How to Build the Right B2B SaaS Marketing Budget in 2026

If you’re trying to determine how much a B2B SaaS company should invest in marketing, you’re not alone.  

Using the latest data from SaaS Capital, SaaStr, and wider industry benchmarking, this guide outlines the real percentage ranges SaaS companies spend, how budgets shift by funding model and ARR stage, and what growth ambition means for your numbers.  

You’ll also find practical, strategic steps to determine the right b2b SaaS marketing budget for your business, plus expert guidance from Angelfish Marketing.

A Clear, Data-Led Guide to Your B2B SaaS Marketing Budget

If there is one question that sparks debate in every SaaS leadership meeting, it is the deceptively simple one: what should our b2b saas marketing budget actually be?

For B2B SaaS businesses between £1 million and £20 million ARR, the stakes are high. Spend too little and pipeline momentum slows. Spend too much, and customer acquisition cost (CAC) rises while profit margins tighten. Fortunately, there is now enough reliable benchmarking data across the SaaS industry to give you a confident, evidence-backed starting point.

What Most SaaS Companies Spend: The Real Benchmarks

Across recent studies, most B2B SaaS companies invest between 7 and 15 percent of revenue in marketing, with the median sitting at around 8 percent of ARR, according to SaaS Capital’s 2025 benchmarking of more than 1,000 private SaaS firms. This marks a slight dip from previous years, reflecting tighter budgets during recent economic uncertainty.

In practice, a SaaS company at £5 million ARR may allocate:

• £350,000 to £750,000, with

• £500,000 (around 10 percent) being a very common midpoint

This aligns closely with industry analysis, which highlights a typical range spanning the high single digits to the mid-teens. It also supports long-standing advice from SaaStr, where Jason Lemkin suggests around ten percent of revenue as a healthy benchmark for marketing investment.

These figures provide a useful foundation — but the most important question is why your business should sit at the lower, middle, or higher end of the range.

Bootstrapped vs VC-backed: Two Funding Models, Two Budget Realities

Your funding model is one of the strongest predictors of how much you can, and should, invest in marketing.

Bootstrapped SaaS: Efficiency First

Bootstrapped businesses rely on revenue to fuel growth, naturally encouraging more conservative spending. SaaS Capital’s benchmarking shows that bootstrapped companies typically invest less as a percentage of revenue than their venture-backed peers, often landing between 5 and 8 percent.

Industry research supports this, noting that leaner SaaS companies tend to supplement spend with organic acquisition, community, and product-led growth strategies rather than large-scale paid programmes. These are all areas where agencies like Angelfish Marketing can help them scale efficiently without overspending.

VC-backed SaaS: Growth Powered by Capital

Venture-backed businesses operate under a different set of expectations. According to SaaStr, VC-backed SaaS companies usually invest around double the percentage of revenue into marketing when compared with bootstrapped peers. Studies summarised by SimpleTiger and Xander Marketing further highlight that 10 to 20 percent is entirely normal for companies in funded, growth-focused phases.

This means two businesses at £4 million ARR can reasonably have very different marketing budgets — for example:

• Around £250k if bootstrapped

• Around £600k to £800k if VC-backed

Both can be correct, depending on strategy and growth ambitions.

How Spend Evolves as SaaS Companies Grow

Your stage of scale influences what sensible marketing investment looks like.

Early Stage (Under £1m ARR)

Revenues are low, experimentation is high, and percentages can be misleading. Industry research notes that early VC-backed startups often spend close to — or even more than — 100 percent of revenue on sales and marketing combined, using investor capital to build momentum. Bootstrapped companies reinvest what they can, but always within the constraints of cash flow.

Scaling Stage (£1m to £10m ARR)

This is where benchmarks become most applicable. SaaS Capital’s data shows that companies at this stage commonly invest 7 to 12 percent of ARR in marketing, with a slightly higher percentage directed toward sales. Businesses targeting rapid growth — such as 40 to 60 percent year-on-year — tend to sit at the upper end of this range, while those prioritising efficiency operate closer to single digits.

Later Stage (£10m to £20m ARR and beyond)

Contrary to expectations, research from SaaStr shows that many larger SaaS companies do not significantly reduce sales and marketing spend as a percentage of revenue. In fact, even mature public SaaS firms often allocate 40 to 50 percent of revenue to customer acquisition overall.

What changes is not the total proportion, but the allocation. Budgets shift toward:

• Enterprise and ABM programmes

• Regional expansion

• Large-scale brand initiatives

• Customer expansion and lifecycle campaigns

The percentage remains high because growth continues to require meaningful investment.

Growth Ambition: The Hidden Variable Behind Your Budget

One theme appears consistently across SaaS Capital’s analysis and Sword & the Script’s study of growth correlations: higher-growth SaaS companies invest more in marketing.

Fast-growing companies typically spend:

• Around 40 percent more on marketing, and

• Around 20 percent more on sales

than slower-growing companies at the same revenue level.

As a practical guide:

• Steady growth (20–30% YoY): around 5–10 percent marketing spend

• Ambitious growth (40–60% YoY): around 10–15 percent or more

• Aggressive, VC-driven growth: 15–20 percent or above

Growth requires investment. Efficiency matters, but under-investment can slow momentum far more quickly than teams expect.

How to Choose the Right Marketing Budget for Your SaaS Business

The benchmarks help, but your final decision should consider core strategic factors highlighted by SimpleTiger and SaaS Capital:

• Unit economics — your CAC, CAC payback, and LTV must remain healthy as spend increases

• Growth vs profitability priorities — budgets must align with strategic goals, not last year’s habits

• Competitive landscape — if rivals spend heavily on acquisition, under-investing can be equally risky

• Go-to-market model — sales-led, inbound-led, and product-led models require different budget mixes

• Marketing maturity — additional spend only delivers results if the funnel and team are ready to scale

• Economic climate — broader SaaS trends show that budgets rise and fall with market confidence

This is exactly where specialist SaaS marketing agencies such as Angelfish Marketing often help convert benchmarks into actionable plans.

So, Where Should You Land?

Based on the latest research and real-world patterns, a practical guideline for B2B SaaS companies between £1 million and £20 million ARR is:

• 5 to 8 percent if you are bootstrapped or focused on profitability

• 8 to 12 percent if you want balanced, sustainable growth

• 10 to 20 percent if you are venture-backed or pursuing accelerated expansion

Many SaaS companies start around ten percent and adjust up or down based on performance.

Need a Confident, Data-Led Marketing Budget?

Understanding the benchmarks is one thing. Turning them into a clear, ROI-driven marketing plan is where the real value appears.

At Angelfish Marketing, we help B2B SaaS teams:

• Build marketing budgets aligned with revenue and ARR goals

• Connect spend directly to pipeline outcomes

• Maximise efficiency across content, SEO, paid search, and lifecycle marketing

• Demonstrate ROI through better reporting and attribution

• Scale inbound systems for predictable, sustainable growth

If you want to build a budget that makes sense strategically — and delivers results — we would love to support you.

Book a free strategy session with Angelfish Marketing and let’s build a marketing engine designed for your next stage of growth.

Frequently Asked Questions 

What’s the biggest mistake SaaS companies make when setting a marketing budget? 

One of the most common pitfalls is anchoring the budget to last year’s spend rather than this year’s growth goals. Benchmarks provide a helpful range, but your customer acquisition cost (CAC), payback period, and revenue targets should ultimately drive the decision.  

Under-investment, particularly during key scaling phases, is a frequent cause of slowing pipeline performance. 

Should sales and marketing budgets be set together or separately? 

It’s usually most effective to set them together.  

SaaS companies tend to see stronger results when planning around the full go-to-market engine rather than treating sales and marketing as separate cost centres. 

 Metrics such as CAC, sales cycle length, and attribution insights span both teams, so a unified view improves budget alignment and performance. 

Does a product-led growth model mean we can spend less on marketing? 

Not automatically. PLG can reduce reliance on paid acquisition, but it still requires meaningful investment in areas like content, onboarding, lifecycle marketing, and experimentation.  

Many PLG-focused SaaS companies still fall within the 7 to 12 percent range; they simply allocate more toward product and activation rather than traditional demand generation. 

How often should SaaS companies review their marketing budget? 

Most teams benefit from reviewing budgets quarterly. Pipeline performance, channel efficiency, and CAC trends can change quickly, especially in high-growth environments. Revisiting the budget every three months helps teams reallocate spend, drop underperforming activity, and double down on what’s working. 

Is it realistic to reduce CAC while increasing marketing spend? 

It can be. Increasing spend on the right areas can improve conversion efficiency across the funnel. Stronger lifecycle programmes, better attribution, and investment in high-performing channels often reduce CAC over time.

SaaS companies commonly see this effect when shifting from paid-heavy acquisition to more sustainable inbound systems such as SEO, content, and ABM.