metric_category: revenue

claim: Most B2B companies invest 7.7%-8% of revenue in marketing

source_title: B2B Marketing Budget Benchmarks for 2026 - Directive Consulting

source_quality: strong

methodology: Forrester, 2024; Gartner, 2025; BDC; various benchmarks


metric_category: channel

claim: Digital channels now absorb 61.1% of total marketing spend


metric_category: benchmark

claim: Paid media takes roughly 30.6% of the average marketing budget


claim: B2B SaaS marketing budgets can run 15%-25%+ of ARR in early growth stages


claim: 75% of CMOs report being asked to do more with less


claim: Agency and outsourced services receive 22%-25% of total marketing budgets


claim: In-house labor accounts for roughly 25%-27% of total marketing budgets


claim: Smaller B2B firms often operate with marketing budgets of 2%-5% of revenue


claim: High-growth B2B companies frequently invest 10%-20%+ of revenue during expansion phases


claim: Content and SEO typically receive 10%-15% of the total marketing budget


claim: Marketing technology absorbs roughly 23%-26% of marketing budgets


claim: The average B2B firm invests roughly 8% of revenue in marketing


claim: The average marketing budget as a share of company revenue sits at 7.7%


claim: Mid-market ($10M-$100M): 7%-12% of revenue


claim: Enterprise ($100M+): 5%-8% of revenue


claim: Mature / Stable growth: 4%-7% of revenue


claim: Startup / Pre-revenue: 15%-30%+ of ARR


claim: Early growth (<$10M ARR): 10%-20% of revenue


claim: LinkedIn Ads delivered 113% return on ad spend (ROAS) across Dreamdata customers.

source_title: Announcing The LinkedIn Ads 2026 Benchmarks Report - Dreamdata

methodology: aggregated data across 66M+ sessions and 3.5M+ customer journeys


claim: LinkedIn's ROAS is now 121%


claim: 81% of the B2B customer journey now happens outside the sales pipeline


claim: Buyers have an average of 88 touchpoints


claim: Across 4 channels


claim: With 10 stakeholders involved


claim: LinkedIn now commands 41% of total B2B ad budgets


claim: Non-branded search budgets have dropped from 37% in 2024 to 33% in 2025.


claim: Cost per clicks (CPC) on those non-branded terms have jumped 29%


claim: Click-through rates (CTR) have fallen by 26%


claim: LinkedIn CPC is higher (5.98)


claim: Meta's 1.60 CPC


claim: Cost per company influenced on LinkedIn: 70.11


claim: Google Search: 110.37


claim: LinkedIn ROAS has grown to 121% in 2025


claim: Google Search: 67%


claim: Meta: 51%


claim: LinkedIn's ROAS more than doubles to 279%


claim: Meta hits 133%


claim: Google Search reaches 138%.


claim: LinkedIn Ads account for 24.2% of all sessions at the MQL stage