Marketing Operations Playbook (Marketing Ops)

⬅️ Back to Day 4: Convert

If you're a B2B SaaS at $5M+ ARR with multi-channel marketing — content + SEO + paid ads + email + events + ABM — Marketing Operations (Marketing Ops / MOps) becomes the discipline that makes it all work together. The naive approach: marketers run channels independently; founder asks "what's our pipeline?" and gets 4 different numbers. The structured approach: dedicated Marketing Ops who owns marketing automation (HubSpot / Marketo / Pardot), CDP, attribution, lead scoring + routing, MQL definition, marketing-sales SLA, marketing tooling stack, ROI reporting. Marketing Ops is sales-ops's twin — different function, similar discipline. (See sales-operations-playbook.md for sales side; this is marketing side. See marketing-attribution-multi-touch.md for attribution depth.)

What Done Looks Like

A working Marketing Ops function:

1. Decide if you need Marketing Ops

Decide Marketing Ops readiness.

Right time signals:
- $5M+ ARR
- 3+ marketing team members
- Multi-channel (content + paid + email + events)
- Marketing automation in use (HubSpot / Marketo)
- Attribution complexity (multiple touches before sale)
- Reports take >1 day to compile

Wrong time signals:
- <$3M ARR (marketer can run their own ops)
- 1-2 marketers (not yet at scale)
- Single-channel
- Founder-led marketing

Alternatives:

Generalist marketer doing it:
- 30% of marketer's time
- Used at <10 marketing team

RevOps consolidation:
- Combined Sales + Marketing Ops
- Used at $10-30M ARR
- Common in 2026

Dedicated Marketing Ops:
- Full-time
- $10-50M ARR with sophisticated marketing

Marketing Ops team:
- Lead + analysts
- $30M+ ARR

Profile:

Marketing Ops Manager:
- 5-10 years experience
- HubSpot / Marketo / Pardot expert
- Analytics-comfortable
- Cross-functional collaborative

Compensation:
- $120-180K base + bonus (Stage 2-3)
- $150-250K (Stage 3-4)

Output:
1. Readiness assessment
2. Owner per stage
3. RevOps vs separate
4. Hire timing
5. Profile + comp

The "Marketing Ops vs RevOps" decision: at $5-15M ARR, RevOps generalist often works (one person doing both). At $20M+, specialization helps.

2. Marketing automation platform

Pick the right MAP.

Choose marketing automation platform.

Options:

HubSpot Marketing Hub:
- Best for SMB-mid
- All-in-one (CRM + Marketing + Sales + CS)
- Easier to use; less powerful at scale
- Pricing: $20-3,600+/mo per portal

Marketo (Adobe):
- Enterprise leader
- Most-powerful; complex
- Pricing: $1,250-3,200+/mo (varies)

Pardot (Salesforce):
- Salesforce-native
- B2B-focused
- Pricing: $1,250-15,000/mo

Klaviyo:
- E-commerce / B2C focus
- B2B SaaS rare
- Pricing: $0-$$ (volume-based)

Customer.io:
- Modern; developer-friendly
- API-first
- Pricing: $100-$$$/mo

Iterable:
- Multi-channel (email / push / SMS)
- Mid-market+
- Pricing: enterprise

Selection by stage:

<$5M ARR: HubSpot Marketing Hub Starter
$5-30M ARR: HubSpot Pro / Enterprise OR Pardot
$30M+ ARR: Marketo OR Salesforce Marketing Cloud OR Pardot

Stack alignment:
- Salesforce CRM → Pardot or Marketo
- HubSpot CRM → HubSpot Marketing
- Mixed → HubSpot or Marketo (with integration)

Migration considerations:

HubSpot to Marketo:
- Common at scale
- 3-6 month migration
- Significant cost + risk

Marketo to HubSpot:
- Less common
- Simplification move

Stay vs migrate:
- Switch only when current platform blocks growth
- Not for "shiny new"

Output:
1. Platform recommendation
2. Stack alignment
3. Migration timing (if applicable)
4. Cost estimate
5. Implementation timeline

The HubSpot-vs-Marketo decision: HubSpot for usability + integrated stack; Marketo for power + Salesforce-native. Most B2B SaaS reaches $30M on HubSpot.

3. MQL definition + lead scoring

Marketing Ops owns "what's a qualified lead."

Define MQL.

MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead):

Components:

Demographic / firmographic:
- Title (decision-maker / influencer)
- Company size (above ICP threshold)
- Industry (target vertical)
- Location (target geo)

Behavioral:
- Visited pricing page
- Downloaded gated content
- Multiple visits in 30 days
- Webinar attended
- Form filled

Negative signals:
- Competitor email domain (skip)
- Job-seeker language
- Personal email vs business
- Unsubscribed history

Scoring model:

Point-based:

Demographic (max 50):
- Decision-maker title: +20
- Target ICP company size: +15
- Target vertical: +15

Behavioral (max 50):
- Pricing page: +20
- 3+ visits 30 days: +15
- Demo request: +30
- Webinar attended: +10

MQL threshold: 60 points

SQL threshold: 80 points (sales-qualified)

Or simpler tiers:
- Cold: 0-30
- Warm: 30-60
- MQL: 60-80
- SQL: 80+

Implementation:

In MAP:
- HubSpot scoring rules
- Marketo Lead Score
- Pardot Score Categories

Decay:
- Score decays over time (engagement gets stale)
- Re-engage required to refresh

Validation:

Test:
- Sample MQLs → does sales accept?
- Acceptance rate <50% = scoring wrong
- Re-calibrate

Per-segment scoring:

Different by segment:
- Enterprise: high firmographic threshold
- SMB: lower; more behavioral

Anti-patterns:

Score everyone:
- Casual visitor scored high
- Sales overwhelmed

Sales doesn't trust:
- "These MQLs are garbage"
- Marketing-Sales tension
- Mitigate: joint definition

Output:
1. MQL definition
2. Scoring model
3. Implementation
4. Validation
5. Per-segment variations

The "joint MQL definition" rule: Marketing + Sales agree what counts. Without alignment, MQLs ignored; pipeline-credit fights.

4. Lead routing automation

Where do leads go?

Route leads automatically.

Routing rules:

By geography:
- US East / West / EU / APAC
- Match SDR / AE territory

By segment:
- SMB / Mid-market / Enterprise
- Different teams

By account ownership:
- Existing customer → CSM
- Existing prospect (in CRM) → owning AE
- New prospect → SDR / AE round-robin

By source:
- Inbound → SDR for qualification
- Outbound (rep-sourced) → that rep
- Partner / referral → partner manager

By score:
- High score (SQL) → AE direct
- Medium (MQL) → SDR
- Low → nurture

Tools:

LeanData:
- Most-popular in 2026
- Salesforce-native
- Visual routing builder

Distribution Engine:
- Salesforce alternative
- Per-rule routing

Chili Piper:
- Inbound scheduling + routing
- Real-time routing

HubSpot Workflows:
- Built-in routing for HubSpot users
- Less powerful than dedicated tools

Custom (Zapier / DIY):
- Smaller scale
- Brittle

Hand-off process:

Inbound form fill:
- Score + route in <5 min
- SLA: SDR contacts in <1 hour (best-in-class)
- 24-hour absolute max

Demo request:
- Schedule directly via Calendly / Chili Piper
- AE assigned by territory

Anti-patterns:

Round-robin without context:
- Same rep gets terrible + great leads
- No specialization

Manual routing:
- Slow; misses SLA
- Doesn't scale

No SLA enforcement:
- Leads sit; cool off
- Conversion drops

Output:
1. Routing rules
2. Tools
3. Hand-off process
4. SLA + enforcement
5. Anti-pattern checks

The 5-minute response rule: leads contacted within 5 minutes have 21x higher conversion than 30 minutes. SLA matters massively.

5. Marketing-Sales SLA

Two-way agreement.

Marketing-Sales SLA.

Marketing's commitments:

Lead volume:
- "X MQLs per month"
- Quarterly target

Lead quality:
- "X% of MQLs become SQLs"
- Acceptance rate

Lead enrichment:
- All MQLs have: name, email, company, title, source
- Pre-enriched via Clearbit / ZoomInfo

Hand-off speed:
- MQLs delivered to sales in <5 min
- Auto-routing

Sales's commitments:

Response speed:
- First contact <1 hour for MQLs
- <24 hours absolute max

Follow-up cadence:
- 8-12 touches over 14-21 days
- Email + phone + LinkedIn

Disposition:
- Within 14 days, mark MQL as: SQL / not-qualified / nurture
- Reasons documented

Joint commitments:

Definition alignment:
- Quarterly review of MQL definition
- Update based on data

Reporting:
- Joint dashboard
- Both sides see same numbers

Escalation:

Marketing under-delivering:
- Volume below target
- Quality below threshold
- Diagnosis + plan

Sales under-following-up:
- Response time above SLA
- Disposition rate below
- Coaching + process

Tracking:

Per-channel:
- Lead → MQL → SQL → opp → revenue
- Conversion rates per stage

Per-rep:
- SDR conversion rates
- Speed-to-contact

Cadence:

Weekly:
- Marketing-Sales standup
- Lead flow review

Monthly:
- SLA review
- Quality check

Quarterly:
- Strategic alignment
- Plan updates

Output:
1. SLA document
2. Joint metrics
3. Escalation process
4. Cadence
5. Continuous improvement

The SLA discipline: writing it down resolves "marketing leads suck" / "sales doesn't follow up" tension. Both sides see joint dashboard.

6. Attribution + ROI tracking

Marketing must justify spend.

Track marketing ROI.

Attribution models:

Single-touch:
- First-touch (gives credit to first interaction)
- Last-touch (gives credit to converting touch)
- Misses middle journey

Multi-touch:
- Linear (equal credit all touches)
- W-shaped (heavy first / convert / late)
- Position-based / time-decay
- See marketing-attribution-multi-touch

Tools:

CRM-native:
- HubSpot attribution
- Salesforce Pardot Multi-Touch Attribution

Specialized:
- Bizible (now Adobe)
- Dreamdata
- Attribution.io

DIY:
- BigQuery + Looker
- Custom modeling

Per-channel ROI:

Per dollar spent:

Paid ads:
- Spend → impressions → clicks → leads → MQL → opp → revenue
- Direct response measurable

Content / SEO:
- Cost: content investment
- Revenue: organic-attributed
- Long-tail attribution

Events:
- Cost: sponsorship + travel
- Revenue: event-attributed deals

Email:
- Cost: tooling + creative
- Revenue: email-influenced

Webinars:
- Cost: hosting + promo
- Revenue: webinar-attributed

ROI calculation:

CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost):
- Marketing spend / new customers
- Track by channel

LTV / CAC ratio:
- Healthy: 3:1+
- Per channel

Payback period:
- Months to recover CAC
- 12-18 months target

Reporting:

Monthly:
- Per-channel spend + leads + opps
- Trend vs prior

Quarterly:
- Strategic review
- Channel reallocation

Annual:
- ROI summary
- Strategic shifts

Anti-patterns:

Last-touch only:
- Under-credits top of funnel
- Bad reallocation decisions

No attribution:
- Spend without justification
- Cuts during downturns

Vanity metrics:
- "1M impressions!" without conversion
- Misleading

Output:
1. Attribution model
2. Tooling
3. Per-channel ROI tracking
4. CAC / LTV calculation
5. Reporting cadence

The "honest attribution > false precision" wisdom: B2B attribution is directional, not exact. Show ranges; communicate uncertainty.

7. Marketing tooling stack

Marketing Ops manages the stack.

Marketing tooling stack.

Core:

CRM (CRM-aligned):
- Salesforce / HubSpot

Marketing automation:
- HubSpot / Marketo / Pardot

Email service provider:
- Resend / SendGrid / Postmark for transactional
- Marketing automation handles marketing email

CDP (Customer Data Platform):
- Segment / RudderStack
- Data unification
- See customer-data-platforms

Web analytics:
- GA4 / Plausible / Fathom
- Posthog / Amplitude / Mixpanel for product

ABM:
- 6sense / Demandbase / Terminus / RollWorks
- See abm-platforms

Content:

CMS:
- WordPress / Webflow / Sanity / Contentful
- Marketing site

Content distribution:
- Buffer / Hootsuite / Sprout Social
- Social scheduling

SEO:
- Ahrefs / Semrush / Clearscope
- Keyword research + optimization

Events / webinars:
- Zoom Webinars / Demio / Livestorm
- Or in-person event tools

Paid:

Google Ads / LinkedIn Ads / Facebook Ads:
- Direct platforms

Bid management:
- Search Ads 360 (enterprise)
- Or in-platform

Conversion tracking:
- GA4 / GTM / platform-native

Engagement / chat:

Live chat:
- Intercom / Drift / Crisp
- See live-chat-widget-tools

ABM-specific:

Account engagement:
- 6sense / Demandbase
- Intent + reveal

Content sales enablement:

Highspot / Showpad / Seismic:
- Sales content management
- Mid-market+

Total cost:

SMB ($5K-30K/mo):
- HubSpot + GA4 + ahrefs + Buffer

Mid-market ($30-150K/mo):
- HubSpot/Marketo + Segment + Bizible + Ahrefs + RollWorks

Enterprise ($150-500K+/mo):
- Marketo + Salesforce + 6sense + Bizible + Highspot + many

Marketing Ops job:

Audit:
- Quarterly stack review
- Cut underperforming
- Negotiate consolidation

Integration:
- All tools talk
- CRM is source of truth

Adoption:
- Train marketers
- Track usage

Anti-patterns:

Tool sprawl:
- 30+ tools; redundant
- $X spend without ROI

No integration:
- Data silos
- Reporting impossible

Output:
1. Stack per stage
2. Cost estimate
3. Audit cadence
4. Integration architecture
5. Vendor management

The "consolidate aggressively" wisdom: 10 well-integrated tools > 25 disconnected. Marketing Ops's leverage is integration, not feature breadth.

8. Campaign performance dashboards

Build dashboards marketers actually use.

Build campaign dashboards.

Per-channel:

Paid ads:
- Spend, impressions, clicks, CTR
- Conversions (form fills, demos)
- Cost per conversion
- Quality (MQL rate)

Organic / SEO:
- Organic traffic
- Keyword rankings
- Backlinks
- Conversions

Email:
- Sends, opens, clicks, unsubscribes
- Conversions
- Per-campaign + lifecycle

Events / webinars:
- Registrations, attendance, MQLs generated
- Per-event ROI

ABM:
- Account engagement scores
- Pipeline-influenced
- Per-tier performance

Aggregated:

Pipeline view:
- MQLs / SQLs / opps / revenue by source
- Trend over time

Funnel:
- Each stage conversion rate
- Drop-offs

Marketing-influenced revenue:
- $ closed-won with marketing touch
- Per-channel contribution

Tools:

BI:
- Looker / Mode / Tableau / Hex
- Custom dashboards

CRM-native:
- HubSpot reporting
- Salesforce Reports

Specialized:
- Bizible / Dreamdata for attribution
- HockeyStack for marketing analytics

Cadence:

Daily:
- Top-of-funnel (signups, leads)

Weekly:
- Channel performance
- MQL volume

Monthly:
- Conversion rates
- Per-channel ROI

Quarterly:
- Strategic review
- Plan adjustments

Audience:

Marketing team:
- Weekly + daily for execution

CMO / VP Marketing:
- Weekly + monthly for direction

CEO / board:
- Monthly + quarterly for strategic

Anti-patterns:

Vanity metric dashboards:
- "Impressions" without conversion
- Looks busy; means little

100 metrics; no priority:
- Overwhelming
- Pick 5-10 KPIs

No ownership:
- Dashboard exists; nobody acts
- Match to decisions

Output:
1. Per-channel + aggregated dashboards
2. Tooling
3. Cadence
4. Audience-specific
5. KPI prioritization

The 5-10 KPI rule: more metrics ≠ better. Pick 5-10 that drive decisions; rest is supporting detail.

9. Quarterly business review

Marketing Ops drives MQBR.

Marketing QBR.

Audience:
- VP Marketing + CMO + leadership
- Sometimes: CEO + board

Agenda (90 min):

Section 1: Pipeline + revenue (15 min)
- Marketing-attributed pipeline + revenue
- Per-channel breakdown
- Vs plan

Section 2: Funnel deep-dive (20 min)
- Lead → MQL → SQL → opp → revenue
- Conversion rates
- Drop-offs

Section 3: Per-channel performance (20 min)
- ROI per channel
- Wins + losses
- Reallocation suggestions

Section 4: Tooling + process (10 min)
- Wins
- Friction
- Investments needed

Section 5: ABM / strategic accounts (10 min)
- Engagement
- Pipeline influence
- Tactics

Section 6: Forward-looking (15 min)
- Next quarter plan
- Risks + mitigations
- Asks

Outputs:

Decisions:
- Channel reallocation
- Tooling investments
- Headcount

Insights:
- Top performers
- Underperformers (cut)
- New experiments

Strategic alignment:
- Annual plan progress
- Quarterly adjustments

Prep:

2 weeks before:
- Pull data
- Build slides

1 week before:
- VP Marketing review
- Refine

Day-of:
- Present
- Discussion

Anti-patterns:

Numbers report:
- Just data; no insight
- Reads as spreadsheet

No decisions:
- Discussion without action
- Wasted time

Marketing Ops as scribe:
- Just present numbers
- Underused strategic value

Output:
1. QBR template
2. Cadence
3. Audience-specific deck
4. Decision-making
5. Follow-through

The "Marketing Ops as strategic partner" elevation: best Marketing Ops co-strategist, not just data person. Insight + recommendation > data alone.

10. Hiring + scaling

Build Marketing Ops thoughtfully.

Marketing Ops hiring + scaling.

Stage progression:

Stage 1 ($1-5M ARR):
- VP Marketing handles ops
- HubSpot admin contractor
- Cost: $0-3K/mo

Stage 2 ($5-15M ARR):
- Hire Marketing Ops Manager
- $130-200K base
- Generalist; do everything

Stage 3 ($15-50M ARR):
- Marketing Ops Manager + Analyst
- 2-3 people
- Specialization starts

Stage 4 ($50-200M ARR):
- VP / Director Marketing Ops + team
- 3-10 people
- Specialized roles

Stage 5 ($200M+ ARR):
- VP MOps + senior leaders
- Specialized functions (data eng, attribution, automation)

Roles:

Marketing Ops Manager:
- Generalist; ops + analytics
- Stage 2

Marketing Analyst:
- Reporting + insights
- Stage 3

Marketing Automation Specialist:
- HubSpot / Marketo configuration
- Stage 3

Data Engineer:
- Pipeline; CDP; attribution
- Stage 4

Web / SEO Ops:
- Site analytics; SEO tooling
- Stage 4

Profile:

Marketing Ops Manager:
- 5-10 years experience
- HubSpot / Marketo / Pardot expert
- Analytics + SQL comfortable
- Cross-functional

Hiring:

Sources:
- Network referrals
- Specialized recruiters (e.g., MOps experts)
- 2-4 month search

Interview:
- HubSpot / Marketo expertise (live exercise)
- Analytics (case study)
- Process design (mock scenario)
- Cross-functional (behavioral)

Comp:
- Stage 2: $130-200K
- Stage 3-4: $200-350K
- Stage 5: $350-500K + equity

Output:
1. Stage-appropriate hiring
2. Roles
3. Profile
4. Comp
5. Team progression

The Marketing Ops Manager hire at $5-15M ARR: similar leverage to Sales Ops. Process + tooling + accuracy compounds.

What Done Looks Like

A working Marketing Ops function:

The mistakes to avoid:

Hire Marketing Ops at <5M ARR. Process overhead > value.
MQL defined unilaterally. Sales doesn't accept; tension.
Tool sprawl. 30 tools; redundant; $X waste.
No SLA with sales. Leads dropped; blame games.
Last-touch attribution only. Misleads channel decisions.
Vanity metric dashboards. Decisions not driven.
Marketing Ops as scribe. Underuses strategic value.
No CDP. Data silos; integration impossible.
Quarterly review without decisions. Performance art.
Underpay Marketing Ops Manager. They have alternatives.

Marketing Operations Playbook (Marketing Ops)

What Done Looks Like

1. Decide if you need Marketing Ops

2. Marketing automation platform

3. MQL definition + lead scoring

4. Lead routing automation

5. Marketing-Sales SLA

6. Attribution + ROI tracking

7. Marketing tooling stack

8. Campaign performance dashboards

9. Quarterly business review

10. Hiring + scaling

What Done Looks Like

See Also