Marketing budget and plan: the benchmark figures and what they hide
A marketing budget is set as a percentage of revenue, not as an absolute amount. According to Gartner's annual survey of 402 marketing leaders, the average sits at 7.7% of revenue in 2025, but half of respondents have 6% or less. The median matters more than the average.
- The 7.7% average masks a considerable gap: half of companies are below 6%.
- Paid media alone absorbs 30.6% of the marketing budget, or 2.4% of revenue.
- A plan with no written success indicator becomes unverifiable by the second quarter.
- Cutting marketing in a downturn costs more at the recovery than at the cut.
On this page
Marketing budget
The marketing budget is the share of revenue a company devotes to making its offer known, wanted and bought. It brings together paid media, content production, technology tools, external fees and in-house labor. It is expressed as a percentage of revenue rather than as an amount, which makes it comparable from one company and one year to the next.
How much to invest, according to the available data
Two reference surveys answer this question every year, and they do not give the same figure. Understanding why is worth more than remembering either one.
Gartner surveyed 402 marketing leaders in North America, the United Kingdom and Europe in February and March 2025. The result: an average budget of 7.7% of revenue, identical to 2024, but down from the 9.5% observed three years earlier. Most respondents lead companies with more than one billion dollars in revenue.
The CMO Survey, run by Deloitte, Duke University and the American Marketing Association, gives 9.4% of revenue. The gap comes from the makeup of the sample: Gartner surveys large companies, while The CMO Survey covers a broader range.
For an SMB, the U.S. Small Business Administration recommends 7% to 8% of revenue for companies under five million dollars in revenue.
The most useful figure in the Gartner survey is not the average. It is the fact that half of respondents have 6% or less. The distribution is heavily skewed, and comparing yourself to the average leads most companies to believe they are behind.
The differences from one sector to another are significant. Gartner notes that IT services and business services providers went from 9% of revenue in 2024 to 5.8% in 2025, the sharpest drop of all the industries tracked.
Two calculations complete this one: the sustainable fee ceiling, which says what your margin can pay for, and the allocation of a budget for entering a new region, whose structure differs completely.
Part of this budget can be funded by public support, provided you choose it well: our article on digital grants explains why the mandated vendor matters more than the amount.
What to know before setting next year's budget
The average measured by Gartner sits at 7.7% of revenue, but half of respondents have 6% or less. The average is therefore not a target, it is a framing benchmark. What decides the right amount is not the sector, it is the relationship between what a customer costs and what they bring in, plus the speed at which you want to grow.
- What percentage of our revenue goes to marketing this year, all in?
- Does that total include in-house salaries and tools, or only paid media?
- What does a new customer cost us, and what do they bring in over three years?
- What share of the budget is committed to spending that stops when you stop paying?
- What would we stop funding first if the budget dropped by 20%?
A good answer brings the amount back to a percentage and distinguishes spending that accumulates from spending that dies out. A weak answer cites a sector average, or proposes an allocation with no reference to what a customer brings in.
Setting an annual budget and its allocation is the heaviest marketing decision of the year. A 90-minute consultation makes it possible to settle it with an outside opinion, with a written summary you can present to your board.
How to allocate the budget
The allocation observed by Gartner in 2025 gives a useful point of comparison, even if it describes large organizations.
| Line item | Observed share | 2025 trend |
|---|---|---|
| Paid media | 30.6% of the marketing budget | Prioritized, despite media cost inflation |
| In-house labor | Being reduced | 39% of leaders plan to cut |
| External fees | Being reduced | 39% plan to reduce |
| Technology | Being reduced | Under pressure despite AI adoption |
Gartner also notes that digital channels concentrate nearly two-thirds of the media budget, and that 69% of that digital spending goes to paid channels rather than organic ones.
Media cost inflation means that keeping the same budget amounts to buying less visibility than a year earlier. A budget that is stable in dollars is a budget declining in real reach, and that is what a year-over-year report compared in amounts hides.
What stays in-house is the allocation across line items, because it commits hires, annual contracts and trade-offs between teams. A provider who sets it alone always proposes increasing the share they execute. What is delegated is what makes it defensible: the calculation of acquisition cost per channel, the measurement of each line item's real contribution, and the comparison with public benchmarks. A management team that keeps the decision and delegates the calculation gets a budget it can defend line by line.
What a marketing plan must contain
Most marketing plans fail in the same place: they describe activities rather than results, which makes them unverifiable three months later.
A quantified, dated objective
"Forty qualified requests a month by December" can be verified. "Increase awareness" cannot be verified and justifies any spending. That is the difference between a plan and an intention.
A budget as a percentage, with its allocation
Expressed as a share of projected revenue, then broken down across media, production, tools and fees. It then adjusts on its own when revenue changes.
An acquisition cost assumption
How much acquiring a customer costs, and how much they are worth. Without these two figures, no budget can be judged too high or too low.
A single owner per action
Not a department, a person. An action with no name attached does not get done, and that becomes clear in the second quarter.
A review date
An annual plan revised once a quarter survives the year. An annual plan never reopened is quietly abandoned around May.
The SMART objectives method, framed to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound, remains the simplest format for making an objective verifiable. Its weakness is that it pushes toward cautious objectives. An objective hit at 100% every year often signals it was set too low.
What to do when revenue falls
The reflex is to cut marketing, because it is the easiest expense to reduce with no visible immediate consequence. That is also what makes the decision costly.
The research published by the Harvard Business Review on how companies behave in a recession shows that those that maintain or increase their investment during a slowdown come out better positioned at the recovery. The cost of visibility falls while competitors pull back.
A smart cut therefore does not mean reducing proportionally everywhere. It means deciding between what produces in the short term and what builds over the long term, and owning the choice.
| Line item | Effect of a cut | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Paid media on unprofitable channels | None, except a margin gain | Cut first |
| Paid media on profitable channels | Immediate drop in sales | Protect |
| In-depth content | Delayed effect of six to twelve months | Slow down rather than stop |
| Underused technology tools | None | Audit and cut |
| Measurement and analysis | Loss of the ability to decide | Never cut |
A marketing budget is not judged by its amount. It is judged by the acquisition cost it produces and the value of the customers it brings in.
Falia analysis gridA check on your plan
The profitability of paid media is covered in Google Ads and social media advertising. Calculating the value of a customer is detailed in online retail, where the margin is. The content side is covered in content marketing and what it returns.
The split across channels can be modelled, and the method is in marketing mix modelling.
Going further on strategy
Framing and measuring. Growth marketing, demand generation, inbound: a single trade-off, Executive committees: the six-line marketing dashboard, SMBs: when marketing mix modeling is worth it, and when it is not, When generating more leads destroys margin, Owners: how much can you pay for a marketing engagement?.
Choosing and framing a vendor. Leadership teams: reading an agency proposal without being in the trade, Retainer, fixed scope, or time-and-materials: which contract for which work, Owners: who really owns your ad accounts and your data, What taking over a poorly executed engagement costs, Digital grants: the real question isn't the amount, it's who chooses the vendor.
The channels. Content marketing: what still works, and how to measure it, Email marketing: deliverability, segmentation and sequences, Owners and executives: your email list is the only audience asset you truly own, Organic social media: what is it still good for?, Branding: what gets measured, what sells, and what gets billed for nothing, B2B marketing: selling to a group, not a person, Gen Z: your advertising budget goes to creators, not to platforms, CRM and automation: fix the process before buying the tool, Buyer persona: you describe a person, the decision turns on a moment.
Quebec compliance and rules. Law 25: the three places where it touches your marketing, Businesses that send newsletters: what Canada's anti-spam law actually requires, Retailers and service businesses: the rules that govern customer reviews, SMBs: the AI usage policy to write before your team uses these tools, Professional firms: advertising without breaching your code of ethics, Clinics and health professionals: what your code allows in advertising.
Business situations. Business owners: entering a new region, what transfers and what doesn’t, Construction in Quebec: the hot markets of 2026, by segment and by region, Selling online without cutting out your reps or your distributors, Furniture and hardware: opening an online channel after thirty years of showroom sales, Distributors: four orders in five come from a customer you already have, Distributors and manufacturers: publishing prices when every client has their own, Choosing your ecommerce platform: the three real constraints, Online commerce: where the margin is, Shoes, furniture, hardware: what your returns cost, Manufacturers: getting specified before the RFP comes out, Manufacturers and installers: generating requests before the quote, Ticketing and events: the price you are allowed to advertise, Tourist lodging: what a direct booking is worth, Producers and presenters: the budget it takes to fill a venue.
Framing a budget and a plan is the starting point of the Generate demand and growth goal.
Already running a marketing team? See how we plug in as reinforcement on paid advertising.
Frequently asked questions about the marketing budget
What percentage of revenue should go to marketing?
Gartner's 2025 survey of 402 marketing leaders gives an average of 7.7% of revenue, but half of respondents have 6% or less. The CMO Survey by Deloitte, Duke and the American Marketing Association gives 9.4%, the gap coming from the size of the companies surveyed.
What share of the budget goes to paid advertising?
According to Gartner, paid media accounts for 30.6% of the marketing budget in 2025, or about 2.4% of the company's revenue. It is the priority line, despite media cost inflation that reduces what each dollar buys.
Should you cut marketing in a downturn?
Not uniformly. Research from the Harvard Business Review shows that companies that maintain their investment during a slowdown come out better positioned, as the cost of visibility falls while competitors pull back. Cuts should target unprofitable channels, never measurement.
How do you know if your budget is enough?
By comparing the cost of acquiring a customer to their value over the life of the relationship. Without these two figures, no budget can be judged too high or too low. As a benchmark, 59% of the leaders surveyed by Gartner consider their budget insufficient.
Are SMART objectives still useful?
Yes, as a verification format, because they make an objective measurable and dated. Their weakness is that they push toward cautious objectives. An objective hit at 100% every year often signals it was set too low.
How often should you revise a marketing plan?
Every quarter. An annual plan revised four times survives the year. A plan never reopened is quietly abandoned around May, usually without anyone making the decision to abandon it.
- Gartner, 2025 CMO Spend Survey, survey of 402 marketing leaders conducted in February and March 2025, accessed July 2026.
- Deloitte, Duke University Fuqua School of Business and the American Marketing Association, The CMO Survey, accessed July 2026.
- U.S. Small Business Administration, marketing and sales guide, accessed July 2026.
- Harvard Business Review, Roaring Out of Recession, on how companies behave in a slowdown, accessed July 2026.
Gabriel almost always takes your first call and carries out your audit. He builds the strategy starting from your growth goal: where to put your budget, which market to test and how to connect each lead to a real sale in your CRM. He mainly leads engagements for three goals: Optimize the profitability of your digital campaigns, Develop a new market, and Generate demand and growth. With Geneviève, he also works on organic search (SEO), AI visibility (GEO) and conversion rate optimization (CRO). The sales a Google Ads or Meta Ads campaign brings in depend on the page that receives the click. He writes mainly about marketing strategy, paid advertising and measurement.
About Falia →
SEO
Paid advertising
Conversion
AI visibility
Web design