SaaStr · 2015-09-24 · 3905d

Event Marketing ROI for Enterprise SaaS: Beyond Lead Generation at Scale

Jason Lemkin explains that large enterprise SaaS companies like Apptus attend events like Dreamforce primarily for customer success and prospect engagement rather than lead generation. At $100M ARR with a $30-40M marketing budget, allocating 10% to such events is justified when the entire customer base and pipeline attendees are present. The analysis challenges the traditional metric of measuring event ROI by licenses sold.

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Metrics in this report

Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)

$100,000,000$

median

Enterprise SaaS company evaluating event marketing investment

Event Marketing Budget Allocation

10%

recommended

Percentage of total marketing budget for flagship events

Growth Rate Target

70%

assumed

Enterprise SaaS expansion goal

High-Ticket Product Pricing

$1,000,000$

minimum

Annual contract value for enterprise SaaS products

Marketing Budget Range

$30,000,000 - $40,000,000$

estimated range

Annual marketing spend for $100M ARR SaaS company

Projected ARR After Growth

$170,000,000$

calculated

Year-over-year revenue projection with 70% growth