Filling the Pipeline

Is Marketing Generating Enough MQLs to Fill the Pipeline?

Overview

Wally’s Widgets conducted an analysis to determine whether current marketing efforts are generating enough Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) to support revenue growth targets. The focus of this review was to understand marketing’s contribution to revenue, identify any pipeline gaps, and estimate what level of investment would be required to support next year’s growth goals.

Key Findings

Marketing Contribution to Revenue
Marketing-sourced revenue totaled $1.69M, representing 16.9% of total company revenue. While this is a meaningful contribution, it did not fully cover the revenue target. At the current contribution rate, marketing fell short by approximately 5%, landing slightly below the commonly cited 20–30% benchmark for B2B organizations in similar industries.

Pipeline Coverage for Future Growth
With a new revenue target of $12M, maintaining the same marketing contribution rate would require marketing-sourced revenue of approximately $2.03M. Based on current performance metrics, this translates to a need for 685 total MQLs, compared to the current 570, resulting in a shortfall of 115 additional MQLs.

Budget Implications
Assuming cost-per-lead and conversion performance remain consistent, generating the additional 115 MQLs would require an estimated $64,000 increase in marketing spend. This would bring the total annual marketing budget from $315,000 to $379,000.

What This Means

At current levels, marketing is not yet generating enough MQLs to fully support the company’s growth ambitions. However, the gap is both visible and manageable. With a relatively modest increase in budget and continued focus on effective lead generation, marketing has the potential to fully support the expanded revenue target.

Importantly, the current marketing budget represents 3.16% of total revenue, which sits comfortably within the industry-standard range of 2–5% for established B2B companies. This suggests there is room to invest further without exceeding typical benchmarks.

Strategic Considerations

There are two viable paths forward:

1. Increase Investment
   A targeted budget increase of 1–2 percentage points could enable marketing to generate sufficient MQL volume to support growth, provided funds are allocated strategically.
   
   

2. Optimize Performance
   Alternatively, deeper analysis of campaign performance could reveal opportunities to reallocate spend toward higher-performing channels, improving results without a proportional increase in budget.
   
   

Conclusion

Marketing is close—but not quite there yet. With clearer visibility into pipeline requirements and a data-driven understanding of budget impact, Wally’s Widgets is well-positioned to make informed decisions that align marketing investment with revenue growth objectives.