Concise Marketing ROI Guide for B2B and SaaS Companies in 2025

Marketing ROI is the holy grail marketing metric in B2B SaaS businesses. You can fight me on this but it’s true. In 2024 when the market is no longer ‘Here’s VC money to blow on growth at any cost’, and marketing departments  are being seen as a cost centre to shrink, we HAVE TO get extremely comfortable with ROI.

I know from experience that a lot of marketers shy away from ROI because they know it’s bad, because they don’t have access to the data or because they don’t know what to aim for. If you read this guide and those worries are not resolved, then message me and tell me to get my act together, my email is ruta@lavametrics.com. Seriously. Do it.

TL;DR

• Marketing ROI is essential for B2B SaaS companies aiming for profitability and sustainable growth in 2024. Knowing your ROI helps you make smart budget decisions that truly drive value.
• Understand the basics: ROI measures what you get back for each pound spent. Aim for an ROI of at least 1 to cover costs, with a goal of reaching 2 to drive meaningful growth.
• Know your unique challenges: Long sales cycles, multi-touch attribution, and delayed impact are typical B2B obstacles—use historical data and keep a close eye on efficiency.
• Set realistic goals: Your ROI targets should align with company goals. Start by hitting break-even, then optimize to improve from there.
• Efficient spending is everything: Track your data, eliminate low-return activities quickly, and don’t ignore the impact of sales cycles. Inefficient spending drains your ROI and your budget.
• Tools don’t need to be fancy: Use a CRM and spending tracker you trust to get accurate numbers—fancy software is secondary to having reliable data.

Bottom line: Make 2025 the year you turn marketing ROI into a concrete measure of success, using data to maximize impact and grow smarter.

Section 1: Understanding Marketing ROI

1.1 What is Marketing ROI?

ROI is short for Return on Investment. It all boils down to if you invest £1 into your marketing, how much did you get back?

For businesses to be functional they have to at least cover their costs which include salaries and all overheads. We are in the world of B2B SaaS so ‘cover costs’ is not going to be good enough. We need need to shoot for profit. Profit is what is left over after covering your costs. P.s. there are different kinds of profit in the accounting world but we wont need to get that nerdy here.

I also want to be picky and point you to the word ‘investment’ in ‘Return on Investment’. All spending is a ‘cost’ but not all spending is an ‘investment’.

Example of ‘Spend not Investment’: Buying a pair of nice jeans (the spend) is not an investment. This is because your expectation is that as soon as you bring those jeans home and start wearing them they will be loosing value (aka resale price will be lower than what you paid).

Example of ‘Investment and Spend’: Buying a collectable book, we expect that the value in the future of this book (given its condition doesn’t deteriorate) will actually increase and not decrease.

I find this a really important distinction to make in your own thinking as a marketeer but it will also come into play later with the different versions of ROI calculations.

Basic ROI formula:

Revenue from Marketing/ Cost of Marketing x 100.

£100 of Revenue / £10 of Cost x 100 = 1000% ROI on spend

Have a look at our article How do you know if you have good Marketing ROI in B2B SaaS? to learn more.

1.2 Why Marketing ROI Matters

ROI isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a survival tool for B2B SaaS marketers in 2024. When companies are focused on profitability, knowing which marketing channels are delivering is critical. Without ROI insights, how can you even tell if your team is driving real growth or just bleeding budget on channels that don’t pull their weight? Tracking ROI lets you see exactly what’s working (and what isn’t), so you’re not stuck with expensive, ineffective strategies when funding gets tight.

ROI also takes the guesswork out of budget conversations. With clear ROI data, you’re not begging for money—you’re saying, “Here’s what we need, and here’s what it’ll get us.” It sets the stage for real talk with senior leadership. They won’t be throwing out impossible expectations like, “Here’s £100, now bring in £5 million.” You can use ROI data to set targets that are actually achievable and get the budget to match.

And let’s talk about strategy. Focusing on ROI helps you see which efforts pay off and where to pump the brakes. Take PPC, for example: everyone loves to throw money at it for growth, but if you’re tracking ROI, you’ll eventually hit a point where more spend doesn’t equal more results. Demand is limited, and if you keep spending on the same keywords, it’s like burning money. That’s when it’s time to pull back and reallocate to something that’ll actually drive returns.

Section 2: Comprehensive Guide to B2B Marketing ROI

2.1 Strategies and Benchmarks

B2B marketers have some pretty unique ROI challenges compared to B2C, and it’s not just about big budgets. One of the biggest differences is the length and complexity of our sales cycles. When you’re selling an enterprise solution, it’s not unusual for the journey from initial interest to closed deal to stretch out over 12-24 months (or even longer). So, measuring ROI gets tricky—you’ve got to choose a payback period that actually makes sense. Are you measuring ROI on your spend for one year? Two years? Or are you looking at ROI over the entire customer lifetime? How you decide to measure it will really impact the picture you get.

Then there’s the issue of attribution. B2B marketing funnels are omnichannel and very interconnected. One channel often influences another, which makes isolating the impact of any single channel difficult. Take organic content, for instance. It often supports PPC by boosting Google’s perception of your site, which helps with paid search performance. So, if you suddenly cut back on organic content, not only might you lose that organic traffic, but your PPC costs could creep up too, dragging down ROI. Or think about social media—people see you on LinkedIn, visit your site, and then convert later. If you stop pushing on social, it may look like organic or direct traffic is unaffected, but soon you’ll notice conversion rates dip. That’s why I always prefer calculating ROI on the team level, then breaking it down by channel and time period. It keeps things realistic.

So, what does strong B2B marketing ROI look like? My go-to benchmark is a 2x return. If for every £1 you put into marketing you get £2 back within a year, you’re doing really well. Investors love seeing that because it’s outperforming typical market returns. For newer marketing teams, start with a simple goal—get to a 1:1 return. Once you’re breaking even, start optimizing to hit that 2x mark. And if you’re factoring in customer retention, look at getting the overall return to 3x or 4x. But generally, hit 2x, and you’ll have no trouble justifying your budget.

Top strategies for improving B2B marketing ROI? First off, know your numbers. Get as granular as possible on what’s working and what’s not. ROI is just a formula, so the simplest way to improve it is to spend less on the channels that bring in the high-quality leads. Cut anything that isn’t performing and put those resources into the channels that are. Just be mindful of that omni-channel effect and check to see if turning something down affects overall performance.

Another huge factor is the quality of your sales cycle. If the sales process is disorganised, your ROI will suffer no matter how strong your leads are. Make sure your sales team is nurturing and following up effectively. A weak follow-up game means you’re losing potential conversions at the bottom of the funnel, which kills ROI because you’ve already paid to bring those people in. So, trim your spend on low-impact channels and make sure your sales cycle is airtight—that’s the quickest path to improving ROI.

Section 3: Maximizing ROI in SaaS Marketing

3.1 Best Practices and Innovative Strategies

There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy when it comes to SaaS marketing. The “best” strategy isn’t about what’s trendy—it’s about what aligns with your product and how people actually want to buy it. For example, if you’re selling a complex solution that impacts the entire organization and involves a long decision process, outbound calls probably aren’t going to cut it. No one jumps on board with a major purchase like that on a whim. But if your product is a quick fix to an obvious problem, with a simple, low-cost entry point, then outbound sales could work well.

In other words, your strategy should reflect your buyer journey. For a complex, high-stakes product, educational content, organic channels, and thought leadership are usually where it’s at. You need to build trust, educate, and convince potential buyers before they’re even ready to talk. If you’re offering something that’s more of a low-risk “buy it and try it” tool, like a social scheduling app, you can take a more direct approach—ads, free trials, and demos are effective because they lower the barrier for entry. Bottom line: understand how people want to buy your product and make sure your marketing approach matches that journey.

What’s innovative in SaaS marketing right now? Product-led growth (PLG) is taking center stage. At its core, PLG is about building products that market themselves—products designed to be shared, recommended, and to grow a community organically. B2B SaaS still has a lot of untapped potential here. The beauty of PLG is that it’s built into the product itself, so it doesn’t feel like traditional marketing. Instead, it’s a way to genuinely engage your audience through the product experience.

Any impressive SaaS campaigns? Not really, and that’s actually a good thing. In B2B SaaS, it’s not about shooting for virality or pulling off a one-time stunt with flashy ROI numbers. What matters is building scalable systems and evergreen campaigns that grow steadily over time. A campaign with solid ROI that keeps delivering over months or even years is worth more than a quick win. Marketing isn’t about the biggest splash; it’s about creating a foundation that compounds your ROI long-term.

Section 4: What is a Good Marketing ROI?

4.1 Understanding Metrics and Setting Goals

Let’s be real—what’s considered “good” ROI is totally relative. My advice? Start by figuring out what your current ROI is. If your marketing team isn’t covering its costs over a reasonable period, then you already know that your ROI is off. But “reasonable” is key here. What’s reasonable depends on factors like your sales cycle and budget.

From there, tie your ROI target to your business goals. Let’s say your company’s goal is to break even by adding £1 million in recurring revenue next year. Marketing is responsible for half of that, or £500,000. Now, if your current ROI is 1, that means you’ll need to spend £500,000 to generate that same amount in revenue. But here’s the catch: that won’t move the needle if the goal is to reach break-even, because you’re not adding any net revenue to the business. If your ROI is 2, on the other hand, then you’re doubling that £500,000 and making your contribution meaningful toward the break-even goal.

If you’re new to ROI tracking, start with getting to 1, then optimize to hit 2. And remember, this all depends on what’s realistic for your business and your budget. Dig into your cash flow, understand what’s expected from marketing, and use your existing ROI as a benchmark for setting goals.

Examples of Strong ROI for Different Campaigns? B2B campaigns are rarely straightforward. They’re usually cross-channel, and if you’re running a quarter-long campaign, you’re using all your marketing channels to drive it. Here’s what I’d recommend: measure your ROI over the entire campaign period and look only at the spending and results directly tied to that campaign. Strip out your usual overhead, like agency retainers or standard design costs, to keep the calculation clean.

As for what’s “good”? Compare it against your usual performance. If your baseline ROI across all marketing is 1, then anything above that for a specific campaign is a win. If a campaign hits 2, great—figure out what you did right and double down on it. If it’s coming in below your baseline, dig into the details and figure out what didn’t work. The goal here isn’t to chase absolutes; it’s to keep improving on your own results.

Goal-Setting Strategies for Better ROI: Start simple—set a clear ROI target. But here’s the thing: you’re probably not the only one responsible for reaching that goal. Make sure the entire team, and even the wider business, is aligned with it. If you’re aiming to improve marketing ROI, you’ll need buy-in from sales, customer success, and maybe even finance. The more people responsible for the same outcome, the more support you’ll get to reach it.

And break it down. Don’t expect your ROI to double overnight. Improving ROI takes time, experimentation, and often a lot of change. Efficiency doesn’t come without some trial and error, so give yourself the flexibility to test new approaches and involve your team. A higher ROI usually means being a lot smarter with resources, which is rarely a one-team job.

Section 5: Effective Techniques for Measuring B2B Marketing ROI

5.1 Methods and Tools

Calculating ROI is simple on the surface—we covered the formula at the start of this guide. But where things get tricky is around the constraints you set, like the time period for measurement and whether or not you include staff costs. Those two factors alone can completely change your ROI outcome, so define them clearly from the get-go.

To measure ROI effectively, you need solid data. On one side, there’s your spend. This includes knowing how much you’re spending and how it’s broken down. Here’s where working with your finance team is key. If they’re lumping marketing expenses under one big bucket without breaking down campaign, channel, or overhead spend, that’s going to muddy your ROI picture. Try to align with finance on a structure that suits both of you. If that’s a no-go, then keep your own spending tracker—yes, probably in a spreadsheet—so you have a clear view of what’s going where.

The other side of the equation is your impact—the revenue your marketing is generating. If you don’t have a solid attribution system, this is where things can fall apart. Getting an accurate revenue number should be priority one. This often means revisiting processes and tightening up how you use your CRM or other systems to track marketing-driven revenue. If you’re not distinguishing between marketing leads and non-marketing leads, your ROI numbers will be all over the place. Have those sometimes-painful conversations about what exactly counts as a marketing lead.

One tip for navigating tricky sales conversations is to create a few categories for revenue. For example, you could separate out “marketing-influenced revenue” (where both marketing and sales have touched the lead) from “pure marketing revenue” (where the lead was generated and converted by marketing without any sales involvement). This structure can help you get more accurate measurements, especially when working with a sales team that’s protective of their leads.

As for tools? Honestly, any tool can work, as long as your numbers are right. Your CRM is good enough if you can trust it to give you accurate figures based on your established processes. The same goes for accounting software like Xero—use what you have as long as it gives you accurate spend data. Tool choice is secondary; what matters is nailing down accurate data collection.

Section 6: Efficient Marketing Spend

6.1 Overcoming Challenges to Maximize ROI

One of the biggest challenges in B2B SaaS is simply a lack of data. If you’re not tracking ROI across channels and campaigns, how can you even tell what’s efficient? You’re essentially flying blind. For companies that are new or just getting serious about tracking ROI, the first step is to put systems in place to start capturing that data now. Don’t go spending wildly—be strategic and aim to at least pay for yourself. If you’re dropping £10,000 on PPC, ask yourself: Will this realistically bring back £10,000 in revenue? If that seems like a long shot, you’ve got a hint that this channel might not be efficient.

The other big challenge is dealing with long sales cycles and complex buyer journeys. You might spend money on a campaign today but won’t see the results for months. This delay can really mess with your sense of efficiency because you’re waiting ages to know if something worked. That’s where historical data becomes critical. You need past performance to set guardrails—knowing when to hit pause on spend and when to double down. When launching new campaigns, keep an eye on metrics early on. If you’re spending on user-generated content, for example, and it’s not getting traction, be ready to cut your losses quickly.

What’s at stake with inefficient spending? By definition, inefficient spending drags down your ROI—you’re getting less for every pound you invest. If you’re working in a well-funded company, it might not be the end of the world. But if cash is tight and your runway is limited, inefficient spending can be a fast track to financial trouble. In lean companies, every pound matters, and marketing spend is one of the biggest potential cash drains. In those cases, optimizing spend isn’t just a good idea—it’s essential for survival.

Read more here: How Marketing ROI should determine your budget.

Conclusion

Marketing ROI isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s the baseline for any B2B SaaS company that wants to grow sustainably in 2024 and beyond. When you know what’s driving real value, you’re no longer guessing with your budget. You’re making choices that bring real returns, that keep the business moving forward, and that ultimately prove marketing’s impact on the bottom line.

Whether you’re dealing with long sales cycles, complex attribution, or delayed data, the key is to approach ROI as a long-term commitment. Start by getting your basics right—track everything, know what efficient spending looks like, and set realistic, data-backed goals. Remember, good ROI isn’t about huge wins from one-off campaigns; it’s about steady improvement and making your budget work harder over time.

With the right metrics, a solid tracking system, and a strategic approach to spending, your team can make ROI the heart of its decision-making. And if you’re ready to take it a step further, advanced tools like Lava Metrics can help fill in the gaps, give you live data, and make sure you’re optimizing your spend to drive revenue every step of the way.

Let’s make 2024 the year you stop wondering if marketing is paying off—and start seeing it in the numbers.

Ready to take your marketing ROI to the next level? Explore Lava Metrics for advanced analytics and reporting solutions tailored to your business needs.

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