Common SaaS SEO budgets begin on the low side at $30,000 and can go to as high of an investment as $600,000 or more. The variance in budgets can be largely determined by the SEO strategy itself, the size of the SaaS business, and the expectations of the ROAS (return on advertising spend) that the SaaS business may have.
Key Takeaways
- Average SaaS SEO budgets can range from a total investment size of $30,000 on the low end to $600,000 or more on the high end.
- B2B SaaS SEO budgets will usually be higher given that they target larger average contract value businesses. While fixed-price SaaS businesses may have lower budgets given the way that ROAS will get calculated for the campaign as a whole.
- SaaS SEO budgets will vary depending on the size of the SaaS business, other active marketing channels that could get integrated into the campaign, and the types of KPIs that the business may be looking to target.
Common SaaS SEO Budgets Broken Down
SaaS SEO budgets can vary widely depending on a number of factors that would end up influencing the campaign as a whole. Some of those include the expectations of the campaign, the needs of the campaign, and more.
Small Budgets for SaaS SEO
On average, a low-budget campaign for any type of SaaS SEO work would be in the $10,000 to $30,000 range. The expectations of this campaign are usually quite low. And more ideal budget ranges for a CMO or marketing team that wants to “test the waters” in terms of SEO as a channel.
Roadmapping the Low-Budget SEO Campaign
On average, a campaign in the $10k to $30k range is going to have more of a 3-to-6-month roadmap for the SaaS SEO campaign. Ideally, more of an opportunity for the company to see if they can drive a few SEO KPIs.
Which might include some of the following:
- Can the company rank: It’s an important question. With the right SEO strategy, can the company rank for certain target keywords that it wants to rank for? Some B2B SaaS SEO keywords can be quite competitive and saturated in terms of competition. A KPI may simply be, “Can we rank for a given keyword?”
- Does the test drive leads: A secondary metric that a marketing team is going to look at is, whether the SEO campaign actually drives real leads? This is a common question when it comes to SEO. Do these visitors actually turn into leads and customers for us?
The expectation that the SaaS business is going to see exponential growth may be more limited because the campaign may be more designated to determining an appropriate SEO strategy, performing competitive research, hiring the potential help of a copywriter, and other small needs that would set the campaign up for success.
Team Size
Lastly, with this size of budget, you might expect to hire a single SEO consultant who could help you during this 3-to-6-month period. Usually, a consultant is going to range from $2,500 to $4,500 per month for fees. With more experienced SEO professionals being on the upper end of that spectrum.
Smaller-sized agencies may be able to provide an SEO specialist or strategist as well as a project manager to help with the campaign.
Large Budgets for SaaS SEO
Larger budget campaigns would be more similar to what you might see from companies like Zendesk or Freshworks. These companies are going to be spending more on their SEO footprint just given the scale of their business. On average, in a fiscal year, they might be in the total ballpark of $150,000 to $600,000 when all resources are combined.
A majority of the budget goes towards program management of the channel and making it a key part of the marketing blend. This would include having an internal team that’s managing the channel or creating the implementation(s) of an agency partner's suggestions. And more.
Roadmapping the Large-Budget SEO Campaign
On average, a campaign and investment of this size is going to look at four complete quarters for their true ROAS picture. Larger companies usually know that marketing channels take time to nurture and to “warm up.” SEO is one of the channels that take the most time to nurture. Larger SaaS businesses know that one year can go by quite quickly. And that planning an investment of this size usually has at least a one-year program picture.
Some of the SaaS SEO KPIs that the company will look at include:
- Driving rank, impressions, and clicks: They’ll want to see overall organic search traffic increase at quite a drastic rate. Usually having a 2X to 3X ratio that they’re looking for in terms of scale.
- Driving leads: Whether it’s demos that are getting scheduled, free trial signups, or MQLs (marketing qualified leads) that go to sales development representatives, a SaaS company with this investment size will want to track these conversion metrics.
- Real customers, MRR, ARR, or another revenue metric: CMOs will want to know that the channel is creating a real return as quickly as possible. They may set 3-and 6-month targets to determine if the campaign is on track. Ultimately, it will come down to seeing that attribution for organic search is growing in terms of revenue growth or recurring subscription growth for fixed-price SaaS products.
As an aside, larger SaaS businesses will also want to raise overall brand awareness. Which is a metric that’s more complicated to track than other KPIs. However, larger SaaS businesses know that the more “top of mind” that a business is, the more opportunities there are for “software shoppers” to recall the brand when they’re in the market.
Team Size
Team size for a campaign of this size will consist of a number of team members. Usually, a director-level executive who is overseeing the people management of the team. As well as a copywriting team, SEO team, and web implementation team. All of these members are working together to perform a number of common SEO tasks as well as publishing new content, adjusting page experiences for SEO, and more.
Most of the budget for SaaS businesses who are looking to make an investment into SEO at this scale will go toward hiring expenses to bring on the team required. Even if the team is all freelancers, it will still mostly consist of expenses related to people resources.
Common Questions
Questions about SaaS SEO budgets:
What do the average SaaS SEO budgets end up being per month?
On average, it’s going to be anywhere from $4,500 to $30,000 per month. This will vary depending on the size of the business, the scale of the business, and the needs of the SEO campaign. A basic test to see whether SEO will work for a SaaS business is probably going to cost anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000. On the other hand, larger SaaS businesses, like Zendesk, for example, are going to be spending closer to $1M in total per fiscal year.
Do B2B SaaS companies have different SEO budgets than other SaaS businesses?
It can depend on the type of business that you have and who you are targeting. Much of this can be determined by your ACV (average contract value). Let’s say that you have an average contract value of $99 (or you have a fixed-price SaaS product), you may not have the same SEO approach as a company that has an average contract value of $500,000 or $1M.
The reason why ACV (average contract value) can determine much of this budget is simply the notion that the nurturing is going to take more time. In most cases, the companies that have larger ACVs typically have more competitive SERPs (search engine results pages).
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Written by Joshua Davis
VP of SEO
September 9, 2024
