What is a good engagement rate for an interactive demo? The answer has always been that it depends on your industry and on where the demo sits in your funnel. So here are the numbers.
- Engagement rate is engaged demo sessions as a share of total demo views.
- CTA click rate is CTA clicks as a share of total sessions.
The overall benchmark
Read the median before the average, particularly on CTA. The CTA average is nearly double the median because a handful of companies convert at several times the typical rate.
Storylane benchmarks
What a typical interactive demo achieves
Across 284 B2B software company demo programmes, split by whether the demo runs in a marketing motion or a sales motion. Trailing 30 days.
Metric
Use case
Median
Average
Bottom 25%
Top 25%
Engagement rateengaged, as a share of all sessions
Marketing157 companies
Median31.7%
Average35.6%
Bottom 25%under 18.5%
Top 25%above 51.9%
Sales127 companies
Median38.1%
Average39.7%
Bottom 25%under 20.8%
Top 25%above 57.5%
CTA click rateCTA clicks, as a share of engaged sessions
Marketing157 companies
Median5.29%
Average8.05%
Bottom 25%under 2.99%
Top 25%above 11.32%
Sales127 companies
Median5.37%
Average8.26%
Bottom 25%under 3.04%
Top 25%above 11.47%
By industry, marketing motion
Median engagement ranges from 19.5% in customer service to 52.9% in specialised verticals, a spread of nearly three times.
Before reading that as a verdict on any category, audience composition is the more likely explanation. A dev tools demo on a public site absorbs a lot of casual traffic from developers who are curious rather than buying. A demo for a niche vertical product is seen by a smaller and far more self-selected group.
Storylane benchmarks · marketing motion
Demo benchmarks by industry, marketing motion
Demos running on websites, landing pages and campaigns.
Median engagement rate
Industry
Engmt medianof sessions
Engmt averageof sessions
CTA medianof engaged
CTA averageof engaged
Cos.
Specialised verticals
Engagement median52.9%
Engagement average48.7%
CTA median10.41%
CTA average13.78%
Companies9
Manufacturing and operations
Engagement median43.5%
Engagement average44.2%
CTA median9.12%
CTA average11.63%
Companies10
Education tech
Engagement median37.5%
Engagement average44.6%
CTA median7.25%
CTA average7.14%
Companies10
Marketing tech
Engagement median36.7%
Engagement average34.7%
CTA median5.44%
CTA average7.63%
Companies10
Healthcare tech
Engagement median35.6%
Engagement average37.2%
CTA median13.43%
CTA average18.37%
Companies10
Data analytics and BI
Engagement median33.3%
Engagement average32.3%
CTA median7.66%
CTA average11.44%
Companies10
Legal and compliance tech
Engagement median31.9%
Engagement average32.5%
CTA median5.12%
CTA average8.19%
Companies10
HR tech and recruitment
Engagement median31.4%
Engagement average37.1%
CTA median3.79%
CTA average4.48%
Companies10
Cybersecurity
Engagement median27.7%
Engagement average37.8%
CTA median5.38%
CTA average5.92%
Companies10
Finance tech
Engagement median26.9%
Engagement average27.5%
CTA median4.07%
CTA average5.71%
Companies10
Project management and productivity
Engagement median23.0%
Engagement average28.6%
CTA median3.56%
CTA average5.01%
Companies10
Sales tech and CRM
Engagement median21.4%
Engagement average23.5%
CTA median2.19%
CTA average2.71%
Companies10
Dev tools and IT management
Engagement median19.7%
Engagement average29.1%
CTA median3.23%
CTA average4.54%
Companies10
Customer service
Engagement median19.5%
Engagement average29.5%
CTA median4.90%
CTA average6.83%
Companies10
By industry, sales motion
The two industries where the marketing demo beats the sales demo are specialised verticals, 52.9% against 29.5%, and manufacturing, where the two are level at 43.5% and 42.9%. In both cases the product is being sold to a narrow, well-defined audience, so the public-facing demo is already reaching mostly qualified people.
Storylane benchmarks · sales motion
Demo benchmarks by industry, sales motion
Demos used inside a sales cycle as leave-behinds, follow-ups and POC replacements.
Median engagement rate
Industry
Engmt medianof sessions
Engmt averageof sessions
CTA medianof engaged
CTA averageof engaged
Cos.
Education tech
Engagement median57.9%
Engagement average51.0%
CTA median8.24%
CTA average8.56%
Companies8
Manufacturing and operations
Engagement median42.9%
Engagement average43.9%
CTA median10.93%
CTA average11.56%
Companies10
Marketing tech
Engagement median41.8%
Engagement average39.7%
CTA median8.33%
CTA average9.44%
Companies9
HR tech and recruitment
Engagement median41.4%
Engagement average47.6%
CTA median4.33%
CTA average7.77%
Companies10
Finance tech
Engagement median39.4%
Engagement average42.4%
CTA median3.70%
CTA average5.66%
Companies10
Cybersecurity
Engagement median39.1%
Engagement average41.4%
CTA median5.97%
CTA average7.42%
Companies10
Healthcare tech
Engagement median37.1%
Engagement average40.3%
CTA median11.19%
CTA average15.96%
Companies10
Project management and productivity
Engagement median31.0%
Engagement average33.0%
CTA median4.82%
CTA average5.67%
Companies8
Specialised verticals
Engagement median29.5%
Engagement average32.6%
CTA median10.54%
CTA average10.63%
Companies10
Dev tools and IT management
Engagement median25.9%
Engagement average36.0%
CTA median3.48%
CTA average3.96%
Companies10
How to use these numbers
- Find your row, not the overall number. A 25% engagement rate is below average in manufacturing and comfortably above average in dev tools.
- Use the row that matches your use case. If your demo is on a landing page, the sales-motion benchmark is not your benchmark.
- Treat a low CTA rate as normal and a high one as a signal. If yours is above 4% you are in the top quartile, and whatever you are doing with CTA placement is worth writing down internally.
- Check the median against the average in your row. A wide gap means the best companies in your category are doing much better than the typical one.
- If engagement is under 20%, look at traffic mix before you look at the demo. A demo can be excellent and still show a low engagement rate if most of the people opening it were never candidates to buy.
Killer demos for every stage
Build demos and agents that turn curious buyers to closed won
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