Guide on PLG Metrics for SaaS CMOs
What PLG metrics work to measure actual success of your marketing teams actions.
📋 Executive Summary
TL;DR
Replace signup metrics with product usage events for PLG success
Core Metrics:
Implementation Time:
< 1 week engineering time for basic tracking
Required Tools:
Key Actions:
- •Identify 1-3 product usage events correlating with engagement
- •Integrate marketing channel data with product analytics
- •Create user segments based on actual usage patterns
- •Establish monthly/quarterly product-marketing review cycles
Key Terms:
In the world of B2B SaaS marketing, signups have become the default metric for gauging campaign success, or even further - marketing team's performance. It's easy to see why: they're straightforward to track and offer a quick pulse check on whether your message is resonating.
But after years of working closely with product teams in B2B space —and drawing on my background in statistics—I can tell you one thing - relying solely on signups is misleading, and in longer term harmful for both marketing teams, but also for a PLG business.
By identifying one to three key product usage events that have a strong correlation with long-term engagement or purchase, you gain a far clearer picture of which marketing efforts truly drive sustainable growth. In this guide, we'll walk through exactly how to uncover those critical events, the questions to ask your product counterparts, and common pitfalls to avoid.
How does a product team usually track usage?
Product teams typically rely on analytics tools like Mixpanel or Amplitude to track user behavior in your app, capturing each action as an "event." The tricky part is that these events are usually defined by product or engineering, so it can be tough for marketers to understand exactly what each event means. Good product teams use solutions like Mixpanel's Lexicon to make the data more accessible across departments. Even then, it's often far more effective to sit down with someone from the product team—they can guide you to the events that best reflect initial activation, purchase likelihood, or retention potential.
How to come up with the right PLG metrics?
Initial Activation
A step beyond raw signups, initial activation often involves pinpointing the first time a user really does something meaningful in the product.
Example: Survey Platform
❌ Wrong metric: Creating a survey
✅ Right metric: Receiving the first survey response
Shows users have successfully launched something and are seeing real results
Key Questions:
“What's the very first action that separates active users from 'window shoppers'?”
→ Identifies first real engagement milestone rather than superficial usage
“Is there a specific behavior (like creating a project, inviting a team member, etc.) that strongly predicts whether a trial user will explore more features?”
→ Focus on actions indicating genuine curiosity or willingness to invest time
“Which event or set of events correlates with users continuing past day one or week one?”
→ Pinpoint short-term signals showing commitment beyond signup
Purchase Likelihood
Tied to that moment when users grasp your product's true value—commonly called the 'aha moment'.
Example: Survey Platform
✅ Metric: Viewing early responses and noticing unexpected patterns
Users realize solution saves time or reveals actionable feedback
Key Questions:
“When do our customers typically say, 'I see the real value here'?”
→ Identifies events like completing critical workflow or seeing unique insight
“Which features or data insights do paying customers engage with that free-tier or trial users rarely touch?”
→ Identifies in-app experiences leading directly to conversion
Retention
Most important metric, often missed when evaluating marketing team efforts. Based on understanding workflows your tools help customers with.
Example: Survey Platform
✅ Metric: Connecting survey platform to CRM or marketing automation
Embedding the tool into day-to-day operations increases stickiness
Key Questions:
“Which recurring actions keep users around for the long haul?”
→ Identifies habits like weekly logins or monthly data exports
“Are there integrations or workflows that, once set up, drastically reduce the likelihood of churn?”
→ Highlights sticky features making product integral to daily routine
“What usage patterns or lack thereof typically precede churn?”
→ Spots early warning signs for proactive re-engagement
What if the Data You Need Doesn't Exist Yet?
Sometimes the key product events you identify aren't being tracked in your analytics. Here's what to expect when implementing new tracking:
⏱️ Implementation Timeline
< 1 week engineering time
📊 What Affects Implementation Time?
🔧 How Should Events Be Tracked?
Client Side
Susceptible to ad blockers and browser limitations
Server Side
More reliable, recommended approach
💡 Pro tip: Work with your product or engineering team to confirm which events are already being tracked before finalizing your PLG metric strategy.
Bringing It All Together: One Source of Truth for PLG metrics
Once you've identified and instrumented your key product events, the next logical step is to correlate them with your marketing channels. This means capturing how each user discovered your product (e.g., through UTM parameters or campaign IDs) and then merging that data with your product-analytics platform—whether it's Mixpanel, Amplitude, or something else entirely. When your campaign data and event tracking coexist in one source of truth, you'll see exactly which channels drive users who reach those activation, purchase, or retention milestones.
Acting upon collected data
Segmenting Users
User Segments:
Example: If LinkedIn Ads users are 2x likely to adopt advanced features, double down on that channel
Product Marketing Campaigns
Tactics:
Trigger: Big drop in engagement after day 3
Action: Design email sequence or in-app nudge for valuable product actions
Trigger: Team invite within week 1 = 40% higher LTV
Action: Create drip campaign focused on team invites
Review & Iterate
Agenda Items:
- Identify top-performing channels based on feature adoption
- Spot weak points where segments under-engage
- Assign action items for onboarding or acquisition improvements
Closing Thoughts
By combining precise product metrics with disciplined segmentation and regular cross-functional reviews, your marketing organization can move beyond superficial performance indicators. It's not just about which channels produce the most signups, but which ones create long-term value and true user engagement. As you refine these processes over time—pinpointing critical in-app events, measuring campaign effectiveness in a single dashboard, and iterating based on real-world data—you'll build a sustainable growth engine that benefits every part of the business.