a sale or a sign-up, you want your visitors to take some form of action.

Working out the cost of those actions gives you insights into your ad campaigns and the value they’re providing.

This can help you spend your marketing money more wisely. One way to lower your cost per action is to work on improving certain elements of your site or app.

For example, imagine you’re running a PPC campaign, and that brings in 1,000 visitors a week to your newsletter sign-up landing page, 10 of whom sign up.

Rather than spending more on ads to bring more people in, it might be better to improve your landing page so that more of those 1,000 people complete the action. That way you’ll improve your conversion without spending more revenue.

Final thoughts

Having a list of conversion metrics to measure is an absolute must.

Not only does it prove your work is yielding results – it gives you a way to continually tweak and improve your campaigns, product, and in-product experiences for the best possible results.

If you’re looking to get started with tracking and optimizing your user experience in-app and drive more macro-conversions, try a product adoption tool. Get a Userpilot demo and see how it can help.

Author

Irwin Hau

Irwin Hau is a private digital strategist/business consultant and Founder of Chromatix, a multi-award-winning web design and conversion agency based in Melbourne, Australia. Since opening shop in 2009, he has gone on to amass over 70 awards and mentions for work in web design and digital solutions.

 

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