What CEOs and CFOs expect from marketing, in their own words
Chief executives want marketing to drive revenue growth: 65% call sales growth its top mandate, and 60% now see it as a cost center. Here is what to show.
Chief executive officers (CEOs) expect chief marketing officers (CMOs) to drive revenue growth and to prove it in business terms. In Boathouse's 2026 study of 150 US CEOs, 65% named sales growth as marketing's top mandate, and 60% viewed marketing as a cost center, up from 35% the year before. In 2024, Gartner found only 52% of senior marketing leaders said they proved marketing's value and got credit for it.
What CEOs expect from CMOs: the short answer
CEOs put revenue growth first, and they want marketing judged on what it adds to the business. The 2027 Gartner chief executive officer (CEO) survey, fielded in April and May 2026 with 203 CEOs and senior business executives, found that 62% cited revenue/business growth as a top strategic business priority.
In our reading, Marketing's own self-assessment trails that expectation. In a 2024 Gartner survey of 378 senior marketing leaders, only 52% said they were successful in proving the value of marketing and receiving credit for helping meet enterprise objectives.
What the CEOs themselves said
Boathouse's fifth annual CEO study, based on 150 CEOs of US companies and reported in April 2026, puts the mandate in plain terms. 65% of CEOs cite sales growth as marketing's top mandate. The study also found 60% of CEOs now view marketing as a cost center, up from 35% last year, a rise of 25 points from 35% to 60%.
SmartBrief, How CEOs view CMOs, 28 April 2026
The role is still read as operational. 57% of CEOs view CMOs as execution leaders versus 43% strategic advisors. Boathouse's chief strategy officer summed up the shift: performance is now being judged on results.
SmartBrief, How CEOs view CMOs, 28 April 2026
| Signal | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| CEOs naming revenue/business growth a top priority | 62% | Gartner, 2026 |
| CEOs citing sales growth as marketing's top mandate | 65% | Boathouse, 2026 |
| CEOs viewing marketing as a cost center | 60% | Boathouse, 2026 |
| Marketing leaders who say they prove value and get credit | 52% | Gartner, 2024 |
What this means for the next board update
We think the gap is one of language more than effort. A chief marketing officer (CMO) who reports activity will be read as running a cost line.
A simple template we use for the opening line of any CEO or board update:
- Business result first: revenue, pipeline or customer value moved this quarter, in finance's numbers.
- Marketing's contribution, with the method named (incrementality test, marketing mix modeling or marketing-sourced pipeline).
- The next investment decision and the result it is expected to change.
Activity metrics belong in the appendix, not the first slide.
What alignment with the CEO and trust from the CFO mean in practice
Two phrases carry most of this piece, and they get used loosely. Here is how we define them. We use the frame McKinsey built from conversations with more than 100 people in C-level growth roles and 21 CEOs.
McKinsey & Company, The power of partnership: How the CEO, CMO relationship can drive outsize growth, 26 October 2023
Alignment with the CEO: a shared growth agenda
Alignment does not mean the CEO approves the marketing plan. It means the CEO and the CMO give the same answer when asked what marketing is for and where it sits in the growth strategy.
The stakes are measurable. McKinsey found that CEOs who place marketing at the core of their growth strategy are twice as likely to have greater than 5 percent annual growth as their peers.
McKinsey & Company, The power of partnership: How the CEO, CMO relationship can drive outsize growth, 26 October 2023
The gap is often invisible from the CEO's chair. Nine in ten CEOs in the survey said marketing's remit was well defined. Yet when CEOs and their CMOs were each asked about marketing's primary role, only half of same-company pairings gave the same answer.
McKinsey & Company, The power of partnership: How the CEO, CMO relationship can drive outsize growth, 26 October 2023
Ownership is split too. More than two-thirds of the CMOs surveyed said two or more leaders who oversee marketing sit on the executive committee and report directly to the CEO.
McKinsey & Company, The power of partnership: How the CEO, CMO relationship can drive outsize growth, 26 October 2023
Trust from the CFO: agreement on the measures
CFO trust is narrower. In our reading, it means finance and marketing have agreed in advance which measures count and what a change in spend will do to them.
McKinsey partner Robert Tas described the finance side directly: "the CEO or CFO needs to learn the measurement systems in place to understand what it means when I cut budget" (McKinsey). The system he described had three layers. The first was brand scores (brand tracking). The second was an econometric model tying channel spend to results, which is the job of marketing mix modeling. The third was incremental testing and holdouts, the core of incrementality.
McKinsey & Company, Analyzing the CEO, CMO relationship, 7 March 2024
A working template
| Term | Definition (our reading) | Test to run before the next board meeting (our method) |
|---|---|---|
| CEO alignment | Same answer on marketing's primary role in growth | You and the CEO each write marketing's primary role in one sentence, separately, then compare |
| Remit clarity | A written list of what marketing owns, not only what it does not | Draft the in-scope list and have the CEO mark anything they would assign elsewhere |
| CFO trust | Agreement on which measures count and how spend moves them | Ask the CFO which measure they would use to cut your budget; if it is missing from your report, add it |
If the first test produces two different sentences, we think that is the conversation to have before any budget request.
What CEOs say they want from marketing
The earlier sections covered the growth headline. The same surveys say more about how CEOs want that growth delivered, and most of it now runs through technology.
Technology spend, with returns still unproven
The same release found that 44% of CEOs struggle to demonstrate artificial intelligence (AI) driven financial returns to stakeholders.
That pressure lands on marketing. Boathouse's fifth annual study, reported by SmartBrief, found CMOs are held 4x more accountable for AI return on investment (ROI) than any other executive, and 54% of CEOs expect AI to drive growth and efficiency.
SmartBrief, How CEOs view CMOs, 28 April 2026
Results over relationship
Boathouse found the top grades CEOs gave CMOs were lower than in the previous two years. Its chief strategy officer said many CMOs are "still speaking in marketing terms rather than business outcomes." Translation matters more when, as McKinsey's Robert Tas estimated, only 10 percent of Fortune 250 CEOs have marketing experience.
McKinsey & Company, Analyzing the CEO, CMO relationship, 7 March 2024
| CEO signal | What to bring to the next CEO review (our reading) |
|---|---|
| 44% struggle to show AI financial returns | Two or three AI uses tied to a revenue or cost line |
| Operating model redesign | A proposal for which marketing workflows change, and who owns them |
| Outcomes over activity | Unit economics, speed to market and customer outcomes, not usage counts |
A worked example
Take a marketing team running 12 AI use cases, of which 4 tie to a financial measure; that is 4 of 12, or one in three. These are example inputs, not a benchmark. We think the CEO update should lead with those 4, state the measure for each, and name a date to retire or rebuild the other 8. A holdout test, described in our incrementality entry, gives each of the 4 a defensible number. For spending context, see our AI share of marketing budget benchmark.
What CFOs want to see from marketing
The finance view is narrower than the CEO view covered above, and more predictable.
Control sits with finance. Nearly 7 in 10 respondents said that, besides chief executive officers (CEOs) and boards, finance has the greatest control over cost management efforts. Money was also moving: 52% said their organizations were redirecting operating expense investments, and 46% were redirecting capital expenditures.
The same survey named the pressures behind this. 49% cited pressure to invest in new technologies such as cloud and artificial intelligence (AI), followed by shrinking profit margins at 48%. 46% pointed to siloed departments or autonomous business units as their greatest challenge in managing costs.
Read the sample before you quote it
Deloitte says its sample is CFOs from companies predominantly over $3 billion in annual revenues, and that the pulse survey is not intended to be scientific in its respondents or response rate. For a company between $20 million and $2 billion, we would treat these figures as a signal of how large-company finance thinks, not as a description of your own CFO.
Deloitte, CFO Signals™ Library
Why this lands on marketing
Most marketing spend is operating expense, so in our reading it sits inside the pool finance said it was redirecting. That matters because CMOs already report a perception problem: in a Gartner survey of 395 CMOs from February through March 2024, 47% said marketing is viewed as an expense rather than a strategic investment. A function seen as an expense is, we think, the first place a cost-focused CFO looks.
Our budget cut playbook sets out that ranking.
A one-page template for the CFO meeting
| CFO concern from the survey | What marketing brings (our reading) |
|---|---|
| Cost management as top concern | Spend by program, with the revenue each one is tied to |
| Redirecting operating expense | A ranked list of programs to cut first, with expected effect |
| Pressure to fund cloud and AI | Which marketing tools retire if new ones are bought |
| Siloed departments | Shared targets with sales, so spend is not counted twice |
Back the revenue column with evidence finance can audit, such as incrementality tests or marketing mix modeling, rather than platform-reported results.
Why CEOs and CMOs disagree about marketing's role
CEOs in Boathouse's fifth annual CEO study, drawn from 150 CEOs of top US companies, still saw the CMO role as an execution job: 57% viewed CMOs as execution leaders versus 43% as strategic advisors. We think many CMOs describe their own work as strategic. That is the disagreement.
SmartBrief, How CEOs view CMOs, 28 April 2026
Sonia Chung, Boathouse's chief strategy officer, described where the argument now sits: "The challenge has shifted from alignment to demonstrating impact." In the same study, 65% of CEOs cited sales growth as marketing's top mandate, and 60% viewed marketing as a cost center, up from 35% the year before.
SmartBrief, How CEOs view CMOs, 28 April 2026
Proof is hard for a structural reason. Chung said that data "remains fragmented across marketing, sales and finance," which limits the ability to show cause and effect.
SmartBrief, How CEOs view CMOs, 28 April 2026
A comfort gap on both sides
McKinsey described the C-suite gap from another angle. About 50 percent of its CEO respondents said they felt comfortable with modern marketing, while 66 percent of the CMOs surveyed said their CEOs were not. In our reading, each side overestimated how well the other understood its work.
McKinsey & Company, The power of partnership: How the CEO, CMO relationship can drive outsize growth, 26 October 2023
What CEOs from marketing tell CMOs
CEOs with marketing backgrounds, quoted by Spencer Stuart, pointed toward profit and loss (P&L) ownership and knowledge of the whole company. One unnamed CEO said: "Any board that appoints a CEO from a marketing background who's never led P&L is taking a big risk." Dave Kimbell of Ulta Beauty said: "Know the business better than anybody; demonstrate that you're not just there to tell stories and create ads."
spencerstuart.com, How can CMOs become strong candidates for CEO? Top 10 Tips, 25 November 2024
We think the route to that seat runs through owning a result.
| What the sources found | Step for the CMO (our reading) |
|---|---|
| CEOs weighted the role toward execution | Own one number the CEO already tracks, such as sales growth, and report on it first |
| Data split across marketing, sales and finance | Agree one shared revenue dataset with the CFO and sales lead, then build marketing mix modeling on it |
| CEOs and CMOs read CEO comfort differently | Hold a standing session that explains one method per quarter in business terms |
| Marketing leaders often lack P&L experience | Ask for a business unit, region or product line with its own P&L |
Here is a quick audit, using example inputs rather than a benchmark. If a board pack carries 12 marketing metrics and 4 of them tie directly to revenue, then 8 still speak marketing rather than business outcomes. Cut or translate those 8 before the next board meeting.
Expectation, evidence and what to show: the digest table
Earlier sections set out what CEOs and CFOs said they want. This table puts each expectation next to one survey figure behind it and the artifact a CMO can bring to the next leadership or board meeting. Copy it into your marketing scorecard and replace the right-hand column with your own evidence.
| Expectation | Survey figure behind it | What the CMO brings (our reading) |
|---|---|---|
| Growth | 62% of CEOs and senior business executives cited revenue/business growth as a top strategic priority (Gartner) | An incrementality test: a holdout region or audience that shows the sales a program caused, separate from the sales it touched |
| Technology returns | 75% of surveyed CEOs and senior executives planned to increase technology investment (Gartner) | A marketing mix model readout that separates AI-enabled and martech-funded programs from the rest |
| Long-term value | Of the 41% of marketing leaders who presented a long-term view of value, over two-thirds proved value and got credit (Gartner) | A brand tracking series tied to pricing, retention or customer lifetime value over two or more years |
Why the long-term row anchors the rest
In Gartner's 2024 survey, only 52% of senior marketing leaders said they proved marketing's value and received credit for it (Gartner). The same respondents ranked CFOs (40%) and CEOs (39%) as the executives most skeptical of marketing's value.
Gartner also found that leaders using two or more complex metric types, such as relationship, return-on-transaction and operational metrics, were up to 1.8 times more likely to prove value than those who used none (Gartner).
A worked example for the cost row
These are example inputs, not a benchmark. If a program costs $12 thousand a month and a holdout test credits it with 4 incremental customers, the cost per incremental customer is $3 thousand.
Plot that figure each quarter. A falling cost per outcome speaks the CFO's language, and the holdout test behind it also answers the growth row.
How to use the table
- Pick one artifact per row that you can produce within a quarter.
- Name an owner in finance who agrees the method before results arrive.
Worked example: one quarter's evidence pack for a $300M company
This is our method, run on example numbers. The inputs are illustrative, not benchmarks.
The company has $300 million in revenue and spends 8% of it on marketing, so its annual marketing budget is $24 million. Spread across 4 quarters, that is $6 million a quarter the CMO has to account for.
Step 1: build the pack with the analytics lead
Gartner's 2024 marketing analytics survey found that among senior marketing leaders who meet regularly with their top analytics leaders and teams, "62% said they can prove value and get credit, compared to just 30% who meet infrequently with both."
Our practice is one working session in the second week after quarter close. Four people attend: the CMO, the analytics lead, the sales operations lead and the finance partner. Finance signs off every definition before any figure goes to the CEO.
Step 2: fix the five figures
| Figure | Who reads it first | How we calculate it | Example input (illustrative) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pipeline | CEO | Value of new qualified opportunities created in the quarter, with marketing-sourced pipeline shown as its own line | Sales operations definition |
| Win rate | CEO | Opportunities won divided by opportunities closed, won or lost | 4 won of 12 closed |
| Revenue influenced | CEO | Closed revenue from deals where a marketing touch came before the opportunity | Finance's attribution rule |
| Cost per incremental opportunity | CFO | Program cost divided by opportunities in exposed accounts minus opportunities in a matched holdout | 12 exposed, 4 holdout |
| Budget moved | CFO | Dollars shifted out of programs that failed the incrementality test, and where they went | 4 of 12 programs |
Step 3: show the arithmetic
- Win rate. 4 wins from 12 closed opportunities is a win rate of one in three.
- Cost per incremental opportunity. If exposed accounts produced 12 opportunities and the holdout produced 4, the program created 8 incremental opportunities. Divide the program's quarterly cost by 8. The method is set out in our incrementality entry, and a marketing mix model can extend it to channels you cannot hold out.
- Budget moved. If 4 of 12 programs fail the test, one third of the program list is cut. Report the dollar amount moved, the program it came from and the program it went to.
Step 4: order the page
Put the three CEO figures at the top, each with one line on the change from last quarter. Put the two CFO figures underneath, each with its method note and the finance sign-off. Our CMO board deck template uses the same order.
We think budget moved is the figure a skeptical CFO reads most closely. It is the one place the pack shows marketing cutting its own spend instead of asking for more.
A quarterly routine with the CEO and the CFO, and the decision to make
Earlier sections set out what the CEO and the CFO expect. This section is our method for turning those expectations into a calendar. Treat it as a starting template, not a benchmark.
Monthly: a working session with the CFO
Finance teams are investing in their own planning systems. In Deloitte's 1Q26 survey, cloud-based planning, budgeting, and forecasting emerged as the most important tools enabling cost management (43%). We think the monthly session should run on finance's numbers inside that system, not on a marketing deck.
prnewswire.com, Deloitte CFO Signals™ Spotlight (1Q26): CFOs Focus on Controlling Costs, 14 April 2026
Agenda template:
- Spend to date against plan, by program, with each variance explained in one line.
- Forecast for the rest of the quarter, plus any reallocation you want approved.
- Programs you propose to cut or pause, and what that frees up.
- One data question: where marketing, sales and finance figures disagree, and who fixes it.
- Decisions and owners, written down before the meeting ends.
Item 4 is there because tooling is part of the cost problem. The same survey found that nearly 4 in 10 cite outdated tools and technologies.
prnewswire.com, Deloitte CFO Signals™ Spotlight (1Q26): CFOs Focus on Controlling Costs, 14 April 2026
Quarterly: a growth review with the CEO
This meeting is about business results, not campaign activity. Agenda template:
- Results on the agreed measures, against target, for the quarter and year to date.
- What drove the gap, in business terms: customers, pricing, pipeline, retention.
- What tests taught you, and what you will stop doing.
- Asks: budget, headcount or decisions from other functions.
- Commitments for the next quarter.
Bring something for your peers, too. Barilla Group CEO Gianluca Di Tondo advised CMOs to build relationships by understanding their job in order that you can always offer them support and solutions. Telkom CEO Serame Taukobong warned that a CMO not in control of the intrinsic data that drives the organisation, they will sell themselves short.
spencerstuart.com, How can CMOs become strong candidates for CEO? Top 10 Tips, 25 November 2024
As an example, not a benchmark: 12 CFO sessions plus 4 CEO reviews gives 16 fixed meetings a year. Put all of them in the calendar in January so none slip.
The decision: which two or three measures to defend
The routine only works if the measures stay fixed for the year. Pick two or three, and test each against four questions:
- Can finance reconcile it to its own ledger without a marketing translation?
- Does the CEO already report it, or something it feeds, to the board?
- Can marketing move it within the fiscal year?
- Will you still defend it in a quarter when it moves the wrong way?
A typical set pairs one revenue measure, such as marketing-sourced pipeline, with one efficiency measure and, if the board accepts it, one brand measure from brand tracking. Where attribution is contested, agree the test method up front, for example incrementality tests. Record the choices in your marketing scorecard template and have both the CEO and the CFO sign off on it.
What this page does not cover
This page does not set benchmarks for marketing budgets, compare or recommend measurement vendors or tools, or give a full method for building a marketing mix model, and its worked examples use illustrative inputs. The CFO survey figures come mostly from companies over $3 billion in revenue and may not describe your own finance team. Nothing here is financial or legal advice.
Related on CMO Tribune: Fractional CMO: what it is, what it costs, when it fits; The CMO job description in 2026, with duties, scope, reporting lines and a template; The CMO first 90 days plan, week by week.
Questions
What do CEOs expect from their CMO?
Chief executive officers (CEOs) expect revenue growth and results they can see in business terms. In the 2027 Gartner CEO survey, fielded in April and May 2026, 62% cited revenue or business growth as a top strategic priority. Boathouse's 2026 study found 57% of CEOs viewed chief marketing officers (CMOs) as execution leaders rather than strategic advisors, and its chief strategy officer said performance is now being judged on results.
What do CFOs want to see from marketing?
Chief financial officers (CFOs) are focused on cost. In Deloitte's first-quarter 2026 CFO Signals survey, 52% cited cost management as their top internal concern, and 52% said their organizations were redirecting operating expense investments. A CMO can bring spend by program with the revenue each one is tied to, plus a ranked list of programs to cut first. Deloitte's sample is predominantly companies over $3 billion in revenue, so treat it as a signal of how large-company finance thinks.
How do I prove marketing's value to the CFO?
Agree with the chief financial officer (CFO), in advance, which measures count and how a change in spend moves them. McKinsey partner Robert Tas described a three-layer system: brand scores, an econometric model tying channel spend to results, and incremental testing with holdouts. Gartner found leaders using two or more complex metric types were up to 1.8 times more likely to prove value than those using none. Among leaders who met regularly with their analytics teams, 62% said they proved value and got credit, compared with 30% who met infrequently.
How often should a CMO meet with the CFO?
Our method is a monthly working session with the chief financial officer (CFO), run on finance's numbers, plus a quarterly growth review with the chief executive officer. That gives 16 fixed meetings a year, which we suggest putting in the calendar in January. This is a starting template, not a benchmark.
Why do CEOs and CMOs disagree about marketing's role?
Chief executive officers (CEOs) often see the chief marketing officer (CMO) role as execution, while many CMOs describe their work as strategic. McKinsey found nine in ten CEOs said marketing's remit was well defined, yet only half of same-company CEO and CMO pairings gave the same answer on marketing's primary role. Boathouse's chief strategy officer added that data remains fragmented across marketing, sales and finance, which limits the ability to show cause and effect.
Sources
- Gartner Says 44% of CEOs Struggle to Demonstrate AI Financial Returns as Technology Becomes Central to Growth, Gartner, 20 October 2026
- Gartner Survey Finds Only 52% of Senior Marketing Leaders Can Prove Marketing’s Value and Receive Credit For Its Contribution to Business Outcomes, Gartner, 18 September 2024
- How CEOs view CMOs, SmartBrief, 28 April 2026
- The power of partnership: How the CEO, CMO relationship can drive outsize growth, McKinsey & Company, 26 October 2023
- Analyzing the CEO, CMO relationship, McKinsey & Company, 7 March 2024
- Deloitte CFO Signals™ Spotlight (1Q26): CFOs Focus on Controlling Costs, prnewswire.com, 14 April 2026
- CFO Signals™ Library, Deloitte
- How can CMOs become strong candidates for CEO? Top 10 Tips, spencerstuart.com, 25 November 2024
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.