3PLs should generate $27 in pipeline for each $1 in marketing, report says

Logistics companies should generate nearly $27 in qualified pipeline for every marketing dollar spent, according to a quarterly report from go-to-market consulting group LeadCoverage.

The firm’s Supply Chain Growth Index (SCGI) measures go-to-market spend among logistics companies. The first-ever release of the benchmark showed an average Logistics Growth Efficiency Ratio (LGER) of $29.51 for each dollar spent, with the median company generating $26.68 in pipeline. (LGER is calculated by dividing the pipeline created by total go-to-market spend.)

“Freight and logistics companies are under immense pressure to make every GTM investment count,” said Kara Brown, CEO and co-founder of LeadCoverage, in a news release. “The SCGI and its core metric, LGER, cut through the noise of vanity metrics to deliver a clear, actionable benchmark. It answers the urgent question: ‘Are we spending our GTM resources efficiently, and is that spend generating real pipeline?’”

The middle 50% of the companies tracked were generating $8 to $55 in pipeline (per dollar spent), with the most effective campaign fetching $109.44 and the worst seeing just 39 cents.

The report advises executives to benchmark performance against the median LGER and “treat $26.68 as a floor to surpass, not a ceiling.”

“Born from SaaS, where the Growth Efficiency Ratio (GER) became the gold standard for balancing scale and profitability, we’ve adapted it for freight,” the report said.

The index defines go-to-market spend as dollars spent on media, public relations, tech, vendors and marketing headcount. Sales labor is excluded.

The evaluation encompassed a diverse group of logistics providers, including FreightTech companies, 3PLs, brokers and others. These entities span mid-market to enterprise-level operations and utilize a mix of asset-based and asset-light models.

“The SCGI gives leaders the data to invest with precision and drive real pipeline growth,” Brown said. “Our initial findings show wide performance gaps, which is exactly why this kind of benchmark is critical.”

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