What’s the ROI of SaaS SEO? [Full Breakdown](2023) 

Tired of bulging your eyes out on the SEO dashboard? Trying to figure out where the traffic is coming from, where is it going, and then making a report out of it is a tough nut to crack. Especially when you don’t have a big SEO team or agency in your realm.

But today, we’re going to clear all your confusion. In this blog, we will talk about SaaS SEO ROIs that you need to measure plus how to measure them. 

But before we get into that, we’d like to clarify one thing.

You cannot expect to see a Return on Investment if you’ve just started doing SEO, 6-7 months ago. 

Any efforts you make to increase your chances of ranking on Google will not show any results before 6 months at a bare minimum. It might even take more than that. However, if you’ve done SEO for your SaaS for more than 6 months, read on!

One more thing before we get to the main part is every SaaS model is different. Even if your product looks similar to some other successful software, doesn’t mean that you should use the same strategies they used. Every SaaS is different, and when it comes to SaaS, there’s no “One-size-fits-all”.

So take a good look at your SaaS model, and goals, and start creating strategies around that. 

Now, if you’re ready, let’s see how you can measure your SaaS SEO ROI. 

Two Types of SEO to Measure

When it comes to SEO, you need to measure two things- your Brand SEO efforts, and Performance SEO results. You need to decide which one you want to measure first.

To give you an idea, around 75% of your investment should go to Performance-based SEO, while the rest to Brand SEO.

Performance SEO

Performance SEO refers to driving leads and increasing product signups with the help of content marketing. You need to create content that’s meant to convert visitors into signups, and then to leads and sales with the help of marketing content. 

To calculate Performance SEO, you need to follow these steps. 

1. Figure Out your Maximum Customer Acquisition Cost

Your Customer Acquisition Cost is the amount that you can pay to acquire a new customer. When it comes to calculating the desired CC it’s always considered to be 3:1 Lifetime Value: CAC. This budget totally depends on how fast you want to scale your SaaS.

You need to keep in mind that you’ve other business expenses, and marketing and sales costs to manage. 

2. Decide on a Cost Per Signup

Think about how many SEO sign-ups you can afford by looking at your maximum CAC. There are many cohorts of sign-ups that you can acquire, but first, take a look at all the converted MRR in the last 12 months. The MRR converted in the past 12 months will give you an idea of your conversion rate. 

If you don’t have clear data on your maximum CAC to your conversion rate, then you can either assume a maximum cost per signup using your PPC spend or just think about how much you can afford to spend. 

3. Create a List of all the SEO expenses

Once you’ve your budget to spend on SEO sign-ups, you need to decide on how much you are spending on other SEO expenses. These expenses include the salaries of your SEO experts, Marketing Team, Sales Team, etc, the tools that you’re using, and the agencies or freelancers you hire to take charge of your website and content. This will help you calculate your ROI better and more effectively. 

4. Create an ROI spreadsheet to track your progress

A spreadsheet is the easiest and fastest way to keep an eye on your ROI. You don’t need any fancy project management tool, just open up a spreadsheet and pile up all the data you’ve collected in the above steps. To maintain a spreadsheet, you need to make columns specific to-

1. SEO COSTS 
2. NUMBER OF SIGNUPS PER MONTH
3. COST PER SIGN UP
4. ROI (CALCULATED BY TAKING YOUR MAXIMUM COST PER SIGNUP AND YOUR MONTHLY COST PER SIGNUP.)

By using this method of calculating your ROI, you can measure your SEO spending, and decide on whether you should increase your spending or decrease it. Your goal should be to maintain at least 1-2x ROI every month. If you don’t hit that number it’s time you look back to your link building, keyword research, and other activities. 

P.S If you need help with building the best and high-quality links that add value to your page while helping you rank on Google, then book a call with us at SaaSLinko and we’ll discuss how to grow your SERPs with link building. 

Brand SEO

Brand SEO is used to generate awareness about your brand rather than making sales. Optimizing your content to generate awareness can result in a huge ROI after some time. As more and more people in your target audience know about your brand, the higher your chance will be to convert them in the future. 

Brand SEO content creation is done usually for problem-aware or problem-unaware audiences, and it’s a part of your Brand Marketing strategy. The most interesting part is that most brands don’t focus a lot on Brand SEO.

And that’s your chance to improve your ROI. Creating Brand SEO Content will engage your audience and will make them know about your product even before they face a problem. 

You can also target this audience with the help of Ads and take them to the next part of your SaaS Marketing funnel. You can use this content to turn the from problem aware or unaware to solution aware, and vice versa. 

You need to put your focus on CPC. So, first, start off by deciding what is your cost per click budget. It will be the amount you’ll spend in front of more target audiences. 

Next, you need to create a spreadsheet or just add a new sheet to the old spreadsheet you created above, and start making columns for this- ]

• All the costs incurred while creating Brand SEO Content, like the salaries of freelancers, tools, etc. 
• Check if you’ve any new users in Google Analytics and add them there. 
• Calculate your CPC with a three months break and the cost incurred on that. 
• Check if your CPC comes below or above the benchmark you set.
• Then decide if you want to lower your investment or increase it. 

My 2 Cents

If you want the best results on your investment, then it’s time you start putting more effort into Brand SEO. As most SaaS brands slack on this part, it’s your chance to hit the bullseye or the eyes of your audience. 

We hope you liked this blog, and if you did make sure you subscribe to your weekly newsletter, to receive all the new and latest upcomings in the SaaS, and SEO world.