Choosing a marketing agency for a SaaS company
What to ask a marketing agency before hiring them for a SaaS company, and why understanding activation and retention matters more than campaign creativity.
4 min read
Many SaaS lead scoring models weight email opens and page visits heavily, because that data is easy to access, while ignoring product usage data that is a much stronger predictor of purchase intent. The result is a score that flags engaged marketing contacts, not necessarily engaged product users.
What actually predicts a qualified lead
- Specific in-product actions completed during a trial (core feature used, teammate invited, integration connected).
- Frequency of logins over the trial period, not just a single first login.
- Company size and role, if collected, as a fit signal layered on top of usage.
Where marketing engagement still matters
Marketing engagement signals — attending a webinar, opening a comparison page — still add useful context, particularly pre-trial. They should support a usage-based score, not substitute for one once a trial has started.
A trial user who has never logged in twice is not a warm lead, no matter how many marketing emails they have opened.
Starting simple
A basic model with three or four weighted signals, reviewed and adjusted quarterly against actual conversion data, outperforms an elaborate scoring system built on assumptions that were never validated against real outcomes.
The takeaway
Weight product usage signals above marketing engagement in your lead scoring model — a user who invited a teammate is a stronger signal than one who opened three emails.
Written by Fibvo — Bengaluru and Erode, India — working with clients in other time zones. Questions, or think we have it wrong? Tell us.
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