We are often asked, “What should we be budgeting for marketing?”

Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are annually surveyed by World Market Watch (The CMO Survey) on how their marketing budgets are expected to change in the upcoming year.

In the recent survey, 324 US for-profit companies responded. Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) surveyed came from a variety of industry sectors and company sizes.

Results from the 2018 survey show that, on average, companies are budgeting roughly 7.3% of company revenue on marketing.

Overall, marketing budgets are expected to continue growing at a 7.5% rate with B2B economic sectors projecting the highest growth year-over-year (YOY).

Marketing budgets and budget growth vary by business stage, stage (i.e., startup, growth, mature, etc.) and economic sector.

Although we can see marketing budgets are growing, why should we pay attention?

The importance of marketing is SHIFTING in a big way. For example, B2B buyer’s today progress more than 70% of the way through the decision-making process (buyer’s journey) before ever engaging with sales.

If your company is only focused on the latter 30% (sales tactics), then your company will miss the important 70% of today’s buyer’s journey and your sales pipeline will likely begin to diminish.

Which Marketing Strategies Are Driving the Best Results?

In a GetResponse survey of 2,500 marketers, respondents reported on what marketing strategies generated the best return on investment (ROI).

Email marketing still leads the way with the highest reported ROI results, with social media marketing, and content marketing following closely behind.

Marketing automation platforms are proving effective at bringing together the most effective marketing tactics (email marketing, organic search, social media marketing, and content marketing) to achieve better results.

Learn More

If you are interested in learning more about this important topic and insights like those above, download our “What Should you be Budgeting for Marketing in 2019?” eBook addressing the following topics:

• Overall Changes in Marketing Budgets
• Marketing Budget Allocation Across Channels
• What are the Current Business Marketing Priorities?
• Which Marketing Strategies are Driving the Best Results?
• Which Social Media Networks Should You Invest in?
• What are the Expected Changes in Paid Advertising Budgets?
• What are the Expected Changes in Digital and Traditional Ad Budgets?
• What Should you be Budgeting for Marketing in 2019?
• Marketing Budgets as a Percentage of Revenue
• Marketing Spending as a Percent of Company Revenue by Industry

OVERVIEW This eBook is intended for C-Level executives and marketing professionals seeking guidance on how to budget for marketing and where to invest your marketing dollars. In this eBook you will learn: • How are marketing budgets changing? • How much are companies budgeting on marketing? • How much is being invested online versus offline? • What marketing strategies are driving the best results? The answers to these questions come from these reliable sources: • World Market Watch The CMO Survey, • Gartner, • GetResponse,, and • eMarketer. Marketing budgets vary by economic sector and company type (e.g., startup, growth and mature).