SaaS growth benchmarks — by factor + archetype
What's a “good” bounce rate? D7 retention? k-factor? Numbers calibrated against a fleet of 30+ live SaaS sites + published research from Reforge, Mixpanel, HubSpot, and Google's Page Experience data. Use these to interpret your AUG score.
Acquisition benchmarks (Factor 1)
| Tier | Sessions/month | AUG Acq score | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-PMF | <500/mo | 1-2 | Every downstream factor is statistical noise |
| Foundation | 1k-3k/mo | 3-4 | Channel diversity weak; single source >70% |
| Healthy | 5k-15k/mo | 5-6 | Multi-channel; SEO + 1 other source contributing |
| Compounding | 30k+/mo | 7-8 | SEO compounding; brand search growing MoM |
| Category-leader | 100k+/mo | 9-10 | LLM citation unprompted; no channel >40% |
Pro tip: below 1,000 sessions/month, the math floor (sessions × PV × RPM ÷ 1000) likely caps revenue at <€20/month. No monetization optimization beats that ceiling. Acquisition has to grow first. See /method/acquisition/.
Activation benchmarks (Factor 2)
| Archetype | Activation event | Target rate |
|---|---|---|
| Calculator | User completes one calculation | ≥55% |
| Database / reference | User views ≥3 data pages in session | ≥35% |
| Comparator | User engages with table (sort/filter/hover) | ≥40% |
| Benchmark / dashboard | User sees their industry benchmark | ≥30% |
| Generator | User generates + copies/downloads output | ≥25% |
| SaaS tool | User creates first item / imports data | ≥45% |
Below 20% activation is broken — likely signup-wall friction, empty-state failure, or time-to-first-value >30s. The gap between 15% and 45% activation is the difference between a leaky bucket and a compounding product.
Engagement benchmarks (Factor 3)
| Metric | Critical | Healthy | Strong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bounce rate | >70% (HCU risk) | 45-55% | <45% |
| Pages per session | <1.3 | 1.8-2.4 | ≥2.5 |
| Active time on content | <30s | 60-90s | ≥120s |
| Scroll depth (75%+) | <30% of sessions | 50-65% | ≥70% |
| Pogo-stick rate | >25% | 10-15% | <10% |
Retention benchmarks (Factor 4)
| Archetype | D7 | D30 | Direct traffic share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reference site (target) | ≥15% | ≥25% | ≥12% |
| Utility / calculator (target) | ≥25% | ≥40% | ≥18% |
| SaaS dashboard (target) | ≥35% | ≥55% | ≥25% |
| Brand category-leader | ≥45% | ≥65% | ≥30% |
Advocacy benchmarks (Factor 5)
The single most important number here is the k-factor — average new users brought per existing user:
- k = 0: No advocacy. Product is functional but forgettable.
- k ~ 0.05: Occasional share. No viral loop.
- k ~ 0.15: Healthy. Regular mentions; 1-3 embeds. Most SaaS sit here.
- k ~ 0.30: Strong. 10+ embeds; active fan community emerging.
- k ≥ 0.50: Viral. Brand mentions outpace direct searches.
- k ≥ 0.80: Rare unicorn. Wordle / Calendly / Loom territory.
For solo-founder SaaS at zero marketing budget, target k ≥ 0.15 by month 6. Below that, growth depends entirely on Acquisition — no compounding floor underneath.
Monetization benchmarks (Factor 6)
Page RPM by vertical (AdSense + display ads)
| Vertical | Typical pRPM | Peak pRPM |
|---|---|---|
| Finance | €15-30 | €45 |
| Business / B2B | €18-35 | €50 |
| Tech / Dev | €8-18 | €28 |
| Food | €12-25 | €35 |
| Education | €8-18 | €25 |
| Entertainment | €4-10 | €15 |
SaaS subscription metrics
- Trial-to-paid: ≥15% self-serve, ≥30% sales-assisted
- Pricing-page conversion: ≥5% of pricing-page visits start trial
- Month-1 paid retention: ≥85%
- LTV / CAC: ≥3× healthy, ≥5× excellent
Performance benchmarks (Factor 7)
| Metric | Good | Needs Improvement | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|
| LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) | <1.5s | 1.5-4s | >4s |
| INP (Interaction to Next Paint) | <200ms | 200-500ms | >500ms |
| CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) | <0.05 | 0.05-0.25 | >0.25 |
| TTFB (Time to First Byte) | <400ms | 400-800ms | >800ms |
| Page weight (total transferred) | <100KB | 100-500KB | >500KB |
Thresholds match Google's Page Experience signal. Every 1s of LCP costs ~7% of conversion. Every 100ms of INP correlates with rage-click incidence rising 5-10%. CLS >0.25 actively suppresses search rankings.
Composite AUG Score interpretation
| AUG Score | Band | What to do this week |
|---|---|---|
| ≥50 | Fleet champion | Scale horizontally — start the next product |
| 30-50 | Thriving | Invest in the weakest factor weekly |
| 15-30 | Healthy | Per-factor diagnostic; queue a P1 fix |
| 5-15 | Needs focus | Halt new features; one-factor sprint |
| 1-5 | Critical | Roll back recent ships; triage with senior eyes |
| <1 | Zombie | 90-day kill-criteria — consider sunsetting or rebranding |
Apply these to your SaaS
Run the free audit; get your AUG score; compare against these benchmarks; pick the weakest factor to fix this week.