AWS Marketplace
A guide to executing a SaaS product-led growth strategy in AWS Marketplace
AWS Marketplace is a digital catalog of third-party software, services, and data that makes it easy to find, buy, deploy, and manage solutions that support your business on Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS Marketplace helps you streamline and govern your software procurement process, with flexible pricing options including pay-as-you-go (PAYG) and upfront contracts.
Product-led growth (PLG) is a business strategy where product adoption and usage drive customer acquisition, retention, and expansion, with the product itself serving as the primary vehicle for growth through self-service experiences. According to Product-Led Growth Benchmarks: Key SaaS Findings and Trends, 58 percent of software as a service (SaaS) companies already have a PLG motion in place today. To understand the opportunity of SaaS PLG on AWS, review Act Now or Lag Behind: Why SaaS Leaders Can’t Afford to Overlook PLG on AWS in the AWS Partner Network Blog.
Executing SaaS PLG in AWS Marketplace can help you acquire AWS customers more effectively through low-touch digital sales and a simplified subscription experience. Customers subscribe and grow usage through intuitive product experiences. Your sales team can then identify and engage high potential customers, offering custom deals through private offers using AWS co-sell for deal support.
AWS Marketplace Seller Prime provides funding assistance, go-to-market (GTM) frameworks, templates, and best practices for executing PLG. This post is for AWS Marketplace Sellers and provides an overview of executing SaaS PLG through AWS Marketplace.
The path to successful implementation of a SaaS product-led growth strategy consists of seven steps:
- Conduct customer research and market analysis
- Configure your AWS Marketplace SaaS listing
- Enhance your AWS Marketplace listing page
- Integrate and streamline customer onboarding
- Develop customer growth programs
- Drive unique visitors to your AWS Marketplace listing
- Track success metrics and iterate
The following sections explain these steps in more detail.
Conduct customer research and market analysis
Customers need an AWS account to subscribe to AWS Marketplace listings; products targeting end users like those of AWS are the best fit. Software developers and IT administrators who use AWS have a strong likelihood of success due to their familiarity with cloud platforms. Infrastructure software categories such as DevOps, observability, and data analytics are great options. Business applications and industry software can also succeed if targeting AWS end users.
Configure your AWS Marketplace SaaS listing
A self-serviceable product listing will serve as the foundation of your PLG strategy. Related top-of-funnel sales and marketing motions need to point customers to this listing. Create a separate listing for upfront private offer up-sell motions. The following graphic illustrates the customer flow between discovery, subscription, and up-sell in AWS Marketplace.
Figure 1: Customer flow between discovery, subscription, and up-sell in AWS Marketplace
Pricing
For top-of-funnel listings in AWS Marketplace, PAYG pricing provides flexibility. After customers subscribe to your paid offering, they maintain subscriptions indefinitely without needing manual renewals. You submit usage data through the AWS Marketplace Metering API, which appears on the customer’s monthly AWS bill. Some Sellers simplify pricing to a single $0.01 “cloud consumption” pricing dimension. These Sellers track various usage metrics within their SaaS, such as storage or compute, and use a pricing model to convert this usage into a single billing unit. This approach can simplify metering integrations with AWS Marketplace. Add a pricing guide resource to your listing to provide customers with pricing clarity. The following image shows a listing with a simplified cloud consumption unit pricing dimension.
Figure 2: Product listing with cloud consumption unit pricing dimension
Offer an AWS Marketplace SaaS free trial, or a free software tier. Determine which product features to include and provide customers with sufficient access to experience value. You can use the AWS Marketplace SaaS free trial feature, embed free trials or tiers within your pricing, or do a combination of both.
The AWS Marketplace SaaS free trial feature adds a free trial badge and specific offer on listings with this feature enabled. Customers subscribe to the trial offer and must upgrade before it ends to maintain an active subscription. To optimize conversion rates, nurture these subscribers through automated emails and create an intuitive upgrade path. Read about Buy with AWS integration in the Enhance your AWS Marketplace listing page section to learn how Buy with AWS can streamline your customer upgrade experience. The following image shows a product listing with an AWS Marketplace SaaS free trial option.
Figure 3: AWS Marketplace listing with SaaS free trial option
For usage-based trials or free tiers, embed the free software tier into your pricing. Customers subscribe to the standard paid offer, but you control when charges begin. For example, you might withhold metering records until usage exceeds 500 MB monthly. Include clear messaging in your product and email notifications about usage limits so customers aren’t surprised by charges. Add related tier details to the product title, product description, and pricing dimension descriptions. The following image shows a free tier embedded into a product’s pricing dimensions; note the 1 free and First 100GB free language.
Figure 4: Free tier embedded into a product’s title and pricing dimensions
If your trial offering is time-bound, use the AWS Marketplace SaaS free trial feature, effective customer nurture, and Buy with AWS to optimize conversion rates. If your free offering is not time-bound, embed the free software tier into your product pricing.
Enhance your AWS Marketplace listing page
Add Request Demo and Request Private Offer call-to-action (CTA) buttons to enable high-touch sales engagement. AWS Marketplace forwards these requests to you through the APN Customer Engagements (ACE) portal. Ensure related opportunities are routed to the appropriate internal team.
Help potential buyers discover information about your product in your AWS Marketplace listing page. Clearly explain what problems your product solves and how it works. Add pricing resources to help make your costs more transparent. Refer to the AWS Marketplace Seller Guide for guidance on search engine optimization, promotional media, and categories and metadata.
If your solution deploys resources in end-customer AWS accounts, use AWS Marketplace SaaS Quick Launch to streamline the delivery and deployment process.
With Buy with AWS, customers can subscribe and purchase your product from your website or software using their AWS account. This feature can be integrated with various CTA buttons. Adding the Try free with AWS button to your website and marketing content provides visiting customers a clear way to get started with their AWS account. Add the Buy with AWS button to both your website and software interface itself to create a direct upgrade path for existing free trial subscribers. The following image shows these buttons on a seller’s website.
Figure 5: This seller included Buy with AWS integrated CTA buttons on their website
Data and AI company Databricks integrated Buy with AWS into their software console experience, as shown in the following image.
Figure 6: Buy with AWS implementation in the Databricks software console experience
Integrate and streamline customer onboarding
Customers need to gain immediate access to your software through an intuitive experience where setup of the software environment is both automated and tailored to the AWS customer experience. This allows you to provide value to customers quickly and can increase your conversion rates. Refer to the customer onboarding section of the AWS Marketplace Seller Guide.
Your software will need to have ongoing communication with AWS Marketplace to determine customer subscription changes and meter usage. Fully integrate your AWS Marketplace listing with your SaaS customer entitlement and metering management solutions. Consider using AWS services such as Amazon CloudWatch, AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets, and AWS License Manager to manage customer entitlement, usage collection, and metering. Third-party options such as M3ter can also help manage customer metering and entitlements.
Develop customer growth programs
Integrate AWS Marketplace PLG into your existing PLG, marketing, and sales workflows. Demonstrate your product’s value through intuitive user interfaces, clear in-app messaging, and helpful tooltips. Track usage and use related findings to customize customer interactions through product features or high-touch engagement.
Direct customers to your listing page for self-service upgrades, private offers, or support. When notifying sales teams, include context about the customer’s AWS Marketplace discovery and subscription journey. Train your sales representatives on AWS co-sell and how to effectively engage. Here is an example sales message:
“Hi, sales rep, your customer X has subscribed to our product Y in AWS Marketplace. They started with a free trial, converted to a self-service PAYG paid offering, and their monthly usage consumption is reaching Z. Can you help us convert them to a private offer?”
Drive unique visitors to your AWS Marketplace listing
Customers visiting your website need to know they can purchase in AWS Marketplace. Include AWS Marketplace procurement details in your pricing, partnerships, and free trial sign-up pages using Buy with AWS. Analyze which pages receive the most visitors to optimize placement. For more information, visit Linking to AWS Marketplace in the AWS Marketplace Seller Guide.
Create campaigns promoting your free offerings in AWS Marketplace. Common campaigns include press releases, blog posts, and social media posts. Third-party agencies specializing in AWS customer marketing can assist with campaigns. AWS Marketplace Seller Prime program provides funding assistance, go-to-market frameworks, templates, and best practices.
Track success metrics and iterate
Track insights in AWS Marketplace and AWS Partner Network (APN) reporting, alongside product engagement metrics tracked within your software itself. There are several dashboards critical for measuring PLG GTM success including:
- AWS Marketplace marketing dashboards (Available through AWS Marketplace Seller Prime)
- Buy with AWS
- ACE analytics (must login to APN to access)
- Sales operations
Conclusion and next steps
Product-led growth is transforming how SaaS companies go to market, and with AWS Marketplace, you can execute PLG motions and reach AWS customers.
Learn more about AWS Marketplace PLG strategy by attending the AWS Marketplace Seller Prime webinar and join AWS Marketplace Seller Prime to start building your PLG engine in AWS Marketplace today.