13 Key B2B Marketing KPIs You Have to Track in 2024

Every click, view, and share in B2B marketing gets logged. This data is valuable, but only if you know which KPIs to focus on.

How are you supposed to know whether your marketing campaigns are actually working without the right tracking setup?

Tracking the right KPIs is like having a GPS for your business strategy. It gives you a roadmap that shows exactly where you’re on the right track—and where you need to course-correct.

So, how do you figure out which KPIs actually matter?

Well, we’re about to walk through 13 essential B2B marketing KPIs you should track in 2024. We will discuss what they are, their importance, and some tips on how you can increase their value.

So, let’s dive in:

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1. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Let’s dive right into what keeps every marketer up at night—just how much does it cost to get a new customer on board? That’s your Customer Acquisition Cost or CAC.

In a nutshell, this metric is just a fancy way of saying, “How much are we spending to get people to buy from us?”

It’s simple – just divide your total spend for marketing and sales over a certain period by the number of customers who made a purchase. If you’re not measuring this, chances are you might be spending more money on your campaigns than you need to.

See, B2B marketing sometimes prolongs the sales cycle, which means that CAC can spike easily if you’re not cutting it down at the very root. And who wants to spend more money than they absolutely have to?

The most important thing to control CAC is to be more efficient. It includes fine-tuning all of your lead gen efforts and targeting customers who are bound to convert instead of a vague “something must stick at some point” approach.

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Quick Tips on CAC

• Use tools like Google Analytics to find what’s not pulling its weight and shift your budget to where it really counts
• Automate your email marketing to nurture leads without constant effort
• Focus on SEO to drive more organic traffic

2. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

CLV is one of the favorite B2B marketing KPIs of many smart marketers. Why? Because it’s the golden number that indicates how much revenue a customer will bring to you over the entire course of your relationship with them and not just that one deal.

In other words, if you make people happy, they’ll come back and purchase from you again.

In the B2B world, it’s incredibly relevant. Long-term customers offer so much more value than you can get from a one-time deal.

CLV makes you concentrate on the right things – taking care of customers and making them loyal. The more you improve your CLV, the better.

Boosting your CLV can be simple – show customers that you care, provide value and upsell or cross-sell where possible.

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Quick Tips on CLV

• Run a loyalty program or give discounts for repeat purchases
• Stay in touch with personalized offers and check-ins via email (it’s cheaper than acquiring new clients!)
• Offer stellar customer support. Happy customers = loyal customers.

3. Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs)

We’ve all been there—lots of people are clicking on your site, downloading your free eBook, or watching your webinar. But how do you figure out who’s ready to take the next step?

Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) is one of the key B2B marketing KPIs that gives you this data. An MQL is someone who’s shown enough interest to make you say, “Okay, this person is ready for a little more attention from the sales team.”

Think of MQLs as your warm leads. They’ve engaged with your content—maybe filled out a form or attended a webinar—and are closer to making a buying decision.

The beauty of tracking MQLs? It lets you focus your energy on the leads that are most likely to convert instead of wasting too much time chasing the wrong ones.

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Quick Tips MQLs

• Create targeted content, like case studies or how-to guides, that actually solve your audience’s problems
• Your sales and marketing teams should agree on what makes a qualified lead
• Use lead scoring to prioritize the hottest leads and move them down the funnel faster

4. Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs)

Okay, let’s get to the Sales Qualified Leads or SQLs. You have some MQLs and that’s great! But, some of these leads are not ready to talk to sales yet and others are.

The ones who are ready are your hot leads, who have been properly warmed up by marketing efforts and are now ready to talk business with the sales team. They are showing enough interest and you may have had a few conversations already – and it’s time for sales to dive in.

Why is this important? Because by tracking SQLs you’ll be able to understand if marketing actually brings in the right leads, those that sales can work with.

If you’re passing a ton of leads to sales, but nothing gets converted – that’s a sign something isn’t right. Knowing how many MQLs are turning into SQLs will show how well you’re nurturing your leads – or that maybe you need to adjust something.

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Quick Tips SQLs

• Set clear criteria with your sales team on what makes a lead “sales-ready.”
• Use retargeting ads to keep your brand top of mind as leads move through the funnel
• Offer free trials or demos—something tangible to help them make the leap to SQL

5. Lead-to-Customer Conversion Rate

Okay, let’s move on to the next metric – how many of your leads are actually becoming customers? That’s what the lead-to-customer conversion rate will show you.

It refers to the percentage of leads that pass through the sales funnel to become paying clients. It is the metric that reveals whether your marketing and sales approach is functional or if there’s a leak in your funnel.

When your lead-to-customer conversion is excellent, there’s no cause for concern. Everything is in order – your message is spot on, your team for sales is efficient, and your leads are identifying what they want.

If not, something is off, and it needs your attention. It’s possible that your leads are not qualified, or there is a disconnect between marketing and sales.

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Quick Tips Conversion Rates

• Refine your lead qualification process to ensure only high-potential leads move forward
• Shorten the sales cycle by offering irresistible CTAs, like a free consultation or limited-time offer
• Provide personalized content or follow-ups based on where the lead is in the buyer’s journey

6. Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI)

ROMI—the big question: is your marketing actually making you money? Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) looks at how much revenue your marketing campaigns generate compared to what you’ve spent.

It’s the holy grail of B2B marketing KPIs. At the end of the day, you need to know if your marketing efforts are profitable, right?

If you’re spending more on ads, content, or events than what you’re bringing in, that’s a clear sign to hit pause and reassess. But when ROMI is positive, that’s your green light to keep scaling up those successful campaigns. It’s a balance—you want to invest enough to grow, but you don’t want to overspend without seeing results.

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Quick Tips for ROMI

• Focus on high-performing channels—double down on what’s already working
• Repurpose successful content across multiple platforms to get more attention without a huge time or cost investment
• Continuously test and optimize your ads, landing pages, and email campaigns

7. Website Traffic-to-Lead Ratio

If you already have plenty of visitors to your website, that’s great! But are they turning into leads?

That’s what the website traffic-to-lead ratio tells you. It measures how good your site is at converting visitors into more qualified leads.

It’s simple – if the ratio is high, your site is working well at converting visitors. It’s effective at persuading people to take a proactive step in moving further – whether it’s filling out a form, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a whitepaper.

But if the traffic is good and the leads are stumbling, you’ve got a problem on your hands. There’s a high chance that your CTA is weak or your site’s landing page needs to be fixed.

You might need to work on these aspects of your site to bring the ratio up.

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Tips on Traffic-to-Lead Ratio

• Make your CTAs clear, bold, and irresistible
• Simplify your lead forms—ask for only essential info upfront
• A/B test your landing pages to see what resonates best with your audience

8. Engagement Rate (for Content Marketing)

Next up, let’s talk content. You’re putting out blog posts, videos, infographics—great stuff! But is anyone actually engaging with it?

Engagement rate measures how many people interact with your content. Do you get likes, shares, comments, or clicks? High engagement means your content is keeping your audience hooked. They find it helpful and worth sharing.

If you have low engagement numbers, then it’s time to rethink your approach.

In the B2B world, it’s easy to fall into the trap of creating dry, technical content. But if it doesn’t spark engagement, what’s the point?

The more engaging your content, the more likely you are to build trust, establish authority, and turn leads into customers.

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Quick Tips on Boosting Engagement

• Create interactive content, like quizzes or polls, to get your audience involved
• Share stories or case studies that showcase real-life results
• Don’t be afraid to have fun—B2B doesn’t have to be boring!

9. Customer Retention Rate

Landing a customer is great, but keeping them? That’s the real challenge.

Customer retention rate measures how well you’re doing at holding onto your clients over time. A high retention rate means your customers are happy, loyal, and seeing value in your product or service.

If your retention rate is low, it’s a sign that you might need to step up your game when it comes to customer service or post-sale engagement.

In B2B, customer retention is gold. It’s often way more cost-effective to keep existing customers than to constantly chase new ones. Plus, loyal customers tend to spend more over time, making them super valuable.

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Quick Tips Customer Retention Rate

• Offer ongoing support and check-ins—don’t just disappear after the sale
• Create exclusive content or offers for your loyal customers
• Build strong relationships by being proactive and responsive to their needs

10. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

How likely are your customers to recommend your product or service to someone else? That’s what the Net Promoter Score (NPS) tells you.

It’s a simple question—on a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend us? The answers here can be packed with insights. Your NPS gives you a quick read on customer satisfaction and loyalty. A high score means you’ve got some brand advocates. A low score means it’s time to make some improvements.

NPS is awesome because it cuts right to the chase: Would your customers vouch for you? It’s simple but powerful, and it’s a great way to gauge overall customer satisfaction.

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Tips to Boost Your NPS

• Ask for feedback regularly and act on it—customers appreciate being heard
• Surprise your customers with something extra, like a discount or a thank-you note
• Follow up with detractors to see how you can improve their experience

11. Bounce Rate (Website)

If you've ever visited a website and instantly clicked off, maybe due to its design or difficulty in navigation, it counts as a bounce rate for the site.

If the bounce rate on your site is too high, you have a problem.

Bounce rate is the figure showing the percentage of customers who arrive at your site and then click away without clicking or visiting other pages. Ultimately, it means that visitors are leaving your site because it’s difficult to navigate, making it hard to find what they’re looking for - or that the design and layout are off-putting.

Visitors leaving your site so quickly become unattainable leads. If your website shows a high bounce rate, you need to think about making some changes.

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Tips on Reducing Your Bounce Rate

• Improve page load times—slow websites are a major turn-off
• Make your website’s navigation super easy and intuitive
• Work on your landing pages so visitors know what they’re getting

12. Email Open and Click-Through Rates

Email marketing to other businesses can feel like you’re doing a presentation on stage with no one in the audience. Many businesses have trouble making this metric successful.

The efficiency of your email in drawing attention is reflected by open and click-through rates (CTR).

The open rate reveals the number of people who opened your email, and the CTR tells you how many people acted on a link within the email.

Understanding the performance of your email campaign relies on knowing both metrics. If your open and click-through rates are high, it's a sign that you are doing something right.

If your engagement metrics are low, you might need to rethink your subject lines, the overall design of your email, and the types of messages you’re sending.

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Tips to Boost Email Open & Click-Through Rates

• Write irresistible subject lines that spark curiosity
• Personalize your emails to make them feel more relevant
• Keep your emails short, sweet, and packed with value—no fluff!

13. Social Media Reach and Engagement

Tracking your social media reach and engagement tells you how many people see and like your posts. The higher this metric, the better your visibility is to more potential customers.

If people like, comment, or share your posts, the engagement increases. For B2B, outreach on social media has never been more important.

When things like event promotion have high engagement, it means that your content is working. Low engagement is a sign that something is off and it needs to be fixed.

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Tips to Improve Social Media Reach & Engagement

• Post when your audience is most active during the day and week
• Mix up your content with a balance of educational, entertaining, and promotional posts
• Engage with your audience regularly by replying to comments

Conclusion

And there you have it — 13 B2B marketing KPIs that can transform your campaigns from just "meh" to seriously great.

The key takeaway: You don’t need to track every single metric out there - just the ones that matter to your business goals.

By keeping an eye on some of these KPIs, you’ll have a clear picture of what’s working, what’s not, and where to focus your efforts. So go ahead—start tracking, optimizing, and get clarity over your trajectory.

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FAQs

1. What are the most important B2B SaaS marketing KPIs?

The most important B2B SaaS marketing KPIs include customer acquisition cost (CAC), customer lifetime value (CLV), and conversion rates. These metrics help track the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, ensuring you’re targeting the right audience and maximizing ROI.

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2. How do Marketing KPIs in B2B differ from B2C?

Marketing KPIs in B2B often focus on longer sales cycles, lead quality, and nurturing customer relationships over time. Unlike B2C, where KPIs center around quick conversions, B2B marketing KPIs emphasize metrics like lead generation and customer retention.

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3. Why is tracking KPIs in B2B marketing essential?

Tracking KPIs in B2B marketing ensures you measure campaign performance, optimize strategies, and improve your ROI. When you focus on key metrics, like lead quality and sales conversion, you can make data-driven decisions and refine your marketing efforts for sustained growth.

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