B2B SaaS & Software
The shape tilts toward Digital Maturity (76.9) and away from Data & Tracking (67). That tilt tells you where the industry's marketing dollars have gone and where they haven't. The businesses that correct the tilt first will see outsized returns because they're fixing the constraint that's holding everything else back.
Dimension Breakdown
Top quartile. This vertical outperforms most of the Australian market.
Xero at 90 vs McMillan Shakespeare at 54.3. That gap is wider than the difference between some entire industries. The leaders in this vertical are playing a different game.
+10.9 versus the national average of 66. This is where the industry has invested. The question is whether it's investing enough everywhere else to capitalise on that strength.
What the data reveals about SaaS marketing in Australia
B2B SaaS at 74.5 composite is one of the highest-performing verticals in Australia. It sits behind Property Marketplaces (87.8), Job Boards (78.1) and Investment Banking (75), and just ahead of Healthcare (74.1). This is an industry where marketing isn't a support function. It's the growth engine.
Retention and Loyalty at 76.9 is the joint-highest dimension alongside Digital Maturity (76.9). The subscription model forces retention discipline. If you're not retaining, you're not growing, no matter how much you spend on acquisition. The SaaS companies that score highest here have invested in onboarding, customer success and product-led expansion.
Xero at 90 composite is an outlier, sitting 15 points above the industry average. This reflects decades of sustained investment in product marketing, developer ecosystems and category creation. Xero didn't just build accounting software. It defined a category and then marketed that category relentlessly. The 15-point gap tells you that true category leadership shows up in the marketing scores.
Compare SaaS to Healthcare and Biotech (74.1). Both are technology-driven industries with complex products and educated buyers. But SaaS companies score higher in Acquisition (74.1 vs 72.3) and Conversion (74.3 vs 72.3) because the buying process is more transactional. Healthcare requires clinician validation. SaaS requires a free trial and a credit card.
The opportunity for mid-tier Australian SaaS companies is in closing the gap to the Xero benchmark. Most sit in the 65-75 range. The playbook is consistent: invest in brand to reduce acquisition cost, invest in onboarding to reduce churn and invest in measurement to understand which channels produce customers that retain longest, not just customers that sign up fastest.
Ranked 1st of 70. Top quartile. This industry takes marketing seriously and it shows. The leaders here are making informed capital allocation decisions. The gap between top and mid-table isn't luck. It's investment.
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Closest composite scores to B2B SaaS & Software (74).
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B2B SaaS & Software ranks 1st nationally. The businesses at the top of this vertical are serious about marketing. If your score is below 74.5, you're losing ground to competitors who've already invested.
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Closest composite scores to B2B SaaS & Software (74).