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Haris Spahic

How B2B SaaS marketing departments are structured

You're about to learn how B2B SaaS companies structure their marketing departments, identify the most represented marketing functions, and see how marketing departments evolve as companies grow.


 


Who can benefit from this data?


  1. B2B SaaS marketing leaders who are setting up their marketing department, and want to know how most companies did it.

  2. Agencies and freelancers who want to profile companies that lack in-house teams for the marketing services these agencies and freelancers offer.

About the data

I did this research without a horse in the race. Like you, I was just curious. Okay, I'll admit — I also wanted to demonstrate my ability to pull off a big, original data report like this all by myself.


I collected this data throughout September 2023. By the time you're reading this report, some companies might have grown or shrunk. The dataset covers 109 VC-funded B2B SaaS companies, and there are a total of 2,219 marketers.


These 109 companies are divided into 3 size-based groups:

  • 40 companies with 100-200 employees

  • 40 companies with 400-500 employees

  • 29 companies with 700-800 employees


I discovered these companies on B2B SaaS directories like PeerSignal and Crunchbase, but the data itself was pulled from LinkedIn. I double-checked every company to make sure it's, in fact, a B2B SaaS company. To protect people’s privacy, marketers in this dataset aren't named, but their essential information (job title + the company they work for + promotion history) was sourced from LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Lastly, the marketing team size data you're about to see is about full-time marketers only. Whenever I came across advisors, freelancers, consultants, and similar, I didn't count them as part of the marketing team headcount number.


Raw data

If you prefer to analyze this data yourself, then here's the juicy, raw data you can sink your teeth into.

The raw data spreadsheet covers:

  • Company name

  • Product category

  • Total headcount

  • Marketing team headcount (full-time marketers only)

  • Sales team headcount (SDRs + BDRs)

  • Marketer job title

  • Marketer job classification (e.g. product marketing, demand-gen, growth marketing, ...)

  • Company funding stage

  • Total annual mid-tier pricing (if known)

  • Share of marketers in the company (relative to total headcount)

  • Share of salespeople in the company (relative to total headcount)


Now let's get into the insights of this report!


 

How many marketers are there at each company size?

How many marketers are there at each company size?

  1. The average number of marketers in companies between 100-200 employees is 9. Without the outliers (Sprinto with 29 and Infraspeak with 17 marketers), the average is 8.

  2. The average number of marketers in companies between 400-500 employees is 21. Without the extreme outlier (Waresix with 4 marketers), the average is 22.

  3. The average number of marketers in companies between 700-800 employees is 32. Without the outliers (MoEngage with 74 and Thrive Global with 10 marketers), the average is 31.


You can notice two obvious patterns: (1) the average marketing department size grows as the overall headcount grows, and (2) marketing team sizes are more concentrated and predictable among smaller companies than at bigger companies.


If I had to guess why, I'd assume it's because smaller companies have fewer resources and have to set up core marketing functions. As these companies grow, and these core marketing functions are already covered, scaling the marketing department becomes optional. Not every company has to scale aggressively. It might depend on their GTM strategy, their competitive context, and many other factors.


You can see that because some big companies in the 700-800 headcount range, like Duo Security, have pretty small marketing teams for their company size (only 11 marketers), while other companies in the same size group like MoEngage have big marketing teams (74 marketers).



What's the percentage of marketers at each company size?


What's the percentage of marketers at each company size?

  1. The average percentage of marketers in companies between 100-200 employees is 5.2%. Without the outliers (Sprinto with 14.2% and Infraspeak with 9.4%), the average is 4.8%.

  2. The average percentage of marketers in companies between 400-500 employees is 4.6%. Without the extreme outlier (Waresix with 0.9%), the average is 4.7%.

  3. The average percentage of marketers in companies between 700-800 employees is 4.1%. Without the outliers (MoEngage with 9.7% and Thrive Global with 1.2%), the average is 4%.


When we look at the marketing department sizes from a relative POV, it's pretty cool to see that no matter how big or small the company is, they all tend to allocate between 4% to 5% of the total headcount to marketing. It's a consistent golden rule across the board! This is something many marketing leaders like you already know from experience, but now it's confirmed with hard data.



Which marketing functions are most represented in B2B SaaS?

Which marketing functions are most represented in B2B SaaS?

If you want to know what B2B SaaS companies think is important, don't ask them. Look at what marketing functions they're investing in. That's why I made this heatmap.


It was made by counting up full-time marketers, and then comparing how relatively represented each marketing function is in different company size groups.


Here's what the heatmap tells us:


  1. Product marketing is by far the most represented function across all company size groups. This is the best time to be a B2B SaaS product marketer. According to a LinkedIn comment from a growth advisor and 7x CMO/VP, Steve Patti, this is normal. "Product" roles will always be dominant and perceived as most important in product-centered companies like SaaS.

  2. B2B SaaS doesn't care about brand marketing very much. For all the talk about B2B brand building we keep hearing about LinkedIn, brand marketers are hard to find. This is the case even at bigger companies, where brand marketers take up only 3.6% of the marketing department size.

  3. SEO specialists and paid marketing functions are fairly underrepresented, but that could be because they’re niche. It could also be because they often get baked into other functions like content marketing for SEO, and performance marketing for paid.

  4. There are many generalist marketers, even at bigger companies. This includes generalist job titles like "marketing specialist", "marketing coordinator", "marketing manager", etc. These folks are consistently in the top 4 most represented marketing functions across all company sizes. Conventional wisdom says specialists dominate at scale, but that's not true in this dataset.

  5. Great news for content marketers! Content marketing has a very strong presence across all company sizes, and it's the second most important marketing function for companies between 100-200 employees. This is true even after I separated "pure" content marketing roles (e.g. content marketing manager) from SEO, copywriting, and content writing roles in this dataset.

  6. Growth marketers take up a decent 13.6% of the marketing headcount at smaller companies (100-200 employees), but then their presence declines in medium and large companies. According to a fractional CMO John James, this decline happens because growth marketers tend to be too tactical and have narrow expertise. As companies grow, they need someone more strategic. This is when they bring in a CMO or senior marketing head who's more about strategic programs like PR and partnerships, and less about the tactics growth marketers bring to the table.

  7. Demand generation is among the top 4 most represented functions across small and medium-sized companies, but then it takes a slight dip in larger companies with 700-800 employees.

  8. Partner marketing is underrepresented at all company sizes, taking up between 2.8% and 6.5% of the marketing headcount. This doesn't surprise me, since partner marketing is a niche and strategic function. Once the low-hanging fruits are picked with more basic marketing, it makes sense to invest in partner marketing. Even then, most companies don't have to do it. It's likely most useful to companies that sell very high-ticket products to a very small TAM.

  9. Event marketing is another underrepresented specialist function. It takes up only 3.1% of the headcount, even at large companies between 700-800 employees. No surprises there. Events demand intense resources — financial, logistical, and human. For most companies, this isn't feasible, nor does it make sense to have full-time events marketing experts on the payroll.

  10. Marketing operations marketers fluctuate between a modest 5% and 6.8% share of the total marketing headcount across all company sizes. It's pretty static and consistent. This could mean that once the operational structures are in place, companies don't see the point in scaling marketing ops aggressively.

  11. Copywriters, content writers, and editors have nothing to worry about! This function stays solidly represented, but especially in smaller companies (100-200 employees), where it makes up 10% of the marketing headcount. It's probably because this function works well for various marketing needs, from writing PPC ads with performance teams to working with content marketers on SEO.



How does each marketing function scale?


As an honorable mention, here's a different version of this heatmap. This time, instead of looking at the percentage of marketing functions, you will see an absolute number of marketers per function. It will help you understand how functions scale, and when companies think each function is important.

How does each marketing function scale?

I won't analyze this chart in depth again, but I will quickly summarize some hypotheses it supports:


  • Brand marketing is, indeed, a "luxury" marketing function that still isn't taken seriously enough, considering it has little to no representation at small companies with 100-200 employees.

  • Event marketing doesn't have meaningful representation in any company size group. Event marketing is a costly investment most companies can't afford.

  • Growth marketers are needed at all company sizes, but they don't scale well. As John James commented, it's probably because growth marketers are too tactical for the strategic priorities of bigger companies.

  • SEO specialists and paid marketing roles are very underrepresented across all company sizes. This continues to hint that these functions might be baked into other, broader functions.

  • Marketing operations hit a plateau at medium-sized companies. This supports my hypothesis: once operational structures are in place, companies don't see a reason to hire many more marketing ops experts as the company grows.


 

Report credits

This report was single handedly done by Haris Spahic. From collecting the data on 109 VC-backed B2B SaaS companies and 2,219 marketers, to structuring, analyzing, and interpreting the data, and finally writing, editing, and publishing this article. It was all me.



Thank you for reading!


Did you find this report helpful? If you did, please share it with your peers.

If you have any questions about the data, don't hesitate to message me on LinkedIn.

 

I'm Haris Spahic — I make memorable content for B2B SaaS companies.


That includes original data reports like this one!



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