2025-03-08 06:29:51
Last updated: March 7, 2025
If you’re amidst planning the marketing budget for a B2B SaaS business and are looking to inform your thinking from the wisdom of similar companies, this report is intended to help. Our agency has compiled statistics from 2020-2024 that reflect 46 B2B SaaS companies’ best practices for putting together a budget.
Below, we share the main factors CMOs consider when creating a marketing budget, along with 3 budgets that represent B2B SaaS companies in different stages of growth. We’ll begin with 3 example budgets, then break down the factors that B2B SaaS decision makers should consider when creating a budget.
Following are 3 sample budgets from B2B SaaS businesses in different stages of growth.
| Marketing Channel | Annual Budget |
| Thought Leadership SEO | $140,000.00 |
| LinkedIn Advertising | $80,000.00 |
| LinkedIn Organic | $15,000.00 |
| E-mail Marketing | $45,000.00 |
| PR | $180,000.00 |
| CRO and UI/UX Consulting | $50,000.00 |
| SEM / PPC | $290,000.00 |
| Total Marketing | $800,000.00 |
| Marketing Channel | Annual Budget |
| Thought Leadership SEO | $130,000.00 |
| Web Redesign | $40,000.00 |
| LinkedIn Organic | $30,000.00 |
| E-mail Marketing | $40,000.00 |
| PR | $80,000.00 |
| CRO and UI/UX Consulting | $70,000.00 |
| SEM / PPC | $120,000.00 |
| Total Marketing | $590,000.00 |
| Marketing Channel | Annual Budget |
| Thought Leadership SEO | $180,000.00 |
| LinkedIn Organic | $20,000.00 |
| Email Marketing | $30,000.00 |
| PR | $80,000.00 |
| SEM / PPC | $60,000.00 |
| Total Marketing | $470,000.00 |
The consensus among the companies we worked with in this space is that the marketing budget should balance 3 factors:
We begin with the data on the marketing channels that deliver the highest ROI for B2B SaaS:
The following table is the result of polling our B2B software clients between February 2019 and June 2023.
| Name | Monthly Cost |
ROI (3 year average) |
| Thought Leadership SEO | 7.5k – 15k | 748% |
| Webinars | 5k – 10k | 364% |
| LinkedIn Organic | 3k – 8k | 229% |
| E-mail Marketing | 1k – 3k | 201% |
| LinkedIn Ads | 5k – 20k | 94% |
| Trade Shows | 10k – 20k | 85% |
| Outdoor Ads | 10k – 40k | 85% |
| PR | 10k – 50k | 62% |
| Basic SEO | 2k – 4k | 48% |
| SEM / PPC | 3k – 30k | 46% |
If you’d like more data on lead generation, we recently published a compendium of statistics on SaaS customer acquisition, as well as reports on B2B SaaS funnel conversion benchmarks and customer acquisition cost by channel and industry.
In addition to considering which line items will return the most revenue to your business directly, there are myriad secondary benefits of lead generation channels that may be strategic to marketing or the business as a whole. The following examples from our B2B SaaS clients may spark some ideas:
Once you’ve settled on the channels that make the most sense for your business in terms of ROI and strategic benefits, the last aspect to consider is how long you’ll realistically need to commit to each one. While your contract with a vendor may only be for 6 months to a year, it often takes longer to realize a channel’s full potential.
In the following chart, we’ve listed the top B2B lead generation channels and cited the average length of time our clients invested in each, along with considerations to keep in mind for each commitment.
| Marketing Channel | Average Length of Commitment | Considerations |
| Thought Leadership SEO | 2 – 3 years | A well-run SEO campaign takes 4-6 months to produce leads and 2+ years to reach full lead generation potential. |
| Webinars | > 1 year | Repeated webinars are necessary to demonstrate your value as a learning channel and attract new leads. You can expect your first several to have lower turnout unless you’ve already established your expertise. |
| LinkedIn Organic | 1.5 – 2 years | Posting on LinkedIn is a nurturing activity in that it serves to remind prospective customers and employees of your company. For that reason, it can take at least 6 months—and often more than 1 year—before it bears any fruit. |
| E-mail Marketing | 4+ years | E-mail marketing is effective when the content of the e-mails is both interesting and well-targeted. It can take a while to find that sweet spot. And since the higher-quality incarnations of e-mail marketing are so effective, you’ll want to continue for several years at least. |
| LinkedIn Ads | 6 – 12 months | Like SEM, LinkedIn ads require a few months of setup, targeting, and experimentation before they reach full effectiveness. Most companies run them for at least 6 months to understand their impact. |
| Trade Shows | > 8 months | While trade shows require an entirely separate skillset to plan and execute compared to the other marketing channels on this list. Training a team to effectively use trade shows for lead generations takes from 3–8 months, in addition to the lead time that is required to prepare for each show. |
| Outdoor Ads | ~1 year | Like many marketing channels, outdoor ads are effective when run in the right location for at least 6 months at a time, as passersby typically need 7-10 impressions before your brand gains positive sentiment. |
| PR | ~1.5 years | PR is a highly spotty lead generation tactic, as it’s built on relationships, emotion, and the timing of press hits. For that reason alone, it can take at least 6 months for there to be an ROI, and even then it’s hit-or-miss. |
| Basic SEO | ~3 months | Basic SEO requires only a few months in time investment due to its limited scope, but also offers little in the way of lead generation. |
| SEM / PPC | 3 – 6 months | The initial stages of a PPC campaign will be primarily focused on data gathering, but a skilled PPC team will be able to show results as early as 3 months in. This makes limited PPC campaigns an excellent low-commitment option for testing new markets, despite its poor scalability. |
As you create your marketing budget, no doubt many considerations will come up that are unique to your company and stage of growth. If you’d like us to take a look at your budget or have any further questions, feel free to contact us.
If you’re interested in discussing a partnership to build out your lead generation, you can schedule a call with us here. We have 15+ years of experience helping B2B SaaS companies grow through organic marketing channels.
2025-03-08 06:29:18
Last updated: March 7, 2025
Prospects may know your brand, but awareness alone doesn’t create new customers. Expert B2B marketers create content for each possible stage of interest a prospect may be in, from a brief first visit to your website to a deep dive into whether it makes sense to engage with your company.
The B2B lead generation funnel (visualized below) illustrates how B2B audiences find, research, and evaluate content that impacts what they buy. Understanding this funnel and how visitors travel through it before making the decision to convert or not, is key to B2B lead generation.
This guide explains the five stages of the lead generation funnel and offers practical advice on improving conversion rate at each stage. We’ve spent extra time on strategies for driving customers to the initial, or Discovery, stage, since it can be the most difficult stage of the lead generation funnel.
Google search is a primary way leads enter the discovery phase.
The Discovery stage is where a consumer comes across your company’s name for the first time, typically while searching for a solution to a problem, or a way to alleviate a pain point in their business. This is the most common focus of B2B marketing for two reasons:
Here are the five most popular lead generation channels B2B marketers use to fill the top of their funnel:
| Channels | ROI* | Time to Break Even | How to Optimize |
| SEM (PPC) | 36% | 6 months |
|
| SEO | 748% | 9 months |
|
| Trade Shows | 85% | 8 months |
|
| LinkedIn Ads | 229% | 10 months |
|
| Public Speaking | 856% | 6 months |
|
The best approach is to combine multiple channels, using faster channels like PPC to supplement higher ROI but slower long-term lead generation from organic channels like SEO. But Discovery is only the first step in a long process; next comes Interest.
After clicking through, visitors seek to learn more about your products or services.
Many people will reach the interest stage of the funnel, but only a tiny percentage will continue further down the funnel. Driving more visitors through this stage requires that your website delivers pertinent information and vital insights, and does so with minimal friction.
Identify the pages visitors land on when they first visit your site (most often done with the help of Hubspot, Salesforce, or another visitor tracking tool). Identifying what prompted them to explore your company allows you to focus on the pages that your customers see first, ensuring that each is fully conversion optimized.
In the Interest stage, this means avoiding any hyperbole or similarly salesy language and instead offering clear, concise writing that teaches visitors something of actual value. Your goal here is to establish credibility; attempting to force a pitch to make a quick sale can cause visitors to lose interest.
The following content types are most effective for driving visitors through the Interest stage of your funnel:
You’ll draw the broadest spectrum of readers near the top of the funnel. Some will arrive on the verge of making a purchase, but most will be in the early stages of gathering information and making decisions.
Interested visitors will conduct independent research on third party websites in the Appraisal stage.
You’ll have very little control over the Appraisal stage because this is the point when a semi-interested lead conducts independent research on your organization. You’ll be evaluated and compared to competitors, and the user will ultimately decide how much they want to engage with your business.
Consumer research makes your industry reputation—particularly as perceived on Google, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor—crucial to pushing consumers past this stage of the funnel. Ask satisfied employees and customers to leave positive remarks on review websites and ensure that your social profiles are up to date.
Returning with their decision mostly made, the visitor looks to case studies and examines trust elements for a final push.
At the Confirmation stage, you have your potential customer’s attention, they’ve done their homework on you, and now they’re just looking for the last piece of information before they commit. This is the stage at which more sales-oriented material is appropriate, along with case studies that demonstrate how your products perform in real world applications.
The most important factors in this stage are transparency and honesty in setting customer expectations. This is where you can capitalize on the trust you’ve built throughout the rest of the funnel.
Their decision made, the visitor signs up for a free trial, converting into a new lead for your sales team.
The potential customer has reached the finish line and is at the bottom of the B2B lead generation funnel. The most important aspect of this stage is ensuring that the conversion is quick and straightforward. Your contact page should be easily accessible from your website’s top level menu, along with sidebar contact forms that allow a visitor to convert without moving to another page.
Your reader will likely still read your content regularly if they’ve reached this stage, meaning your work with this customer is not finished. Don’t let up on regularly producing high-quality content. To maintain client confidence and build interest in your other products, consider the following post-conversion strategies:
If your team has a great deal of experience in creating content for B2B lead generation, and you may be able to implement the strategies above in-house. Alternatively, you might think about hiring a partner who knows how to generate content at each stage of the funnel, connect them all into ideal click paths, and measure the results.
First Page Sage has over a decade of experience helping B2B clients generate leads in specialized industries. If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you convert prospects into active customers, contact us here.
2025-03-08 06:25:34
In this report we provide average website conversion rates segmented by industry and by first-touch marketing channel. Average website visitor conversion rate refers to the percentage of a website’s total visitors who perform a specified conversion action. Depending on the nature of your business and marketing goals, these may include:
The formula for calculating the average website visitor conversion rate is as follows:
Although the average website visitor conversion rate varies according to page type and marketing channel (see the sections below), our research team has provided the following overall averages for both B2B and B2C sites:
| Average B2C Conversion Rate | Average B2B Conversion Rate |
| 3.9% | 3.6% |
The sections below provide a more nuanced breakdown of average website visitor conversion rates according to industry and marketing channel.
The table below lists average website visitor conversion rates for several prominent industries. It’s worth noting that the broader an industry is (e.g., entertainment, which encompasses everything from Grammy-winning musical artists to your local video game arcade), the greater the potential disparity between the provided number and the real-world equivalent.
| Industry | Conversion Rate | Notes |
| Addiction Treatment | 2.2% | The emotional weight and financial cost of treatment are the two biggest obstacles to a high conversion rate. Focus on providing educational content and clear CTAs. |
| Apparel & Fashion | 2.8% | Although this industry has a high rate of impulse buying, some boutique and bespoke brands may cause longer deliberation. High-quality images and virtual try-ons may help push visitors over the edge. |
| B2B SaaS | 1.7% | B2B decisions have lower conversion rates across the board due to a longer sales cycle and multiple decision-makers involved in the process. Provide visitors with low-risk options to gather more information like mailing lists. |
| Biotech | 2.2% | Biotech’s highly technical nature requires a charismatic expert to make visitors feel confident in moving forward. Focus on thought leadership material and webinars. |
| Commercial Insurance | 2.3% | Often, the need for personalized quotes can muddy the decision-making process. Provide clients with free tools to help accelerate this process. |
| Construction | 2.4% | Rates for construction firms tend to be lower due to the exceptionally high cost associated with projects. To help clients take the first step, offer them access to free consultations. |
| eCommerce | 4.3% | eCommerce benefits from an audience who are already highly transactional to begin with, making initial progress much easier. These rates can still be increased by offering discounts and limited-time offers in exchange for leaving an email address. |
| Engineering | 1.9% | Engineering has a complex sales cycle because clients typically require custom solutions. Providing free consultations and estimates will make visitors more likely to leave contact information. |
| Entertainment | 3.3% | In-demand services like streaming subscriptions and ticket sales benefit from strong demand, but these rates can be improved with more personalized recommendations and a streamlined checkout process. |
| Environmental Services | 1.8% | Environmental services face ongoing compliance with multiple regulatory bodies, which can bog down the decision-making process. Case studies and educational content demonstrate your applied knowledge of these regulations, making visitors more likely to trust you. |
| Financial Services | 2.9% | Trust and credibility are at a premium in FS, leading to a lengthy application process. Emphasize security in your website and provide clear testimonials exemplifying the safety of your services. |
| Food & Beverage | 3% | Conversion rates differ depending on the size of the order, meaning that B2B tends to be lower since these are usually in bulk. |
| Healthcare | 3.5% | Compliance regulations and complex information often stem initial decisions. Focus on educational material and simple appointment scheduling. |
| Heavy Equipment | 2.1% | This industry struggles with expensive equipment costs, a long research cycle, and a B2B environment with multiple decision-makers. Offering a virtual demonstration or a free consultation in exchange for an email is the best way to encourage new visitors. |
| Higher Education & College | 3.4% | Higher education faces stiff competition and a longer overall sales cycle, however, initial decisions to gather information are made more freely. Focus on providing true transparency for tuition and fees to begin the process. |
| Hotels & Resorts | 3.9% | Especially in the case of last-minute bookings, these customers visit a site with the intent to buy. With that in mind, loyalty programs and limited-time offers will improve the initial performance of your sales cycle. |
| HVAC Services | 3.2% | HVAC has a shorter sales cycle in B2C situations where demand is high. B2B decisions take longer due to the higher cost of service. Both can be improved with transparent pricing information and customer testimonials. |
| Industrial IoT | 2.9% | IoT is a niche market in and of itself, but when applied to the industrial sector the sales cycle becomes significantly longer due to the technical nature of the content. Provide free consultations and demos for products offered in exchange for customer information. |
| IT & Managed Services | 1.9% | At nearly every stage of the sales funnel, IT sales are slowed down by long-term commitments and a high degree of research required for the purchase. Providing visitors with customized pricing information will encourage conversion. |
| Legal Services | 4.2% | Uncertainty about pricing and high levels of competition can slow down eventual sales, however, case studies and free consultations do a good job of getting initial leads through the door. |
| Luxury Goods | 1.8% | Luxury brands struggle to move buyers past high prices, which often extends the decision-making process. Provide visitors with exclusive offers and loyalty programs in exchange for setting up an account. |
| Manufacturing | 2.4% | Because manufacturing companies are dealing with custom orders, visitors tend to be looking for specific product specs rather than requesting quotes. Utilize gated pricing sheets and product catalog downloads to gather new lead information. |
| Medical Device | 2% | Medical device companies operate in a B2B sales environment with multiple decision-makers involved and a high level of regulation. Providing visitors with case studies and comparison guides will make them more likely to leave information for further contact. |
| Oil & Gas | 3.1% | The high cost of a typical sale prevents visitors from leaving their information freely, opting instead to do further research. Providing them with this research by releasing gated quarterly reports and industry insights will move them further along. |
| PCB Design & Manufacturing | 2.9% | PCB has a high level of competition which can stymie decision-making. Providing visitors with direct comparison guides will make the process easier, opening the door for downloadable design templates and free prototype offers. |
| Pest Control | 3.1% | High demand typically means that someone searching for a pest control company is more likely to buy. Offering free inspections as well as landing pages dedicated to specific local areas will make you more trustworthy in their eyes. |
| Pharmaceutical | 2.2% | Pharma companies are highly regulated and cater to a highly educated audience (typically doctors’ offices). Conversion optimization for your website typically means providing trust elements like webinars and exclusive industry reports. |
| Real Estate | 2.6% | Real estate decision-making is slow due to the high cost associated with an eventual purchase. Providing visitors with free alerts for local property as well as downloadable buying guides for the area is often the best method to gather new lead information. |
| Software Development | 1.7% | The rapid evolution of software development over the last several years has made potential customers more discerning before committing to a sustained process. Provide case studies and free consultations to show visitors you provide the best product available. |
| Solar | 2.2% | Solar’s high upfront costs can bog down the overall sales cycle at every stage. Offer free ROI calculators and information on government-provided financing to improve conversion. |
| Staffing & Recruiting | 3.3% | Staffing and recruiting face a great deal of competition from both employers and job seekers. Utilizing gated materials for resume templates and job alert signups is a great way to increase engagement and gather information. |
| Transportation & Logistics | 1.9% | Logistics has a notoriously slow decision-making process due to a high number of decision-makers and a high cost associated with services. Downloadable case studies and educational material covering the current state of the supply chain will help build trust in the eyes of prospective leads. |
In addition to industry, average website visitor conversion rates also tend to vary according to the marketing channel being used. The following table provides averages for the most used marketing channels, as well as notes on the kinds of audiences they attract most often.
| Channel | Conversion Rate | Description |
| PPC | 1.5% | SEM/PPC targets leads inorganically by placing Google ads in front of users for high-value keywords. It provides a high conversion rate, but only for as long as you pay for it. |
| SEO | 2.3% | SEO a relatively high conversion rate due to its ability to produce high-value organic leads by targeting user search intent. |
| Organic Social | 1.8% | Social media excels at driving lead engagement and performs best in B2C campaigns, however, B2B campaigns can also benefit from a strong LinkedIn presence. |
| Paid Social | 1.6% | Using paid advertising on social media allows users to target their intended audience more directly, providing a higher conversion rate as long as brands pay for it. |
| 2.8% | Because email is typically used to follow up with customers who have already left their information, the target audience is more engaged and results in a higher conversion rate. | |
| Direct Traffic | 3.3% | Leads who directly type your address into the search bar or use a saved link/bookmark are warm leads who have already expressed an interest in your company, suggesting a higher conversion rate. |
As complex as understanding average website visitor conversion rates may be, implementing them for your own campaign is especially difficult. It takes a skilled eye to identify areas for improvement and an expert with a thorough understanding of the market to adjust your strategy as Google’s algorithm changes and industry trends shift.
This is exactly why most companies choose to work with an experienced partner to handle the heavy lifting for them. Our agency has worked with thousands of clients from every industry to improve average website visitor conversion rates and turn your website into an organic lead generation machine. Reach out to us through our contact page if you’d like to discuss a partnership.
2025-03-07 06:43:15
Last Updated: March 6, 2025
Our team collected data on the market share of each of the major generative AI chatbots in the U.S. as of March 6, 2025. The results are displayed in the tables below, organized by both market share and quarterly user growth. We also provide market share trend over time for the top 4 generative AI chatbots: ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, and ClaudeAI.
For the purposes of this study, the term “generative AI chatbot” refers to LLM-based web & mobile applications used by the public to seek answers or create content.
| Generative AI Chatbot | Description | LLMs Used | AI Search Market Share | Estimated Quarterly User Growth | |
| 1 | ChatGPT (excluding Copilot) |
General-purpose AI chatbot | GPT-3.5, GPT-4 | 59.70% | 8% ▲ |
| 2 | Microsoft Copilot | General-purpose AI assistant | GPT-4 | 14.40% | 6% ▲ |
| 3 | Google Gemini | General-purpose AI assistant | Gemini | 13.50% | 5% ▲ |
| 4 | Perplexity | Accuracy-focused AI search engine | Mistral 7B, Llama 2 | 6.20% | 10% ▲ |
| 5 | Claude AI | Business-focused AI assistant | Claude 3 | 3.20% | 14% ▲ |
| 6 | Brave Leo AI | Privacy-focused AI assistant | Mixtral 8x7B | 0.80% | 6% ▲ |
| 7 | Komo | Link-surfacing AI search engine | Not publicly disclosed | 0.70% | 7% ▲ |
| 8 | Grok | General-purpose AI search engine | Grok 2, Grok 3 | 0.60% | 12% ▲ |
| 9 | Deepseek | General-purpose AI search engine | DeepSeek V3 | 0.30% | 10% ▲ |
| 10 | Andi | Simplicity-focused AI search engine | Not publicly disclosed | 0.20% | 4% ▲ |
The following table displays the fastest-growing Generative AI chatbots in the US as of March 6, 2025, judged by their change in estimated users quarter-over-quarter. ChatGPT remains the market leader, but its growth has eased as both Google and Microsoft release improvements to their AI assistants. Among the startups, general purpose AI chatbots have seen slow but steady user acquisition, while specialty AI tools such as developer-focused Phind and business-focused Claud AI top our growth report.
| Generative AI Chatbot | Description | LLMs Used | AI Search Market Share | Estimated Quarterly User Growth | Estimated Quarterly User Growth |
| 1 | Claude AI | Business-focused AI assistant | Claude 3 | 3.20% | 14% ▲ |
| 2 | Grok | General-purpose AI search engine | Grok 2, Grok 3 | 0.60% | 12% ▲ |
| 3 | Perplexity | Accuracy-focused AI search engine | Mistral 7B, Llama 2 | 6.20% | 10% ▲ |
| 4 | Deepseek | General-purpose AI search engine | DeepSeek V3 | 0.30% | 10% ▲ |
| 5 | ChatGPT (excluding Copilot) |
General-purpose AI chatbot | GPT-3.5, GPT-4 | 59.70% | 8% ▲ |
| 6 | Komo | Link-surfacing AI search engine | Not publicly disclosed | 0.70% | 7% ▲ |
| 7 | Microsoft Copilot | General-purpose AI assistant | GPT-4 | 14.40% | 6% ▲ |
| 8 | Brave Leo AI | Privacy-focused AI assistant | Mixtral 8x7B | 0.80% | 6% ▲ |
| 9 | Google Gemini | General-purpose AI assistant | Gemini | 13.50% | 5% ▲ |
| 10 | Andi | Simplicity-focused AI search engine | Not publicly disclosed | 0.20% | 5% ▲ |
Below you will find the YTD 2025 trend of ChatGPT’s market share in the generative AI chatbot space. As the pioneer and marketplace leader, it has the most to lose, and it has seen a decline in market share this year at the hands of its many smaller competitors.
NOTE: ChatGPT’s market share includes that of Bing’s Copilot product, as they both use the same underlying system; the difference is only that Microsoft Copilot personalizes ChatGPT based on user data in the Microsoft ecosystem.
| Month | ChatGPT Market Share |
| January 2024 | 76.4% |
| February 2024 | 76.1% |
| March 2024 | 75.8% |
| April 2024 | 75.3% |
| May 2024 | 75.0% |
| June 2024 | 74.9% |
| July 2024 | 74.4% |
| August 2024 | 74.1% |
| September 2024 | 73.8% |
| October 2024 | 73.6% |
| November 2024 | 73.8% |
| December 2024 | 73.8% |
| January 2025 | 74.2% |
| February 2025 | 74.1% |
Below you will find the YTD 2025 trend of Google Gemini’s market share in the generative AI chatbot space. It has experienced some decline in market share this year, even moreso than ChatGPT, as the fanfare around its release in December 2022 subsided.
| Month | Gemini Market Share |
| January 2024 | 16.2% |
| February 2024 | 15.5% |
| March 2024 | 14.8% |
| April 2024 | 14.9% |
| May 2024 | 14.5% |
| June 2024 | 13.8% |
| July 2024 | 13.3% |
| August 2024 | 13.8% |
| September 2024 | 13.6% |
| October 2024 | 13.5% |
| November 2024 | 13.5% |
| December 2024 | 13.4% |
| January 2025 | 13.5% |
| February 2025 | 13.5% |
Below you will find the YTD 2025 trend of Perplexity’s market share in the generative AI chatbot space. While its growth may not look significant, it has taken some market share from ChatGPT and Gemini this year.
| Month | Perplexity Market Share |
| January 2024 | 2.7% |
| February 2024 | 2.7% |
| March 2024 | 3.0% |
| April 2024 | 2.9% |
| May 2024 | 3.0% |
| June 2024 | 3.0% |
| July 2024 | 3.8% |
| August 2024 | 5.3% |
| September 2024 | 5.5% |
| October 2024 | 5.6% |
| November 2024 | 5.8% |
| December 2024 | 6.0% |
| January 2025 | 6.0% |
| February 2025 | 6.2% |
Below you will find the YTD 2025 trend of ClaudeAI’s market share in the generative AI chatbot space. Like Perplexity, it has contributed to the splintering of the generative AI market and loss of market share from ChatGPT and Gemini.
| Month | ClaudeAI Market Share |
| January 2024 | 2.1% |
| February 2024 | 2.2% |
| March 2024 | 2.4% |
| April 2024 | 2.5% |
| May 2024 | 2.6% |
| June 2024 | 2.5% |
| July 2024 | 2.5% |
| August 2024 | 2.6% |
| September 2024 | 2.8% |
| October 2024 | 2.8% |
| November 2024 | 2.9% |
| December 2024 | 3.1% |
| January 2025 | 3.1% |
| February 2025 | 3.2% |
If you’d like a pdf copy of this report, you can reach out here.
2025-03-07 06:42:26
Last updated: March 6, 2025
What kind of ROI should you expect from an SEO campaign in 2025? Using proprietary data from SEO campaigns that took place between Q1 2021 and Q4 2024, we’ve broken down the answer to this question by industry, further segmenting it by return on advertising spend (ROAS), ROI, and time to break-even.
The following ROI statistics represent the ROAS and ROI of SEO averaged over a three-year period. The SEO campaigns that generated this data were thought leadership-based, meaning they involved ongoing publishing of keyword-targeted, high-quality website pages, split ~65/35 between blogs and landing pages.
While ROAS isn’t a commonly calculated statistic for SEO campaigns, we wanted to provide a direct comparison against a commonly used PPC statistic. We calculate SEO ROAS using the following formula: Gross Return on SEO Campaign ÷ SEO Campaign Costs.
Typically, the costs of an SEO campaign are what a company pays our agency (~$120,000 / year) plus a share of the salary of all the people interacting with our firm on the client side. The final ROAS number is a ratio of how much gross revenue should be generated from every dollar spent on SEO.
Likewise, we calculate SEO ROI using the following formula: Net Profit from SEO Campaign ÷ SEO Campaign Costs. We then multiply by 100 to get the percentage return you can expect to see from SEO.
We’ve also included a time to break-even statistic, which is the number of months it takes for your net revenue from an SEO campaign to exceed your spend on that campaign.
| Industry | Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS) | ROI |
Time to Break-Even |
| Addiction Treatment | 8.90 | 736% | 8 months |
| B2B SaaS | 8.75 | 702% | 7 months |
| Biotech | 9.20 | 788% | 8 months |
| Construction | 7.40 | 681% | 5 months |
| eCommerce | 3.65 | 317% | 16 months |
| Financial Services | 11.10 | 1,031% | 9 months |
| Higher Education & College | 10.40 | 994% | 13 months |
| HVAC Services | 8.15 | 678% | 6 months |
| Industrial IoT | 9.85 | 866% | 7 months |
| Commercial Insurance | 9.05 | 758% | 9 months |
| IT Staffing | 7.00 | 612% | 10 months |
| Legal Services | 6.15 | 526% | 14 months |
| Manufacturing | 9.50 | 813% | 9 months |
| Medical Device | 12.85 | 1,183% | 13 months |
| Oil & Gas | 10.55 | 906% | 10 months |
| PCB Design & Manufacturing | 12.40 | 1,101% | 11 months |
| Pharmaceutical | 9.85 | 826% | 9 months |
| Real Estate | 15.10 | 1,389% | 10 months |
| Solar Energy | 9.20 | 770% | 9 months |
When a marketing leader is setting expectations for the ROI their company will receive on an SEO campaign, they must consider the comprehensiveness and quality of the SEO campaign itself. Below are the three most common SEO services along with their ROAS, ROI, and time to break-even.
A technical SEO campaign is one in which an SEO consultancy enacts technical fixes to your website, typically relating to speed, security, and mobile optimization; performs keyword research; and rewrites the title tags on your website using the results of their keyword research.
A basic content marketing SEO campaign is one in which an SEO agency performs cursory keyword research using an online tool such as SEMrush; and produces ~4 blog articles per month of average quality relative to your competition.
A thought leadership SEO campaign is one in which an SEO agency creates a strategic SEO plan, rank ordering keywords by value and organizing them into hubs and spokes; researches your target audience’s needs and pain points, transactional behavior, and search intent; and produces 6-8 high-quality content pages per month with an aim toward producing new MQLs.
| SEO Service | Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS) | ROI |
Time to Break-Even |
|
Technical SEO (Technical fixes, keyword research, title tag rewrites) |
1.35 | 117% | 6 months |
|
Basic Content Marketing (Average quality keyword research & blog articles ~4x/mo) |
1.05 | 16% | 15 months |
|
Thought Leadership & SEO (Strategic planning, high end content ~8x/mo, focus on marketing KPIs) |
9.10 | 748% | 9 months |
Positive ROI in an SEO campaign is achieved over a 6-12 month period, with peak results in the second or third year of the campaign. Here is what a typical B2B SEO campaign looks like in terms of gross revenue generated on an annual basis:
Seeing this kind of ROI is a result of content quality remaining high throughout an SEO campaign, a strong adherence to search intent, and the lifetime value of a customer being relatively high ($10,000+). The best candidates for thought leadership-style SEO are companies with high-value clients, such as those in financial services, industrial manufacturing, real estate, or B2B SaaS.
We hope the above statistics are useful to you in establishing benchmarks for your own SEO campaigns. If you’re concerned about your ROI meeting your standards for an SEO campaign, you may wish to contract with an agency such as ours to conduct a thought leadership SEO campaign. You can reach out to us here.
If you’d like a pdf copy of this report, reach out to us here.
To help you achieve the above ROIs, we recommend reading our reports and guides on SEO benchmarks and conversion rates:
2025-03-07 06:18:48
Last updated: March 6, 2025
What is the average conversion rate in each B2B industry? This is the question we began researching more than ten years ago, and which you’ll find answered in this report.
The conversion rates below are the result of research conducted and collected by our SEO firm, drawing from client data gathered between January 2018 and December 2024.
A conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to a company’s website that performed a conversion action, divided by total unique website visitors as shown in the formula below:
For example, a B2B SaaS provider may have three potential customers download a free trial of their software out of 100 unique visitors on their website in a given time period—a conversion rate of 3%. This is one of the first steps in the customer acquisition funnel as shown below:
As shown in the image above, this initial conversion from website visitor to known lead also represents the point at which marketing to that prospective customer must shift its focus from lead generation to lead nurturing.
In this section, we present the average conversion rate for 25 B2B industries. You can use these benchmarks to compare your company’s marketing performance with the average performance of your competitors. Next to each conversion rate we’ve also included a suggestion that comes from our experience working with clients in that specific industry.
| Industry | Average Conversion Rate | Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Strategy |
| Addiction Treatment | 2.1% | Publish case studies and personal stories (while protecting patient privacy) that describe how patients have worked through their addictions, sharing on social media simultaneously. |
| B2B SaaS | 1.1% | Create a presentation deck on the problem they’re attempting to solve with your software, and automatically send to customers that submit their e-mail address. |
| Biotech | 1.8% | Provide white papers and case studies describing the advantages and innovative results of your research. |
| Commercial Insurance | 1.7% | Use blog articles that contain ROI tables to illustrate how insurance is worth its price in situations businesses are likely face. |
| Construction | 1.9% | Design geotargeted, conversion-optimized landing pages for each service and subservice. |
| Engineering | 1.2% | Have a section of the website dedicated to use case pages showing how you’ve created solutions for problems your customers have faced. |
| Environmental Services | 1.3% | Create content “pods” of expertise around the major keywords that indicate an interest in your services, with each pod containing ~10 subpages tackling a more specific keyword within the pod’s container. |
| Financial Services | 1.9% | Use a FAQ approach, ensuring every question and answer has its own page, targeting specific, low-in-the-funnel searches around the type of services your company provides. Wealth management companies should also offer insights on specific investment and wealth preservation strategies such as Section 754 elections, featuring each insight in a blog post. |
| Heavy Equipment | 1.7% | Create a series of Capabilities pages featuring your equipment. |
| Higher Education & College | 2.8% | Create a pillar page containing personal success stories from students, outcome statistics, and graphics showcasing the degree program’s value not just to the student, but to communities. |
| HVAC Services | 3.1% | Geotarget all landing pages and blog posts for the area or areas served along with transactional keywords targeted to local business owners. |
| Industrial IoT | 2.6% | Utilizing thought leadership and white papers that describe the near future (1-2 years from now) and the ways in which successful businesses will modernize using industrial IoT. |
| IT & Managed Services | 1.5% | Create a series of cost-benefit analysis articles that explain why outsourcing IT is more effective than hiring an in-house. |
| Legal Services | 7.4% | Create in-depth, branded guides for the website that offer an appetizer portion of analysis around recent or highly searched for laws. |
| Manufacturing | 2.2% | Publish detailed product pages that highlight quality, price, and the ways in which the product exceeds industry benchmarks, including customer logos if possible. |
| Medical Device | 1.6% | Build a series of problem and solution pages targeting key issues that medical professionals face, citing clinical research on improved patient outcomes. |
| Oil & Gas | 2.5% | Attract in-company influencers by targeting technical keywords that only they would search for. Content should be very much “in the weeds.” |
| PCB Design & Manufacturing | 2.4% | Be a leader in educational content, publishing blog articles on the situations your target audience faces that necessitate the use of your products or services. |
| Pharmaceutical | 1.9% | Illustrate your products’ value to physicians, pharmacists, or other target markets using summaries of the health studies conducted on your products, highlighting favorable patient outcomes. |
| Real Estate | 2.7% | Write blog articles that discuss the current state of the local market along with trends in pricing and value, keeping these pieces updated quarterly. |
| Software Development | 1.1% | Create an FAQ that lists common pain points businesses face and how investing in custom software promotes efficiency and generates ROI. |
| Solar Energy | 1.8% | Given the prevalence of local searches in this industry, create original geotargeted landing pages based on local keyword searches. |
| Staffing & Recruiting | 2.9% | Target location keywords for each of the markets you work in, each type of employer, and each job position you help fill. |
| Transportation & Logistics | 1.4% | Produce custom infographics showing the value of your services over the competition, including price, durability, and logistical advantages. |
In case it’s useful, I’ve also compiled the conversion rates into a single chart. This helps you see the scale of the difference in conversion rate between, say, Education companies and Legal Services businesses.
As businesses grow, it’s typical to deal with low conversion rates, and the process of improving these rates is called conversion rate optimization (CRO for short). Even Salesforce, with its stellar reputation, converts less than 5% of its traffic into qualified leads. Most B2B conversion rates aren’t higher than this, particularly in industries with longer sales cycles. But this isn’t a bad thing. In my 17 years studying conversion rates, I’ve found that the biggest issue for B2B marketers is simply understanding what conversion rate to expect at scale. From there, if you have a good marketing team, it’s rather systematic to push leads into the top of the funnel.
This confusion is exemplified by many of our SEO clients, particularly those in tech manufacturing (semiconductors, chips, circuit boards). Given their target audience of large enterprises, they have sales cycles of 6-12 months. Many of their marketers calculate conversion rate on a year basis, meaning that sales that started in Q4 2023, for instance, and didn’t close until Q2 2024, aren’t included in their conversion rate figure. This is a problem of interpretation, not conversion.
If you’re analyzing the data correctly and you actually have a low conversion rate, the reasons are likely too specific to your business to opine on in an overview article like this one. However, conversion issues tend to come down to a (1) lack of understanding what your target audience members genuinely desire from a website like yours or (2) lack of execution on satisfying these desires. Too many websites fall prey to things like:
With our clients, we begin by refining their website’s UI so it’s as accessible and easy to read as possible, highlighting the information the target audience member would want to see first (using plenty of white space around each text or visual element). We then devise a thought leadership content strategy that utilizes the corpus of content organizational technique to establish your website as an authority in Google’s search results for the most transactional keywords in your niche or market. Our goal is to lift conversion rate by .5% – 1% in 6 months.
Once you’ve optimized your web pages for conversion, it makes sense to return to generating new B2B leads for the top of your marketing funnel. This can be accomplished through advertising, but the ROI of thought-leadership based SEO is among the highest of all B2B lead generation strategies. Here are some quick tips with links to longer reads, should the subject be of interest to you:
Overall, increasing conversion rate is a full time job, so unless you have this expertise in house, you may wish to consider working with a firm that understands how to improve conversions for your specific industry. That is what we do at First Page Sage. If you’d like to learn more, feel free to get in touch.
For more information on B2B marketing and conversion rates, see our other reports: