B2B SaaS Funnel Conversion Benchmarks

Posted February 24, 2021

b2b saas funnel conversion benchmarks In this report, we provide benchmarks for marketing performance along each step of the B2B SaaS conversion funnel. We will begin with definitions and average conversion rates for each step and proceed to break down conversion rate benchmarks by marketing channel, industry, and target audience company size.

Our data set comes from access to 50+ B2B SaaS clients over the last decade, mostly small-to-midsize businesses in the $10M-$100M revenue range. It includes a good amount of exposure to the middle market as well as a smaller, but still substantive, pool of data from enterprise clients.

B2B SaaS Funnel Benchmarks: Definitions

We use a six-step funnel that should be familiar to anyone in marketing at a B2B SaaS company. It consists of:

Website visitor
Lead
MQL
SQL
Opportunity
Closed

A lead is any non-spam website visitor who has submitted contact information. An MQL is a lead who fits the company’s target market or one of its customer personas. An SQL is an MQL who has indicated that the product is desirable, within their budget, and is speaking with a salesperson. An opportunity is an MQL with contract in hand.

B2B SaaS Funnel Conversion Benchmarks by Channel

In this section, you’ll find conversion rate benchmarks for each step in the funnel, further broken down by the five most common B2B marketing channels for which we have data.

When using these benchmarks for your marketing activities, bear in mind that there is an assumption of a high level of competence from the team or agency conducting the activity. For example, in SEO that means having a thought leadership-based strategy; in PPC, it means consistent testing of landing pages to achieve a high-quality score; and in email marketing, it means using a well-targeted list.

Stage of Funnel	SEO	PPC	LinkedIn	Email	Webinar
Website visitor
	2.1%	.7%	2.2%	1.3%	.9%
Lead
	41%	36%	38%	43%	44%
MQL
	51%	26%	30%	46%	39%
SQL
	49%	38%	41%	48%	42%
Opportunity
	36%	35%	39%	32%	40%
Closed

B2B SaaS Funnel Conversion Benchmarks by Industry

In this section, we break down conversion rates at each step of the funnel by industry.

Automotive SaaS

Website visitor → Lead conversion rate: 1.9%

Lead → MQL conversion rate: 37%

MQL → SQL conversion rate: 39%

SQL → Opportunity conversion rate: 44%

Opportunity → Closed sale conversion rate: 36%

Automotive SaaS customers convert particularly well from SEO and email, and less-so from SEM. Email helps revive lost SQLs and opportunities.

CRM SaaS

Website visitor → Lead conversion rate: 2%

Lead → MQL conversion rate: 36%

MQL → SQL conversion rate: 42%

SQL → Opportunity conversion rate: 48%

Opportunity → Closed sale conversion rate: 38%

The hardest step in the funnel for CRM companies is the MQL to SQL step, as the field is particularly competitive and many first-time CRM purchasers are resistant to changing their internal procedures.

Chemical / Pharmaceutical SaaS

Website visitor → Lead conversion rate: 2.3%

Lead → MQL conversion rate: 47%

MQL → SQL conversion rate: 46%

SQL → Opportunity conversion rate: 41%

Opportunity → Closed sale conversion rate: 39%

Chemical and pharmaceutical SaaS companies can target their market with a high degree of precision online, resulting in excellent visitor-to-lead conversion rates.

Design SaaS

Website visitor → Lead conversion rate: .9%

Lead → MQL conversion rate: 40%

MQL → SQL conversion rate: 34%

SQL → Opportunity conversion rate: 45%

Opportunity → Closed sale conversion rate: 38%

Design SaaS is a flooded market, leading to very low conversion rates across the board. The exception is the SQL-to-opportunity step, as prospective customers who have narrowed down their options and taken the time to engage with a salesperson tend to be more serious than average.

Education SaaS

Website visitor → Lead conversion rate: 1.4%

Lead → MQL conversion rate: 46%

MQL → SQL conversion rate: 35%

SQL → Opportunity conversion rate: 39%

Opportunity → Closed sale conversion rate: 40%

Education SaaS customers are harder to get into the funnel at all due to the difficulty of marketing to schools. But once they’re in, they convert well. Online lead generation competition is relatively weak, so companies with strong SDR, email, or SEO strategies tend to succeed.

Entertainment SaaS

Website visitor → Lead conversion rate: 1.6%

Lead → MQL conversion rate: 41%

MQL → SQL conversion rate: 39%

SQL → Opportunity conversion rate: 47%

Opportunity → Closed sale conversion rate: 43%

B2B SaaS companies serving the entertainment industry require a multi-touchpoint strategy, as discovery via advertising or search is rarely enough to move those potential customers into the funnel. Email marketing, however, stands out as a particularly successful top-of-funnel channel.

Financial SaaS

Website visitor → Lead conversion rate: 1.7%

Lead → MQL conversion rate: 38%

MQL → SQL conversion rate: 42%

SQL → Opportunity conversion rate: 48%

Opportunity → Closed sale conversion rate: 39%

Financial SaaS companies serving investment firms and financial institutions fare better than most in the early stages of online marketing because of increased interest post-pandemic. There is, however, substantial drop-off prior to closing the sale because prospects typically have sales calls with several companies before committing.

Healthcare SaaS

Website visitor → Lead conversion rate: 1.8%

Lead → MQL conversion rate: 48%

MQL → SQL conversion rate: 43%

SQL → Opportunity conversion rate: 41%

Opportunity → Closed sale conversion rate: 35%

Healthcare SaaS businesses, similar to fintech companies, have seen increased interest since 2020, making for a high visitor-to-lead conversion rate but lower closed customer rate.

Hospitality SaaS

Website visitor → Lead conversion rate: 1.6%

Lead → MQL conversion rate: 45%

MQL → SQL conversion rate: 38%

SQL → Opportunity conversion rate: 38%

Opportunity → Closed sale conversion rate: 38%

Hospitality SaaS businesses have the most trouble at the MQL-to-SQL step of the funnel because of the difficulty of getting the decision maker’s time and attention for a sales call, even after they’ve submitted their contact information.

Industrial SaaS

Website visitor → Lead conversion rate: 2.1%

Lead → MQL conversion rate: 47%

MQL → SQL conversion rate: 39%

SQL → Opportunity conversion rate: 42%

Opportunity → Closed sale conversion rate: 39%

B2B industrial SaaS companies that invest in SEO and SEM have unusually high conversion rates at the top of their funnel because of the sparseness of competition online.

Insurance SaaS

Website visitor → Lead conversion rate: 1.6%

Lead → MQL conversion rate: 40%

MQL → SQL conversion rate: 28%

SQL → Opportunity conversion rate: 41%

Opportunity → Closed sale conversion rate: 37%

Insurance SaaS is a crowded field and although there tends to be high conversion earlier in the funnel, the middle (particularly at the MQL stage) tends to see unusually high drop-off rates. This is because decision makers are pulled in many directions both internally and by competing sales conversations.

Legal SaaS

Website visitor → Lead conversion rate: 1.3%

Lead → MQL conversion rate: 41%

MQL → SQL conversion rate: 40%

SQL → Opportunity conversion rate: 47%

Opportunity → Closed sale conversion rate: 42%

Legal SaaS businesses serving the B2B market see high online conversion rates across the board, particularly from email marketing and SEO. When the target market is enterprise SDRs, conversion rates also are above average.

Marketing SaaS

Website visitor → Lead conversion rate: 1.4%

Lead → MQL conversion rate: 39%

MQL → SQL conversion rate: 35%

SQL → Opportunity conversion rate: 40%

Opportunity → Closed sale conversion rate: 37%

As with design, marketing SaaS is a crowded field with relatively low conversion rates across the board.

Project Management SaaS

Website visitor → Lead conversion rate: 1.8%

Lead → MQL conversion rate: 46%

MQL → SQL conversion rate: 37%

SQL → Opportunity conversion rate: 42%

Opportunity → Closed sale conversion rate: 35%

Project management SaaS companies naturally have high initial conversion rates and will benefit most from investing in SQLs. Trials are standard in this industry, leading to many MQLs who do not convert to paying customers.

Retail / eCommerce SaaS

Website visitor → Lead conversion rate: 2.1%

Lead → MQL conversion rate: 41%

MQL → SQL conversion rate: 36%

SQL → Opportunity conversion rate: 45%

Opportunity → Closed sale conversion rate: 39%

The hardest leap for leads to make in the retail/eCommerce market is from MQL to SQL. Compared to other SaaS industries, these customers are particularly interested in knowing their options and only commit to a call when they are close to a decision.

Security SaaS

Website visitor → Lead conversion rate: 1.6%

Lead → MQL conversion rate: 44%

MQL → SQL conversion rate: 38%

SQL → Opportunity conversion rate: 40%

Opportunity → Closed sale conversion rate: 39%

The security SaaS industry is relatively poorly understood by its customers. As a result, many leads are open to directly contacting a salesperson to better understand if they need security software.

Telecommunications SaaS

Website visitor → Lead conversion rate: .9%

Lead → MQL conversion rate: 46%

MQL → SQL conversion rate: 35%

SQL → Opportunity conversion rate: 41%

Opportunity → Closed sale conversion rate: 36%

Telecommunications SaaS providers historically suffer from low visitor-to-lead conversion rates because many companies still rely on legacy systems. We expect to see these rates continue to improve as companies transition more of their communication platforms to online services.

B2B SaaS Funnel Conversion Benchmarks by Target Audience Company Size

Our final set of conversion rate benchmarks is broken down by the size of the companies being targeted by marketing and sales. There are several commonly used categories for company size—we chose a simplified scale based on revenue (<$10M, $10M-$100M, $100M-$1B, and >$1B).

Stage of Funnel	Small Business ($1M-$10M)	Small-to-Midsize ($10M-$100M)	Middle Market ($100M-$1B)	Enterprise ($1B+)
Website visitor
	2.3%	1.4%	1.2%	.7%
Lead
	37%	41%	40%	34%
MQL
	32%	39%	39%	40%
SQL
	40%	42%	46%	36%
Opportunity
	46%	39%	35%	31%
Closed

Using Conversion Funnel Benchmarks

The above benchmarks will help you assess your marketing strategy and allow you to make more informed decisions. If you’d like to know more about our method or data set, or are interested in working with our agency for lead generation, feel free to reach out.