Marketing KPIs & Benchmarks for 2026

Updated for 2026

We work with B2B leaders every day who have extensive marketing data, but don't know what to make of it. It's hard to know you're on track to meet your sales goals without clear, industry-specific marketing benchmarks. Whether you're a leader looking to grow your market share and revenue, or a marketing professional proving the value of your activities, there is a glut of data, and very little reliable KPIs available to guide the way. 

For B2B tech companies, this is a particular challenge. Company core competency is engineering--not marketing. They serve niche industries with a large deal size and complex sales cycle. This is Launch's sweet spot, and we're happy to share sales and marketing benchmarks to guide your efforts. 

Today, there are two camps: Companies either measure way too much and get caught in the weeds—or many, due to internal politics or the state of uncertainty in the market, are starting the year without clear goals, budgets and KPIs, and lack the data to set and track these.  

What do B2B companies measure for marketing and sales KPIs?

• The majority (55%) of companies don’t know their customer acquisition cost 
• Complexity of measurement does not correlate to company size—but it does correlate to growth rate. Those who measure are able to make smarter decisions and hit their growth targets.
• 95% of companies have a CRM—you have the data!

To set meaningful KPIs:

• Follow the rule of 3. Think about your car's dashboard. Too many indicators detract from your ability to drive.
• On-demand. How much time is spent producing reports that may or not be used? Look at your KPIs live on a regular cadence.
• Forward looking indicators. For marketing, these are indicators like traffic, leads and conversion. For sales, look at activities, opportunities and RFQs/quotes. Your marketing KPIs this year determine your sales the following year.
• Reward what you can control. We can’t control timing of the close, but we can control activity.

Setting Marketing KPIs

Work backward from your revenue target. In the following example, to hit a $50M revenue target assuming that 80% of your past year revenue will come from your existing customer base, and first-year revenue from a new customer is $150k, we can back into traffic and lead targets per month: 

Revenue targets would suggest web traffic targets of 6,957, and monthly leads of 160. Check these for reality against your market size, and work other levers if warranted. 

Sales & Marketing Benchmarks for 2026

Let’s talk about a few KPIs of note: 

The unfortunate truth is that for many companies, the real average is “I don’t know.” The biggest opportunity for improvement is to know your numbers. Pick 3-4. Improve. Pick 3-4 more that address the challenge at hand. 

Marketing budgets: Today's B2B companies are spending anywhere from 7.7% to 10% of revenue on marketing, depedning on the size of the industry. Gatrner, HubSpot, and Deloitte all show averages between 7.7% and 9.1%, while 2026 projections put most B2B companies near 10%. Within these budgets, spend continues to split failry even accross labor, marketing, technology, and agencies/services  

Web Traffic & SEO: Organic traffic is declining across all industries due to a shift in consumers search behavior. Google's AI overviews now appear in 13.14% of queries and CTR drops 8% when they do. Oragnic CTR overall has dropped to 41%-65% in the past year, even when these overviews aren't shown. It is now essential to optimize your GEO's to stay visbile. 

Email: Email is continuing to hold strong for B2B channels, but the metrics are changing. Open rates are sitting around 43%, but due to changes in the major email providers, these can be inflated. CTR and CTOR are far better indicators—CTR averages 2–3%, while CTOR ranges 5–10% across industries. Sales automation emails still outperform marketing automation due to tone, timing, and deliverability advantages

Business Benchmarks

Marketing and sales KPIs help to drive the growth of the business. Some business KPIs can help you to understand the competitive landscape and set priorities. In recent years, we've seen a slowdown in product development and product launch in many sectors. Best in class invest 20% in innovation--which in many companies has dropped to 5%. Revenue per employee has had stable growth with wages creeping up, and slow adoption of automation. 

Use industry CAGR numbers to understand total market growth. If your targets are higher than that, you'll need to steal market share from a competitor. For those who are looking to sell their business in the next few years, the 'gold standard' is considered 20% year-over-year growth sustained over a three year period. 

Ready to set your KPIs?

Book a meeting to talk us through your business goals and how we can help you meet your benchmarks.