The 18-Month Payback Problem
A SaaS CMO confessed over coffee: “We wasted £240,000 on LinkedIn ads before realising our average deal takes 347 days to close.” She’s not alone! Vendors now track pipeline velocity alongside lead volume.
What changed?
With VCs demanding efficient growth, the old “spray and pray” lead model collapses under 12-month sales cycles.
Marketing teams must now prove how early-stage nurture impacts final procurement decisions.
Mapping Touchpoints
Consider a typical enterprise evaluating your cloud access security broker (CASB):
- Months 1-3: Anonymous whitepaper downloads spike after a relevant MITRE ATT&CK update
- Months 4-6: Mid-funnel engagement with your EDR (endpoint detection and response) comparison tool
- Month 11: Legal team requests compliance documentation during final procurement review
Forrester’s 2024 B2B Buying Study shows 83% of cybersecurity deals involve 4+ departments. Your ROI model must account for this.
Three Attribution Models That Work
1. Multi-Touch Fractional (MTF):
Assign partial credit to each engagement. Example: 15% for initial demo, 30% for technical deep dive, 55% for procurement compliance docs. Darktrace’s 2023 S-1 filing revealed they track 11+ touchpoints per enterprise deal.
2. Account-Based Impact Scoring:
Tools like 6sense apply machine learning to identify which campaigns actually accelerate deals. One NDR (network detection and response) vendor saw 19% shorter cycles by focusing on accounts engaging with breach simulation content.
3. Post-Sale Surveys:
Ask buyers: “Which resources proved decisive?” Tip: CISOs generally cite third-party analyst reports as the final nudge – justifying those Gartner fees.
Actionable Benchmarks
Steal these from my client playbook:
- Demand 90-day pipeline forecasts from sales before approving campaign budgets
- Tag content by buying stage (awareness → consideration → selection) in your CMS
- Negotiate commission overrides for sales teams who document marketing-sourced influence
The Hard Question
When your board next asks “What’s our marketing payback period?”, can you isolate how Q2 webinars influenced Q4’s enterprise deals – or are you still counting MQLs like it’s 2019?
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