Marketing budget as a percentage of revenue in 2026, by sector and business model
Marketing budgets averaged 7.8% of revenue in 2026 per Gartner and 9.0% per The CMO Survey. Here is why the two differ and how to use each one.
Companies spent an average of 7.8% of revenue on marketing in 2026, up from 7.7% in 2025, according to Gartner's 2026 survey of chief marketing officers (CMOs). The CMO Survey, which covers for-profit U.S. companies of all sizes, put the figure at 9.0%. In our reading, the 1.2-point gap comes mostly from sample and company size. Most Gartner respondents reported over $1 billion in annual revenue, and bigger companies spend a lower share.
Marketing budget explorer
Change any input; the sentence updates as you type. The figures below the form are the worked example.
How it is worked out
marketing budget = annual revenue × share of revenue
budget line = marketing budget × the line's share of the budget- annual revenue
- your company's revenue for the year, the denominator both surveys use
- share of revenue
- the benchmark you chose, a mean across that survey's respondents
- line's share
- Gartner's 2026 mean share of the marketing budget for labor, martech or paid media
Worked example, with the default inputs:
- $200M × 7.8% = $15.6M marketing budget.
- Labor: $15.6M × 24.5% = $3.82M. Martech: × 19.4% = $3.03M. Paid media: × 31.4% = $4.9M.
- Everything else: 100% − 24.5% − 19.4% − 31.4% = 24.7%, or $3.85M.
- AI initiatives: $15.6M × 15.3% = $2.39M, inside the lines above.
| Input | Default | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Annual revenue | $200M | Example input, not a benchmark. Replace it with your own. |
| Labor, share of the marketing budget | 24.5% | Chief Marketer24 June 2026 |
| Martech, share of the marketing budget | 19.4% | Chief Marketer24 June 2026 |
| Paid media, share of the marketing budget | 31.4% | Gartner25 June 2026 |
| AI initiatives, share of the marketing budget | 15.3% | Gartner11 May 2026 |
| The Gartner 2026 average | 7.8% of revenue | Gartner11 May 2026; 401 marketing leaders, North America, the United Kingdom and Europe, January to March 2026; most respondents above $1 billion in revenue |
| Gartner 2026, organizations with mature AI readiness | 8.9% of revenue | Gartner11 May 2026; the subset of the same survey reporting mature or fully developed AI readiness |
| Gartner 2026, organizations with fully optimized AI | 11% of revenue | Chief Marketer24 June 2026; the top 9% of the same survey's respondents, as reported from the Gartner report |
| The Gartner 2025 average | 7.7% of revenue | Gartner11 May 2026; the prior year's survey, as restated in the 2026 release |
| The CMO Survey, January 2026 | 9% of revenue | Duke University's Fuqua School of Business31 March 2026; 308 marketing leaders at for-profit U.S. companies of all sizes, fielded January 7 to 29, 2026 |
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<iframe src="https://www.cmotribune.com/embed/budget-explorer" title="Marketing budget explorer, from CMO Tribune" width="100%" height="780" style="border:0;max-width:760px" loading="lazy"></iframe>What percentage of revenue do companies spend on marketing in 2026?
The average company spent 7.8% of company revenue on marketing in 2026, up from 7.7% in 2025, according to Gartner's 2026 CMO Spend Survey. The second reference point, The CMO Survey, put the figure at 9.0% of company revenues. Use both numbers, but know which companies each one describes.
Gartner, Gartner 2026 CMO Spend Survey Finds CMOs Allocate 15.3% of Marketing Budgets to AI, But Only 30% Are Ready to Scale AI Capabilities, 11 May 2026
Duke's Fuqua School of Business, CMOs Face Headwinds Even as Marketing Value and AI Impact Grow | Duke's Fuqua School of Business, 26 March 2026
Gartner reported marketing budgets at 7.7% of revenue in 2025, 7.8% in 2026, and 8.9% among organizations with mature AI readiness.
Marketing budget as a share of company revenue (% of revenue)
| Label | Value |
|---|---|
| 2025 average | 7.7 % of revenue |
| 2026 average | 7.8 % of revenue |
| 2026, AI-ready organizations | 8.9 % of revenue |
Two surveys, two samples
| Gartner CMO Spend Survey 2026 | The CMO Survey, January 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Fielded | January through March 2026 | January 7 to January 29, 2026 |
| Respondents | 401 chief marketing officers (CMOs) and other marketing leaders | 308 marketing leaders |
| Where | North America, the United Kingdom and Europe | For-profit U.S. companies |
| Marketing budget as share of revenue | 7.8% | 9.0% |
| Reported growth | Budgets up 1.3% since 2025 | Overall spending growth of 1.7% |
Gartner's sample leaned large: the vast majority of respondents reported annual revenue of over $1 billion. Gartner also reported that its 2026 average was 18% lower than the mean budget allocation just four years ago. The CMO Survey reported a second ratio on a different denominator, 9.6% of overall budgets, so do not mix it with the share-of-revenue figures.
Gartner, Gartner 2026 CMO Spend Survey Finds CMOs Allocate 15.3% of Marketing Budgets to AI, But Only 30% Are Ready to Scale AI Capabilities, 11 May 2026
Gartner, CMO Spend 2026 | Gartner, 25 June 2026
Duke's Fuqua School of Business, CMOs Face Headwinds Even as Marketing Value and AI Impact Grow | Duke's Fuqua School of Business, 26 March 2026
The gap between 9.0% and 7.8% is 1.2 points. In our reading, that gap reflects differences in sample, region and company size more than a split in how marketers behave. Neither figure is a target.
Where artificial intelligence sits
Gartner found CMOs allocating an average of 15.3% of marketing budgets to AI initiatives. Organizations reporting mature AI readiness reported average marketing budgets of 8.9% of company revenue, above the 2026 average of 7.8%. More on that split is in our AI share of marketing budget benchmark.
A worked example
Take a company with $200 million in revenue. This is an example, not a benchmark.
- At 7.8% of $200 million, the marketing budget is $15.6 million.
- At 9.0% of $200 million, it is $18 million.
- 15.3% of a $15.6 million budget is about $2.39 million for AI.
That $2.4 million spread, $18 million less $15.6 million, is the range a board may ask about. State which survey your peer set resembles before you show either number. Our CMO board deck template has a slot for this comparison.
The two benchmarks side by side, with source, sample and definition
The previous section gave the two headline numbers. Before either goes into a board deck, you need the fine print behind it: who answered, when, how many, and what the percentage is a percentage of. The Gartner 2026 survey details are covered above. The table adds the prior Gartner wave and both recent waves of The CMO Survey.
| Wave | Publisher | Field dates | Respondents | Geography | Company size | Denominator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gartner 2025 | Gartner CMO Spend Survey | February through March 2025 | 402 CMOs and other marketing leaders | North America, the United Kingdom and Europe | Vast majority over $1 billion in annual revenue | Overall company revenue |
| The CMO Survey 2026 | Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, Deloitte and the American Marketing Association | January 2026 | 154 answered the revenue question; 14.6% response rate | United States | All sizes | Company revenue, and separately overall company budget |
| The CMO Survey 2025 | Same | January to February 2025 | 281 (13.7% response rate) | United States | All sizes | 9.4% of revenue; 11.4% of overall company budget |
Sources: Gartner for the 2025 Gartner wave; Megawebvision for The CMO Survey waves.
Gartner, Gartner 2025 CMO Spend Survey Reveals Marketing Budgets Have Flatlined at 7.7% of Overall Company Revenue, 12 May 2025
Megawebvision, Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Revenue: 2026 Data | Megawebvision, 18 October 2026
Three things to check before you quote either number
The denominator. Share of revenue and share of company budget are different figures. The CMO Survey's 2025 wave put marketing at 9.4% of revenue but 11.4% of the overall company budget, per Megawebvision. Gartner shows the same effect one level down: paid media was 30.6% of marketing budgets or 2.4% of company revenue in 2025. As an example, not a benchmark: a marketing budget of 50 against revenue of 1,000 is 5% of revenue. Measured against total company spend instead, the same 50 is a larger share, because the base is smaller.
Megawebvision, Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Revenue: 2026 Data | Megawebvision, 18 October 2026
Gartner, Gartner 2025 CMO Spend Survey Reveals Marketing Budgets Have Flatlined at 7.7% of Overall Company Revenue, 12 May 2025
The spread. The CMO Survey's 2026 mean carries a standard deviation of 11.45 points, and those figures are means, not medians. On the Gartner side, half of CMOs report budgets of 6% of revenue or less. In our reading, a minority of high spenders pulls both averages up, so a typical company sits below the headline.
Megawebvision, Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Revenue: 2026 Data | Megawebvision, 18 October 2026
Whitehat SEO, How Much Should I Spend on Marketing | Whitehat, 9 January 2026
The cell size. The CMO Survey reports 13.34 percent for companies under $10 million in revenue and 17.40 percent from $10 to $25 million, from 20 and 15 responses. That is direction, not a target.
Megawebvision, Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Revenue: 2026 Data | Megawebvision, 18 October 2026
A citation line for the board
When you put a benchmark on a slide, use one line in this order: figure, publisher, year, respondents, denominator. The CMO board deck template has a slot for it.
Why Gartner and The CMO Survey give different numbers
The two headline figures in the earlier sections do not measure the same thing, and they do not measure the same companies. Three differences account for most of the gap: the denominator, the sample and the statistic.
The denominator
The CMO Survey reports marketing two ways, as a share of company revenue and as a share of overall company budget. Both are percentages, and they are easy to mix up in a board slide. The B2B and B2C splits make the difference visible. In the CMO Survey figures Boomcycle reported, B2C product companies allocated 15.5% of revenue to marketing, B2B product companies 6.4% and B2B services companies 9%. Measured against total company budget, the same groups came in at 17.2%, 8.5% and 9.6%.
Boomcycle Digital Marketing, Average Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Revenue (March 2026), 18 July 2026
| Business model | Share of revenue | Share of total company budget |
|---|---|---|
| B2C product | 15.5% | 17.2% |
| B2B services | 9% | 9.6% |
| B2B product | 6.4% | 8.5% |
Here is a worked line with example inputs, not benchmarks. A company with $1 billion in revenue and a $50 million marketing budget spends 5% of revenue, because 50 divided by 1,000 is 0.05. Measure the same $50 million against a total company budget of $200 million and it reads as 25%. Nothing about the marketing spend changed. Only the bottom of the fraction did.
The sample
Gartner's respondents were mostly companies above $1 billion in revenue, as noted earlier. The CMO Survey covers U.S. firms of all sizes, and its own data shows a negative correlation between total sales and marketing as a percentage of revenue: bigger companies spend a lower share. Boomcycle's analysis concludes that this is why enterprise-heavy surveys produce lower averages than surveys that include small and mid-sized businesses. In our reading, the small-company breakouts cited above pull the CMO Survey's mean upward.
Boomcycle Digital Marketing, Average Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Revenue (March 2026), 18 July 2026
The statistic
Both headline numbers are means. In Gartner's 2025 data, half of CMOs sat at or below a figure well under the mean, which MarketScale read as a distribution skewed by a relatively small group of heavy spenders. In our reading, a typical CMO at a large company is therefore likely to sit below the published average, not at it.
marketscale.com, Marketing budgets are flat at 7.7% of revenue, but AI-mature companies are spending 11%, 31 July 2026
When you put a benchmark in front of your CEO or board, we think it should carry three labels: the denominator, the revenue band of the sample and whether the figure is a mean or a median.
How marketing spend differs by industry
Gartner reported its sector results as a ranking, not as a list of point figures. In the 2025 CMO Spend Survey, chief marketing officers (CMOs) from consumer products, manufacturing and pharmaceutical companies reported the largest marketing budgets as a share of revenue. Healthcare, travel and hospitality, and information technology (IT) and business services companies reported the smallest.
Marketing Brew, Marketing budgets stagnate from 2024 to 2025: report, 21 May 2025
The sector percentages that circulate come from secondary compilations, and they do not agree with each other.
| Sector | Mercury, citing 2024 research | Boomcycle compilation |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer packaged goods (CPG) | 25% | 18.09% |
| Financial services | 9-10% | 7-10% |
| Healthcare | 6-7% | 6-14% (healthcare and pharma combined) |
| Manufacturing | 3-4% | 5-7.5% |
Boomcycle also puts energy companies at 3.21%. It credits its chart to a mix of Gartner, The CMO Survey and an "etropo analysis of 12,000 companies".
Boomcycle Digital Marketing, Average Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Revenue (March 2026), 18 July 2026
Why these figures stay out of the survey means
The samples and years differ. Mercury's table rests on 2024 research. Gartner's ranking is from 2025, and the means in earlier sections are 2026 figures from surveys with their own respondent pools.
Manufacturing shows the problem. Gartner placed manufacturing at the high end, while both compilations put it in the low single digits. In our reading, Gartner ranks sectors against each other inside a sample of large companies, so "high" is relative to that sample, not a claim about the economy-wide rate.
A single cell can blend definitions. A compiled figure may mix share of revenue, share of budget and ranges from different studies. Boomcycle points to a 2024 MIT Sloan Management Review piece titled "The End of Averages for Marketing Budgets", which argued that sector differences are large enough to make a blended average misleading.
Boomcycle Digital Marketing, Average Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Revenue (March 2026), 18 July 2026
What the choice of source does to a plan
Take an example company with $200 million in revenue (an example, not a benchmark). At the Mercury CPG figure of 25%, the implied budget on $200 million is $50 million. At the Boomcycle CPG figure of 18.09%, the implied budget on $200 million is about $36.2 million. The gap between $50 million and $36.2 million is $13.8 million, and it comes from the choice of source alone.
Mercury, How much should a small business spend on marketing in 2026? | Mercury, 23 December 2025
Boomcycle Digital Marketing, Average Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Revenue (March 2026), 18 July 2026
When a sector figure goes on a board slide, label it with four things: source, year, sample, and whether it is a mean, a range or a rank. Keep sector points on a separate line from the Gartner and CMO Survey means.
B2B and B2C, product and services companies spend differently
The industry section showed that B2C product companies in The CMO Survey put a much larger share of revenue into marketing than B2B product companies. The rules of thumb that finance teams quote follow the same direction, and they also split by company stage.
Among 323 B2B technology companies, the median marketing budget was 10% of revenue, with 14% for companies below $5M ARR and 4% for those above $250M ARR.
Median marketing budget, B2B technology companies, 2025 (% of revenue)
| Label | Value |
|---|---|
| Below $5M ARR | 14 % of revenue |
| All 323 companies (median) | 10 % of revenue |
| Above $250M ARR | 4 % of revenue |
The rules of thumb
Canada's business development bank puts it simply: B2B companies "should spend between 2 and 5% of their revenue on marketing", and for business-to-consumer firms the share is often higher, between 5 and 10%. Its explanation is that B2C companies typically need to invest in more marketing channels to reach various customer segments.
BDC.ca, What is an average marketing budget for a small business?, 12 September 2020
Within B2B, stage moves the number.
| Company situation | Marketing as share of revenue | What to confirm before quoting it (our reading) |
|---|---|---|
| B2B, general rule | 2 to 5% | Whether sales costs sit inside the figure |
| B2C, general rule | 5 to 10% | Channel count and customer segments served |
| Mature B2B | 2% to 5% | Stable demand and strong awareness |
| Aggressive-growth B2B | 10% to 20%+ | Expansion or launch plans that justify it |
Software companies: separate the line first
Scaling software companies report a different number. Combined sales and marketing regularly runs at 25% to 30% of ending annual recurring revenue (ARR), and the marketing-only figure Spendesk gives is roughly 8% of ARR on marketing alone for a scaling B2B software company, with sales spend on top.
Spendesk, 5 excellent marketing budget examples to copy | Spendesk, 21 September 2026
Size also matters inside the category. Across 323 B2B technology companies the median was 10% of revenue, ranging from 14% below $5M ARR to 4% above $250M ARR.
Spendesk, 5 excellent marketing budget examples to copy | Spendesk, 21 September 2026
Worked example
Take a software company with $50 million in ending ARR (an example, not a benchmark). At 25% of $50 million, combined sales and marketing comes to $12.5 million. At 8% of $50 million, marketing alone comes to $4 million. If marketing is $4 million of a $12.5 million combined line, sales takes $8.5 million.
Comparing the $12.5 million to a 5 to 10% B2B benchmark would make the budget look out of range. Comparing the $4 million would not. In our reading, most board confusion on this point comes from comparing a combined line to a marketing-only benchmark.
Steps before the board meeting
- State the business model: B2B or B2C, product or services.
- State the denominator: revenue or ending ARR.
- Split marketing from sales in your own ledger before benchmarking.
- Match the benchmark to your stage, then show the gap in dollars.
For how team costs affect the marketing-only figure, see marketing headcount benchmarks.
Has the marketing budget share gone up or down since 2020?
Down sharply, then flat. Gartner's figure fell from 11 percent in 2020 to 6.4 percent in 2021, recovered to 9.5 percent in 2022 and eased to 7.8 percent by 2026. Between those points it was 9.1% in 2023 and 7.7% in 2024. The 2025 reading was 7.7% again, the exact same share as last year.
Megawebvision, Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Revenue: 2026 Data | Megawebvision, 18 October 2026
Marketing Brew, Marketing budgets stagnate from 2024 to 2025: report, 21 May 2025
Over the longer view, the four years before the pandemic averaged 11%, the four since 8.2%. In our reading, the 2026 rise to 7.8% is a pause in the decline, not a recovery toward the old level.
Megawebvision, Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Revenue: 2026 Data | Megawebvision, 18 October 2026
To make the gap concrete, take an example company with $200 million in revenue (an example, not a benchmark): 11% of revenue would be $22 million and 7.8% would be $15.6 million, a difference of $6.4 million a year.
What moved inside the budget
The share stayed flat while the mix changed.
| Line in the marketing budget | 2021 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid media | 25.1% | 30.6% | 31.4% |
| Technology | 26.6% | 22.4% | 19.4% |
| Labor | 21.9% | 21.9% | 24.5% |
In 2025, paid media was 30.6% of marketing budgets or 2.4% of company revenue. In 2026 it took 31.4% of marketing expenses, up from 25.1% in 2021, so the share rose from 30.6% to 31.4%, a gain of 0.8 points in a year. Technology took 19.4% of the budget, down from 26.6% in 2021. For more on that line, see our martech share of budget benchmark.
Brand Innovators, CMOs turn to GenAI, cut back on agencies as budgets remain flat: Gartner - Brand Innovators, 13 May 2025
Megawebvision, Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Revenue: 2026 Data | Megawebvision, 18 October 2026
The budget gap CMOs report
In the 2025 survey, 59 percent of CMOs report they have insufficient budget to execute their strategy. The series ran 71% in 2023, 64% in 2024, 59% in 2025, 56% in 2026. Fewer CMOs report a shortfall each year, but more than half still do.
Brand Innovators, CMOs turn to GenAI, cut back on agencies as budgets remain flat: Gartner - Brand Innovators, 13 May 2025
Megawebvision, Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Revenue: 2026 Data | Megawebvision, 18 October 2026
How to use the trend with a board
- Show your own share of revenue for each year since 2020 next to the Gartner line. Mark the years where you moved against it.
- Split your budget into paid media, technology, labor and agencies, and compare the mix shift to the table above.
- State the dollar gap between your current share and your target share, using the worked method above.
A worked example for a $400 million B2B services company
This is an example, not a benchmark. Take a B2B professional services firm with $400 million in revenue that wants steady new-client growth. We run two passes, one from published references and one from funnel math, then compare them.
Pass one: the reference, in dollars
Mercury's sector table, drawn from 2024 research, lists professional services at 20-21% of revenue. At 20% of $400 million, that reference implies $80 million. Mercury itself says such ranges should be used as a gut check rather than a rulebook.
Mercury, How much should a small business spend on marketing in 2026? | Mercury, 23 December 2025
A second reference point is the planning rate in Pedowitz's own example, where a $50M company at 8% would invest $4M. Applying the same 8% to $400 million gives $32 million.
pedowitzgroup.com, What's the optimal marketing budget as percentage of revenue?
Pass two: the funnel rebuild
Mercury's advice is to reverse-engineer it from your funnel math. Use these example inputs:
Mercury, How much should a small business spend on marketing in 2026? | Mercury, 23 December 2025
- Marketing must deliver 200 new clients this year.
- The firm wins 200 of every 1,000 qualified opportunities, a 20% close rate.
- Programs cost $50 thousand per qualified opportunity.
Then 1,000 opportunities at $50 thousand each is $50 million. That $50 million spread over 200 new clients is a CAC of $250 thousand per client.
| Pass | Input | Dollar figure |
|---|---|---|
| Sector reference | 20% of $400 million | $80 million |
| Planning example rate | 8% of $400 million | $32 million |
| Funnel rebuild | 1,000 opportunities at $50 thousand | $50 million |
Reconciling the numbers
The funnel figure of $50 million is $18 million above the $32 million from the 8% rate. The $80 million sector reference is $30 million above the $50 million funnel figure.
In our reading, the gaps have two sources. The funnel pass funds only new-client pipeline. Pedowitz's definition of a full budget is wider: team costs, agencies, paid media, events, content and more. So the $50 million is a floor for acquisition, not the total. The sector figure, we think, sits high for a firm this size because the table speaks to small businesses.
pedowitzgroup.com, What's the optimal marketing budget as percentage of revenue?
For the board, show all three numbers side by side. Then name the one assumption that moves each: close rate, cost per opportunity, or the share of growth marketing owns.
How to set and defend your number with the CFO
A CFO rarely disputes the benchmark itself. The dispute is about what your number contains and what it is compared against.
The four steps
- State the definition and denominator up front. Open with one sentence: marketing spend as a share of total company revenue for the fiscal year, with marketing headcount either included or excluded. If you plan against annual recurring revenue (ARR), say so. As Spendesk puts it, a combined sales and marketing figure and a marketing-only figure "can both be correct for the same company, depending on which line you count."
- Separate marketing from sales lines in the ledger. In five sets of published company accounts Spendesk reviewed, none reported marketing on its own. Tag each transaction to a marketing category when it is paid, so finance and marketing reconcile the same total.
- Show the bottom-up build and the quarterly reallocation rule. Build from the bookings target down to pipeline, then to programs. Benchmarkit's 2025 report found that scaling companies set budgets from next year's booking goal rather than historical trends. Our rule: each quarter, move money from the line with the weakest pipeline yield to the strongest, inside the approved total.
Spendesk, 5 excellent marketing budget examples to copy | Spendesk, 21 September 2026
Where cuts usually land
When the CFO asks for savings, the answer is often already planned. In Gartner's 2025 survey, 39 percent of CMOs planned to cut agency budgets and 39% planned to cut spending on their marketing teams. Name your own first cuts in the memo so the conversation starts from your list. Our guides on choosing a marketing agency and marketing headcount cover both lines.
Brand Innovators, CMOs turn to GenAI, cut back on agencies as budgets remain flat: Gartner - Brand Innovators, 13 May 2025
Template: one-page budget memo
| Memo line | What to write |
|---|---|
| Definition | Marketing-only or combined, denominator, headcount in or out |
| Benchmarks | Each figure with source, year and sample size |
| Ledger split | Marketing lines and sales lines, listed separately |
| Bottom-up build | Bookings target, pipeline need, program cost by line |
| Reallocation rule | Quarterly review, shift from weakest to strongest yield |
| Variance trigger | The gap against plan that triggers a review |
| Planned cuts | Ranked list, agencies and labor named first |
On variance, Spendesk's guidance is that a gap "of more than a few points against plan should prompt a conversation rather than a footnote." The memo then feeds the budget slide in our board deck template.
Spendesk, 5 excellent marketing budget examples to copy | Spendesk, 21 September 2026
What this page does not cover
This page does not set a target marketing budget for any specific company, and it does not plan channel-level allocation beyond the paid media, technology and labor shares Gartner reported. The sector figures come from secondary compilations and are not directly comparable to the survey means. Nothing here is financial, accounting or legal advice.
Related on CMO Tribune: AI marketing budget 2026: the 15.3% benchmark, where the money goes, and how to set your own AI line; Gartner CMO Spend 2026: budgets at 7.8% of revenue, AI at 15.3% of marketing spend; Average CMO Tenure by Index, Sector and Year.
Questions
What is the average marketing budget as a percentage of revenue in 2026?
Gartner's 2026 CMO Spend Survey put the average at 7.8% of company revenue, up from 7.7% in 2025. The CMO Survey, fielded in January 2026, put it at 9.0% of company revenues. Gartner also reported that its 2026 average was 18% lower than the mean allocation four years earlier.
How much should a company spend on marketing as a percent of revenue?
Neither survey average is a target. Canada's business development bank gives a rule of thumb of 2 to 5% of revenue for business-to-business (B2B) companies and 5 to 10% for business-to-consumer (B2C) firms. B2B companies in aggressive growth can run 10% to 20% or more. A defensible number also comes from a bottom-up build that starts with the bookings target and works down to pipeline and program costs.
What is marketing spend as a percent of revenue by industry?
In Gartner's 2025 survey, consumer products, manufacturing and pharmaceutical companies reported the largest budgets as a share of revenue. Healthcare, travel and hospitality, and information technology (IT) and business services reported the smallest. Secondary compilations disagree on point figures. Mercury lists consumer packaged goods at 25% and Boomcycle lists it at 18.09%, so label any sector figure with its source, year and sample.
Do B2B companies spend less on marketing than B2C companies?
In The CMO Survey figures Boomcycle reported, B2C product companies allocated 15.5% of revenue to marketing, compared with 9% for B2B services companies and 6.4% for B2B product companies. Canada's business development bank explains that B2C companies typically need to invest in more channels to reach different customer segments. Software companies are a separate case: combined sales and marketing often runs at 25% to 30% of ending annual recurring revenue (ARR), with marketing alone at roughly 8%.
Why is the Gartner marketing budget figure different from The CMO Survey?
Three things explain most of the gap: the denominator, the sample and the statistic. Gartner surveyed mostly companies above $1 billion in revenue in North America, the United Kingdom and Europe. The CMO Survey covers U.S. companies of all sizes, and its data shows bigger companies spend a lower share of revenue. Both headline figures are means, which a small group of heavy spenders pulls upward.
Does the marketing budget include salaries and technology?
In Gartner's breakdown, yes. In 2026 labor took 24.5% of the marketing budget, technology 19.4% and paid media 31.4%. Definitions vary by company, so state in your budget memo whether marketing headcount is included or excluded and whether sales costs sit inside the figure.
Sources
- Gartner 2026 CMO Spend Survey Finds CMOs Allocate 15.3% of Marketing Budgets to AI, But Only 30% Are Ready to Scale AI Capabilities, Gartner, 11 May 2026
- CMOs Face Headwinds Even as Marketing Value and AI Impact Grow | Duke's Fuqua School of Business, Duke's Fuqua School of Business, 26 March 2026
- CMO Spend 2026 | Gartner, Gartner, 25 June 2026
- Gartner 2025 CMO Spend Survey Reveals Marketing Budgets Have Flatlined at 7.7% of Overall Company Revenue, Gartner, 12 May 2025
- Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Revenue: 2026 Data | Megawebvision, Megawebvision, 18 October 2026
- How Much Should I Spend on Marketing | Whitehat, Whitehat SEO, 9 January 2026
- Average Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Revenue (March 2026), Boomcycle Digital Marketing, 18 July 2026
- Marketing budgets are flat at 7.7% of revenue, but AI-mature companies are spending 11%, marketscale.com, 31 July 2026
- Marketing budgets stagnate from 2024 to 2025: report, Marketing Brew, 21 May 2025
- How much should a small business spend on marketing in 2026? | Mercury, Mercury, 23 December 2025
- What is an average marketing budget for a small business?, BDC.ca, 12 September 2020
- 5 excellent marketing budget examples to copy | Spendesk, Spendesk, 21 September 2026
- CMOs turn to GenAI, cut back on agencies as budgets remain flat: Gartner - Brand Innovators, Brand Innovators, 13 May 2025
- What's the optimal marketing budget as percentage of revenue?, pedowitzgroup.com
Written by the CMO Tribune Desk and edited by Lila Odinaev. Every factual sentence was checked against a passage on the source it cites. See how we work, or report an error on the corrections page.