Blog Marketing department cost
B2B marketing cost evidence
What Does a Small B2B Marketing Department Actually Cost?
A function-level cost model for the same 160-hour weekly scope in Canada and the United States. The cost is capacity for five recurring functions, not one salary.
C$456K
Canada modeled budget: salary basket +30% employment load +8% operating allowance (base 160 h / week)
US$536K
U.S. modeled budget: same load and allowance on the U.S. salary basket (base 160 h / week)
4.0 FTE
Base capacity: five functions totaling 160 hours per week
The thesis
The cost is not one marketer's salary. It is the capacity required to cover five recurring functions at a defined weekly volume.
The scene
The salary that never covered the work
A hire answers one question. A department answers five.
A founder asks finance a simple question: what does a marketing hire cost?
Finance answers with a salary band. Someone posts the role. Six months later the company still needs campaign content, brand design, landing-page updates, measurement, and someone to set priorities. The first hire is doing three jobs and bouncing work to freelancers. The budget that looked tidy on a spreadsheet no longer matches the work that keeps recurring.
That is the gap this benchmark closes. A small B2B marketing department is not one headcount. It is a basket of recurring functions at a defined weekly volume. Price the capacity, then choose how to staff it.
The proof
What the base model prices
Same five functions. Same 160-hour week. Separate currencies.
Teamulate models the same five-function basket in Canada and the United States: strategy and management, content and demand, research and analytics, design, and web and digital. The base scope is 160 hours per week, or 4.0 FTE.
National occupational medians from Job Bank (Canada) and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics anchor the salary layer. Currencies stay separate on purpose. Figures are modeled employer budgets, not quotes or staffing recommendations.
| Function | Weekly hours | FTE | Primary output |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy + management | 30 | 0.75 | Plan, priorities, approvals |
| Content + demand | 40 | 1.00 | Campaigns, content, distribution |
| Research + analytics | 30 | 0.75 | Evidence, measurement, insight |
| Design | 30 | 0.75 | Brand and visual production |
| Web + digital | 30 | 0.75 | Pages, UX and implementation |
| TOTAL | 160 | 4.00 | One repeatable operating scope |
Why 4.0 FTE? It is a deliberately compact department: one full-time content and demand seat plus four fractional specialist functions. It is not a claim that every company needs this exact mix.
Headline numbers
Four numbers that define the base budget
Salary-only baskets, then modeled employer budgets.
Base model · 4.0 FTE / 160 h week
Wage anchors include Canada's marketing manager median of C$55.29 per hour (Job Bank, 2023-2024) and the U.S. marketing manager median of US$166,790 per year (BLS, May 2025). A separate U.S. external benchmark shows benefits at 31.5% of private-industry compensation in June 2026. That figure is context, not the report's modeled +30% employment load.
Cost layers
Salary is only the first layer
Employment load and operating allowance are transparent planning assumptions.
The public data anchors base pay. Employer load and operating cost are scenario inputs because benefit plans, payroll taxes, tools, and purchasing differ by company.
Layer 1
Salary basket
Official occupational medians × allocated FTE.
Layer 2
Employment load (+30%)
Benefits, payroll costs, leave, and people operations.
Layer 3
Operating allowance (+8%)
Software, training, and small external purchases.
Formula
Salary × 1.38
Additions apply to salary, not compounded. Keep C$ and US$ separate.
Do not convert currencies to rank markets. Wage sources, tax systems, and benefit structures differ.
Sensitivity
The monthly planning range
Same five functions. Three capacity levels. Same +30% / +8% assumptions.
Lean (120 h / 3.0 FTE) lands near C$28,148 and US$32,777 per month. Base (160 h / 4.0 FTE) is about C$37,966 and US$44,636. Full seat per function (200 h / 5.0 FTE) reaches about C$47,785 and US$56,496.
Exact base annual rebuilds in the report are C$455,597 and US$535,636. Headline cards round those to C$456K and US$536K because salary offers, location, seniority, benefits, and utilization dominate small arithmetic differences.
Monthly planning range (modeled)
Lean · 3.0 FTE
C$28,148 · US$32,777 / month
120 hours per week across the same five functions.
Base · 4.0 FTE
C$37,966 · US$44,636 / month
160 hours per week. The report's primary planning frame.
Full seat · 5.0 FTE
C$47,785 · US$56,496 / month
200 hours per week when each function is a full seat.
Scope
What the budget buys (and what it does not)
Recurring functions, not guaranteed volumes or business outcomes.
- Strategy (30 h): positioning, quarterly plan, priorities, approvals
- Content + demand (40 h): campaign concepts, copy, SEO, email, distribution
- Research + analytics (30 h): customer evidence, reporting, experiments, insight
- Design (30 h): brand assets, campaign creative, report visuals
- Web + digital (30 h): landing pages, updates, UX and implementation
Not included: paid media, major video production, events, sales development, PR retainers, enterprise martech, or redesign projects. Those need separate capacity and budget.
25% of the week is non-production capacity. Planning, review, coordination, and administration total 32 hours. Removing that time from the model does not remove the work; it pushes it onto specialists or executives.
How to use it
Turn the benchmark into a real budget
Start with the work, then choose the delivery model.
- Define the function basket (recurring outputs and decision owners).
- Estimate weekly hours from four to eight weeks of actual demand.
- Price local talent (replace national medians with location and seniority ranges).
- Add employer load from finance or payroll data, not a generic percentage.
- Price the operating layer (tools, training, freelancers, specialist purchases).
- Test capacity quarterly (requested vs delivered vs accepted work).
A salary, an employer cost, a service price, and an operating budget are not interchangeable. Normalize functions, weekly capacity, revision limits, management time, and acceptance responsibility before comparing in-house and external options. Cost per accepted recurring output is more useful than cost per draft or number of tools purchased.
Takeaways
What to do Monday
1. Price capacity, not a title
The cost of a small B2B marketing department is five recurring functions at a defined weekly volume.
2. Use the base range as a planning frame
About C$38.0K / month (Canada) and US$44.6K / month (U.S.) for 4.0 FTE / 160 hours, or roughly C$456K and US$536K modeled annual budgets.
3. Keep currencies separate
Do not convert C$ and US$ to rank markets. Wage sources and benefit structures differ.
4. Replace assumptions before you budget
Swap national medians, hours, and the +30% / +8% loads for company-specific values.
5. Normalize scope before you compare options
Salary, employer cost, and service price are different risk and deliverable packages.
A small B2B marketing department costs what it takes to cover strategy, content, research, design, and web at a defined weekly volume. Use the national medians as a starting frame, then replace the hours and employer-load assumptions with your own numbers before you treat the total as a budget.
Teamulate publishes this research for lean B2B teams who want a clear capacity model before they hire, outsource, or rebuild marketing from scratch.
Sources
Named sources
- Job Bank: Marketing manager in Canada - Wages (national median C$55.29/hour; 2023-2024)
- Job Bank: Marketing specialist in Canada - Wages (national median C$35.58/hour; 2023-2024)
- Job Bank: Market research analyst in Canada - Wages (national median C$44.00/hour; 2023-2024)
- Job Bank: Graphic designer in Canada - Wages (national median C$31.25/hour; 2023-2024)
- Job Bank: Web designer in Canada - Wages (national median C$33.65/hour; 2023-2024)
- U.S. BLS: Advertising, Promotions, and Marketing Managers (May 2025 median annual wage)
- U.S. BLS: Market Research Analysts (May 2025 median annual wage)
- U.S. BLS: Graphic Designers (May 2025 median annual wage)
- U.S. BLS: Web Developers and Digital Designers (May 2025 median annual wage)
- U.S. BLS: Employer Costs for Employee Compensation - June 2026
- Teamulate: What Does a Small B2B Marketing Department Actually Cost? Evidence Report (September 2026)
Full report
Download the research
Teamulate Small B2B Marketing Department Cost Report
The full function-level cost model for Canada and the United States, including wage tables, monthly planning ranges, sensitivity scenarios, and source citations.