The six marketing metrics a small SaaS team should actually track
Dashboards with forty numbers get ignored. These six get reviewed, get argued about, and get acted on.
Fewer numbers, reviewed more often
The purpose of a metric is to change a decision. A dashboard with forty numbers changes none of them, because nobody knows which one to argue about. Six is roughly the limit for a small team.
The leading three
Branded search volume, direct traffic, and engaged target accounts. These move first when demand generation is working, often a quarter or two before pipeline reflects it. They are also the numbers that keep a programme alive when someone asks why it is not producing leads yet.
The middle one
Demo requests, judged on qualification rate rather than volume. Volume is easy to manufacture and expensive to ignore later. Quality is the number that tells you the message is reaching the right segment.
The lagging two
Pipeline created and closed revenue. Slow, contested, and unavoidable. Report them next to the leading indicators so the story is legible: attention is rising, quality is rising, and pipeline follows.
Agree the definitions with sales before you publish the first report, not after the first disagreement.