10 Essential B2B Marketing KPIs Your Agency Should Track

By:
Declan
February 18, 2024

B2B marketers understand the importance of measuring the success of their marketing campaigns. Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) is crucial for assessing the effectiveness of marketing strategies, optimising performance, and making informed decisions. By monitoring these metrics, marketing teams can align their efforts with business goals and drive growth.

When it comes to B2B marketing, there are several KPIs that are essential to track. These metrics provide valuable insights into the performance of your marketing campaigns and help you understand how well you are meeting your targets. From website traffic to conversion rates, each KPI plays a specific role in evaluating your marketing efforts.

In this article, we will explore 10 essential B2B marketing KPIs that your agency should be monitoring. These metrics cover various aspects of your marketing strategy, from generating leads to measuring customer lifetime value. By tracking these KPIs, you can effectively evaluate your marketing campaigns and make data-driven decisions to improve your overall performance.

Key Takeaways:

  • Tracking B2B marketing KPIs is essential for measuring campaign success and optimising performance.
  • Setting SMART goals before determining KPIs ensures clarity and alignment with business objectives.
  • ROI is not a KPI but a metric that assesses performance after the fact.
  • Essential B2B marketing KPIs include website traffic, conversion rate, cost per lead, MQL to SQL conversion rate, customer acquisition cost, and customer lifetime value.
  • Monitoring these KPIs helps in understanding campaign effectiveness, optimising marketing budgets, and making data-driven decisions.

How to Set B2B Campaign Goals and KPIs

Before launching a B2B marketing campaign, it is crucial to establish clear and measurable goals. These goals serve as a roadmap for your marketing team, guiding their efforts and ensuring alignment with broader business objectives. Setting goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound is key to success.

To begin, take a deep dive into your marketing data. Analyse past performance, identify areas for improvement, and leverage insights to inform your campaign goals. Consider your target audience, market trends, and competition when defining your objectives.

Next, involve your sales team in the goal-setting process. They have valuable insights into customer needs, pain points, and market opportunities. Their input will help you set realistic and impactful goals that align marketing and sales efforts.

While return on investment (ROI) is an important metric to track, it is not a KPI. ROI is calculated after the fact and does not provide real-time insights into campaign performance. Instead, focus on lead-related KPIs, such as conversion rates, marketing qualified leads, or sales qualified leads. These metrics will help you measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and drive meaningful results.

Once you have defined your goals, it's time to identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will track your progress. Consider the entire sales funnel and choose KPIs that align with each stage. For example, you may set KPIs for website traffic, lead generation, conversion rates, or customer acquisition costs.

Finally, communicate your campaign goals and KPIs clearly to your marketing team. Ensure that everyone understands the objectives and the importance of meeting the KPIs. Regularly monitor and analyse the data to gauge campaign performance, make data-driven adjustments, and optimise your marketing strategies.

General KPIs displayed on a screen.

The Importance of KPIs in B2B Marketing

KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) play a crucial role in B2B marketing. These metrics are essential for measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and determining the success of marketing strategies. By tracking KPIs, businesses can optimise their marketing initiatives, make data-driven decisions, and ensure that their marketing efforts are aligned with their overall business goals.

KPIs provide valuable insights into marketing performance, allowing businesses to assess the impact of their marketing campaigns and make necessary adjustments. With the help of KPIs, marketers can identify which strategies are working and which need improvement, enabling them to allocate their resources effectively.

One of the primary benefits of tracking KPIs is the ability to optimise marketing budgets. By analysing the performance of various marketing activities, businesses can identify the most cost-effective strategies and allocate their budgets accordingly. This ensures that every dollar spent on marketing yields the highest possible return on investment.

Furthermore, KPIs play a significant role in measuring the impact of marketing on sales. By monitoring key metrics such as conversion rates and customer acquisition costs, businesses can evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing efforts in generating leads and driving sales. This helps in identifying areas for improvement and refining the overall marketing strategy.

Key Takeaways:

  • KPIs are essential for measuring the effectiveness of B2B marketing campaigns.
  • Tracking KPIs helps in optimising marketing initiatives and making data-driven decisions.
  • KPIs provide insights into marketing performance and ensure alignment with business goals.
  • KPIs help in optimising marketing budgets and measuring the impact of marketing on sales.

While your business is improving its KPI strategy, don't forget to take a look at other Advanced Techniques proven to boost your agency's rankings.

Types of Marketing KPIs in B2B

When it comes to measuring the success of marketing efforts in B2B companies, it is important to track the right key performance indicators (KPIs). These KPIs can be classified into different types, each providing valuable insights into various aspects of marketing performance and effectiveness.

Quantitative KPIs

  • Acquired Customers: The number of new customers gained through marketing initiatives.
  • Generated Leads: The number of potential customers who have shown interest in your products or services.

Qualitative KPIs

  • Customer Satisfaction: The level of satisfaction customers have with your products, services, or overall experience.
  • Brand Awareness: The extent to which your brand is recognized and remembered by your target audience.

Leading KPIs

  • Marketing Qualified Leads: The number of leads that are likely to convert into paying customers based on predefined criteria.
  • Conversion Rate: The percentage of website visitors who take a desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.

Lagging KPIs

  • Customer Retention Rate: The percentage of customers who continue to do business with your company over a specific time period.
  • Revenue Growth: The increase in revenue over a given period, indicating the overall financial performance of your marketing efforts.

Input KPIs

  • Marketing Budget Allocation: The amount of resources allocated to marketing initiatives and campaigns.
  • Cost Per Lead (CPL): The average cost incurred to generate a lead.

Output KPIs

  • Return on Investment (ROI): The measure of the profitability of your marketing campaigns.
  • Sales Revenue: The total revenue generated from sales attributed to marketing efforts.

Directional KPIs

  • Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): The total value a customer brings to your business during their entire relationship with your company.
  • Net Promoter Score (NPS): A metric that gauges the likelihood of customers recommending your products or services to others.

By tracking these marketing KPIs, B2B companies can gain valuable insights into their marketing performance, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions to optimise their marketing strategies and drive business growth.

Modern working environment showing 4 people in a discussion.

Key SaaS Marketing KPIs

In SaaS marketing, tracking key metrics is crucial for measuring performance and ensuring business success. By monitoring these metrics, marketers can gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns, customer retention rates, revenue generation, and overall profitability. Let's explore the key SaaS marketing KPIs that every business should track:

  1. Unique Visitors: The number of distinct individuals who visit your website or platform.
  2. Contacts: The total number of individuals who have provided their contact information through forms or inquiries.
  3. Leads: The number of potential customers who have shown interest in your products or services.
  4. Conversions: The number of leads that have completed a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a trial.
  5. Churn: The rate at which customers cancel or stop using your SaaS product.
  6. Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR): The predictable revenue generated from subscription-based services on a monthly basis.
  7. Average Revenue Per User (ARPU): The average amount of revenue generated per user over a specific period of time.
  8. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): The total value a customer brings to your business over their entire lifetime.
  9. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): The cost associated with acquiring a new customer.
  10. Cost-to-Service: The cost incurred to provide and maintain your SaaS product or service.

By tracking these SaaS marketing KPIs through comprehensive dashboards and analytics tools, businesses can make data-driven decisions, optimise marketing strategies, and improve overall performance. These metrics offer valuable insights into customer behaviour, revenue trends, and the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. By understanding and leveraging these key metrics, businesses can drive growth and achieve long-term success in the competitive SaaS market.

Soone Agency has also published a Complete SaaS SEO Strategy, with more advice to consider while tracking your KPIs.

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Conclusion

Tracking B2B marketing KPIs is crucial for the success of any marketing campaign. By focusing on the right KPIs, marketers can optimise their campaigns, measure performance, and make data-driven decisions. These KPIs provide valuable insights into various aspects of marketing, such as website traffic, conversion rate, customer acquisition cost, and customer lifetime value.

One of the key KPIs to monitor is website traffic, which helps gauge the overall visibility and reach of a marketing campaign. Organic and paid traffic KPIs provide insights into the effectiveness of different marketing channels and strategies. The conversion rate is an important KPI that measures how successful a campaign is in turning leads into customers.

For B2B marketers, it is also essential to track KPIs specific to SaaS marketing. Metrics such as unique visitors, contacts, leads, conversions, churn, monthly recurring revenue, and average revenue per user help evaluate the performance and profitability of marketing efforts in the SaaS industry.

By utilising a marketing dashboard and analysing key KPIs, both the sales and marketing teams can collaborate effectively, align their goals, and drive better results. In summary, tracking and analysing B2B marketing KPIs enable businesses to measure their marketing performance, make informed decisions, and achieve their marketing objectives.

To learn more and maximise use of your new B2B KPI strategy explore Soone Agency's complete catalogue of industry leading B2B advice at our Marketing Blog.

FAQ

What are the essential B2B marketing KPIs that my agency should track?

The essential B2B marketing KPIs that your agency should track include website traffic, organic traffic, paid traffic, cost per click (CPC), click through rate (CTR), conversion rate, cost per lead (CPL), MQL to SQL conversion rate, customer acquisition cost (CAC), and customer lifetime value (CLV).

How do I set goals and KPIs for my B2B marketing campaign?

To set goals and KPIs for your B2B marketing campaign, first, you need to establish SMART goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Then, align these goals with broader objectives and select KPIs that will help you track the performance and effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Why are KPIs important in B2B marketing?

KPIs are important in B2B marketing because they measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, help optimise strategies, make data-driven decisions, and align marketing initiatives with business goals. KPIs also provide insights into marketing performance, optimise marketing budgets, and measure the impact of marketing on sales.

What are the different types of marketing KPIs in B2B?

The different types of marketing KPIs in B2B include quantitative KPIs (such as acquired customers and generated leads) and qualitative KPIs (such as customer satisfaction). Other types of KPIs include leading KPIs (forecasting campaign outcomes), lagging KPIs (analysing historical data), input KPIs (tracking resources for marketing initiatives), output KPIs (measuring if goals have been achieved), and directional KPIs (examining multiple metrics to determine marketing success).

What are the key SaaS marketing KPIs that I should track?

The key SaaS marketing KPIs that you should track include unique visitors, contacts, leads, conversions, churn, monthly recurring revenue, average revenue per user, customer lifetime value, customer acquisition cost, and cost-to-service. These metrics provide insights into marketing performance, customer retention, revenue generation, and profitability in the SaaS industry.