How to Spot Upsell Potential From Your Acquisition Data

Most SaaS and B2B marketing teams are laser-focused on acquisition. And rightly so - if no one’s coming through the door, what’s the point of having one? But what if your next big growth lever isn’t more leads… but more value from the leads you already have?

Let’s talk about spotting upsell potential hidden in your acquisition data, and how to turn insight into revenue without adding another pound to your media budget.

What Is Acquisition Data (and Why It’s More Valuable Than You Think)?

Acquisition data refers to the information you collect during the process of attracting and converting new customers. Think:

• Lead source and campaign
• Channel performance (paid, organic, referral)
• Content engagement pre-signup
• Product use during free trial
• ICP fit and firmographic tags
• First touch vs last touch attribution
• Sales call notes, CRM enrichment, demo feedback

Too often, once a lead converts, that data is treated as a historical record — when in fact, it’s a goldmine of signals that can inform what to sell next, to whom, and when.

Why Upsell Potential Hides in Plain Sight

If you wait until a customer is ‘ready’ to buy more, you’re already too late. Great SaaS businesses look for patterns in acquisition data that indicate future expansion, so they can proactively tee up the right upsell at the right time.

Here’s what to look for.

5 Signals in Acquisition Data That Reveal Upsell Opportunities

1. High-Intent Content Consumption

If a lead downloads multiple high-value assets, say, your integration guide, product roadmap, and a use-case-specific webinar, they’re telling you something: they’re already picturing your tool working harder for them.

📌 Upsell Tip: Build automated journeys that surface complementary features or packages based on content history.

2. Company Size Mismatch

Plenty of companies start on your lowest-tier plan… even if they clearly have the budget (and need) for more.

If your acquisition data shows:

• 100+ employees
• Multi-country presence
• High website traffic or funding data

…there’s a good chance they’re under-buying at the start.

📌 Upsell Tip: Flag these accounts for early outreach from a CSM or AE with an expansion playbook.

3. Usage Signals in Free Trials

Acquisition data doesn’t stop at the form fill. If you're running a product-led motion, what a user does in their first 14 days is one of the best predictors of lifetime value.

Look for:

• Number of features used
• Users added to the workspace
• Data integrations connected
• Time to first meaningful action

📌 Upsell Tip: Segment trial users into cohorts and compare high-converting vs. low-converting patterns. Use this to personalise your upsell timing.

4. Acquisition Channel Fit

Paid ads vs. organic search vs. LinkedIn outreach - each channel brings in a different type of customer.

If your acquisition data shows a trend where, say, LinkedIn leads from enterprise accounts expand at 2x the rate of Google Ads leads from SMEs… guess where you should focus your upsell and CS efforts?

📌 Upsell Tip: Use channel data to map acquisition source to customer lifetime value (CLTV) and expansion rate.

5. Sales Team Intelligence

The most underrated acquisition signal? Notes in your CRM. If your sales team logs that the lead "mentioned wanting to integrate with Salesforce down the line”, that’s your future upsell, just waiting for the right moment.

📌 Upsell Tip: Set up tagging workflows in your CRM for expansion-related cues. Revisit these after onboarding.

Building a Real Upsell Strategy From Acquisition Data

Spotting signals is one thing. Acting on them consistently is another. Here's how to turn your acquisition data into a proper upsell engine:

✅ Unify your data

Link your ad platforms, CRM, product usage data and web analytics into one source of truth (e.g. HubSpot + Segment + GA4 + BigQuery)

✅ Score for expansion, not just conversion

Create a scoring model that weights early signals of upsell-readiness, not just initial purchase fit

✅ Create personalised nurture tracks

Use tools like Customer.io or Mutiny to serve different messages to different segments post-sale

✅ Enable your CSMs and AEs

Give your teams playbooks based on real behavioural cues from acquisition — not just guesswork

B2B SaaS Example: Turning Signals Into Expansion

Let’s say your CRM shows that your LinkedIn Ads are converting well with mid-market finance teams, but those same companies consistently ask about SOC2, multi-user access, and audit logs on calls.

That’s not just support chatter. That’s a pattern.

With the right tracking, you could automatically:

• Tag those accounts as likely to expand
• Trigger an onboarding email from the CSM introducing your Enterprise package
• Run LinkedIn retargeting ads that spotlight those exact features

That’s using acquisition data to increase expansion revenue — not just plugging gaps post-sale.

Final Thoughts

If you’re only using acquisition data to report on what happened, you’re leaving money on the table. Smart SaaS teams use it to predict what’s next.

That’s the real value of acquisition data: not just leads in, but growth unlocked.

And if you need help building out the kind of tracking, targeting, and messaging that makes this happen, we’re a SaaS marketing agency who lives for this stuff.