7 Key SaaS Metrics Software Publishers Track Weekly for Health
Software publishers often get lost in data. B2B and B2C SaaS founders, and mobile app publishers, don't need dozens of dashboards. You need fewer, focused metrics, checked often. This guide gives you the seven critical numbers that show your software business health. It tells you exactly how to track them each week without a data science team.
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Use the free LaunchAdvisor checklist to track every step in this guide.
Why most business dashboards fail
SaaS founders often build dashboards with too many numbers from various tools like Mixpanel, Segment, or Google Analytics. This causes confusion, not clear choices. Adding more metrics from product analytics or marketing platforms makes it harder to act on any of them. Your goal isn't a full report. It's a few key numbers that show your software business is on track *before* problems like rising churn or a drop in new sign-ups become big issues.
Metric 1: Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)
For software publishers, your main number is Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR). This is the reliable, predictable money your SaaS or app brings in each month from subscriptions. Even for free-to-paid apps, this is key. Track the actual MRR number. Also track how much it grows week-over-week and month-over-month. If your MRR should be growing but stays flat, that's your first major warning. It means new customers aren't balancing churn or upgrades.
Metric 2: Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
How much money do you spend to get one new paid subscriber or user? Add up all your marketing costs (like Google Ads, Facebook ads for app installs, content marketing efforts, sales team salaries, software for CRM or marketing automation) for a month. Then divide that by the number of new paying customers you got that month. If your CAC is going up, but the money each customer brings in (LTV) isn't, your marketing and sales are wasting money. Check this every month. If you're running paid ad campaigns for sign-ups or app installs, track it weekly.
Metric 3: Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)
How much total revenue does a single customer bring in over the entire time they use your SaaS or app? For software subscriptions, it’s often your Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) per month multiplied by the average number of months a customer stays subscribed. A good rule for SaaS is to aim for an LTV that is at least 3 times higher than your CAC. So, if it costs you $100 to get a customer, they should bring in at least $300 over their lifetime. If this ratio is lower, your software business is not healthy for growth.
Metric 4: Churn Rate
This is the percentage of your paying subscribers who cancel their software subscription or stop using your paid app in a set time. To calculate, divide the number of customers you lost this month by the total number of customers you had at the start of the month. High churn is a growth killer for any SaaS or app. It’s like pouring water into a bucket with holes. Even if you're getting lots of new sign-ups, you'll never grow if too many users leave. Track this monthly. Look into why *every* customer cancels. Common reasons for SaaS churn include poor onboarding, missing features, or a competitor's product.
Metric 5: Cash Runway
This tells you how many months your software startup can keep operating with the money you have right now, assuming your spending stays the same. Take your current bank balance and divide it by how much cash you lose each month (your net burn rate). For a SaaS startup, this is critical, especially when scaling development or marketing. You should never let this number fall below three months without a clear plan for more funding or cutting costs. Check this number monthly. It’s the number that stops your SaaS business from suddenly running out of money for salaries or server costs.
Metric 6: Lead-to-Customer Conversion Rate
What percentage of people who show interest in your software product (a lead) end up becoming paying subscribers? For B2B SaaS, track this at each step: website visitor to free trial sign-up, free trial to demo booked, demo to closed deal. For mobile apps, track app installs to first-time user experience (FTUE) completion, and FTUE to paid subscription. If this rate drops, either your marketing is bringing in the wrong users, or your sales/onboarding process needs fixing. Pinpointing this early saves weeks of wasted time trying to fix the wrong thing.
Metric 7: Net Promoter Score (NPS)
This is a quick way to see if your SaaS users are happy enough to tell others about your product. Send a simple survey every few months, right inside your app or via email. Ask: "How likely are you to recommend [Your Software/App Name] to a friend or colleague?" They rate 0 to 10. People who score 9-10 are "Promoters." Those who score 0-6 are "Detractors." Your NPS is Promoters minus Detractors. A low NPS means users might churn soon or won't give you valuable word-of-mouth referrals. This predicts future revenue problems for your software business.
How to build your weekly dashboard
You don't need fancy BI tools like Tableau or Looker yet. Start with a simple Google Sheet or Excel workbook. Set up five columns: Metric Name, Last Week's Value, This Week's Value, Change (percentage or absolute), and Notes. Fill this sheet every Monday morning. It should take you about 15 minutes. Get data from your tools: Stripe or Paddle for MRR, Amplitude or Mixpanel for user activity, your CRM like HubSpot or Salesforce for conversion rates, and your accounting software (e.g., QuickBooks Online, Xero) for cash runway. Checking these numbers weekly forces you to see and react to what's happening in your software business.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How often should I look at my metrics?
Revenue, CAC, and pipeline: weekly. LTV, churn, and NPS: monthly. Cash runway: monthly, more frequently if under six months. The goal is to spot trends before they become emergencies, not to react to daily noise.
Do I need special software for a business dashboard?
No. A Google Sheet updated weekly is more valuable than a sophisticated BI tool that no one looks at. Start with a spreadsheet and add software (Looker Studio, Databox) only when manual data collection becomes the bottleneck.
What is a good LTV:CAC ratio?
3:1 is the commonly cited healthy threshold for a growing business. Below 1:1 means you are losing money acquiring customers. Above 5:1 may indicate you are underinvesting in growth — you have room to acquire more customers at higher cost.
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