B2B Marketing Budget Analysis: How Much Do Top Agencies Charge for B2B Marketing?

How much should you spend on B2B marketing? As you prepare to scale your SaaS startup past the initial funding stages, you’ve got to think about your digital marketing spend so that you can decide how best to formulate a plan.

But, without any industry-standard benchmarks to guide you on your way, preparing a marketing strategy can be very difficult. That’s why, I analyzed the top ten B2B marketing agencies on Clutch.co to see how much they charge for a marketing campaign. 

Want to know how much B2B companies are paying for marketing right now? Keep reading!

How Much Should You Spend on B2B Marketing? A Study

There are lots of different avenues for directing your marketing budget. Depending on your B2B product, you may choose to invest more into either outbound or inbound marketing. You can also choose between options like trade shows, PPC, social media marketing, content marketing, SEO, and influencer outreach. 

Based on my research as of 2022, B2B companies are investing an average of 9,000 USD across different channels and platforms through marketing agencies. 

While it’s true that choosing a marketing budget should be about what’s right for your business and not just what everyone else seems to be doing, having a benchmark to rely on is a great way to make sure you’re on the right track.

So, I’ve analyzed the top ten B2B marketing agencies on Clutch.co to see how much they’ve been charging for their 5 most recent marketing campaigns. Here are the results:

B2B Marketing Budget Analysis: Process and Assumptions

The above data is based on an analysis of over a hundred reviews on Clutch.co. 

For those who aren’t familiar with the platform, Clutch.co is one of the best reviewing platforms for B2B services that currently exist. It’s also the go-to choice for business owners looking to outsource their marketing campaigns to external agencies.

But, let’s talk about my research process in a little more detail now.

First, I identified the top 10 marketing agencies catering to the B2B industry on Clutch.co. Then, I analyzed their entire backlog of reviews to identify the 5 most recent B2B clients who have disclosed their marketing spend with them on Clutch. 

From there, it was a matter of calculating the monthly budget allocated by each client for each agency. 

After analyzing hundreds of reviews for marketing engagements spanning over decades, I found that the typical B2B client is allocating an average marketing budget of 9,000 USD per month or 268,000 USD per campaign.

If you’re wondering why some of the top agencies in this dataset are less expensive than others, here are a few reasons based on my analysis:

• Omnichannel digital marketing agencies often choose to go for an upfront pricing for short-term campaigns instead of putting clients on a monthly retainer, helping to reduce average monthly expenses.
• There may be disparity in the scope of different projects across clients and agencies. For example, PR campaigns can cost more than an SEO audit, and so on.

Things to Consider When Creating a Digital Marketing Budget for B2B

According to the CMO Survey by Deloitte US, B2B firms typically allocate 10-11% of their total budget or 7-15% of their company revenue toward digital marketing. But, the numbers are on the rise.

How should you allocate your marketing budget between different initiatives? A quick way to calculate this is to use the 70/20/10 rule. 

• 70% of your marketing budget on proven strategies.
• 20% of your marketing spend on new channels.
• 10% of your marketing budget on experimental channels.

Of course, this is oversimplifying things by quite a bit.

Generally speaking, you should have a bucket list of marketing channels that work for you. Invest in those marketing efforts year after year, while also allotting a smaller budget toward exploring new platforms.

Why Content Marketing Should be a Part of Your B2B Marketing Budget

With all these different marketing activities you could be investing in, you might wonder if content marketing should at all be a part of your overall budget going into 2023. 

Well, here’s a quick overview of some marketing trends to help you decide:

• 47% of buyers in B2B read 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a salesperson.
• 91% of marketers use content as a channel for driving B2B sales. 
• 75% of B2B marketers who don’t have a content budget plan to have one in 12 months.

Even outside the B2B industry, content marketing has a huge ROI. 

Content is the centerpiece of your inbound strategy. It’s about more than just publishing a blog or creating an email campaign. It’s about creating a strategy for driving recurring business revenue through a system of trust and loyalty.

Ready to Invest in Content Marketing? Let’s Talk

Interested in content strategy, but don’t know where to start? Wondering why your company blog isn’t driving the results it should? Tired of working with in-house writers who don’t know how to align their content to your marketing and business goals?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re in the right place.

I’m Ritoban — an inbound strategist and content marketer who used to be a tech journalist covering the startup space. I combine my background in journalism and research with a proven marketing strategy to help you scale up user acquisition and improve your monthly revenue.

Want to learn more about how product-led content can help grow your startup? Let’s talk!