Marketing Statistics 2026: Budgets, CMOs, Channels & ROI
Companies spend 7.8% of revenue on marketing in 2026, essentially the same as the 7.7% they spent in 2025, by Gartner’s count of 401 marketing leaders, most of them at large companies. Ask a broader sample of US marketing leaders and the average is 9.0%, but the median is just 5%. Marketers expect spending to grow 7.6% over the next year, after growing 1.7% the year before. And two of the most repeated marketing numbers have thin roots: the “7 to 8% of revenue” rule attributed to the SBA isn’t in the SBA’s own budget guidance, and the “$36 for every $1” email return comes from an email software vendor. Here are the marketing statistics worth knowing in 2026, each sourced inline with the year noted.
Marketing budgets: 7.8% or 9% of revenue, depending on who you ask
7.8% of company revenue goes to marketing in 2026, up from 7.7% in 2025 (Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2026). Gartner surveyed 401 marketing leaders in North America, the UK and Europe, most of them at companies with more than $1 billion in revenue, and calls budgets “effectively flat.”
56% of CMOs say they lack the budget to deliver their 2026 strategy, and 54% report insufficient resources (Gartner, 2026).
8.96% of revenue is the average in The CMO Survey, but the median is 5% (The CMO Survey, Duke Fuqua, Deloitte and the AMA, 2026). The survey heard from 308 marketing leaders at US for-profit companies in January 2026, and the gap between mean and median means a minority of heavy spenders pulls the average up.
Marketing is 9.64% of the average company’s total budget (CMO Survey, 2026). At 52.6% of companies the R&D budget is larger than marketing’s, and at 39.1% marketing is larger.
The “7 to 8% of revenue” rule isn’t in the SBA’s guidance
“Small businesses should spend 7 to 8% of revenue on marketing” is widely credited to the US Small Business Administration, often with conditions attached: under $5 million a year in sales and a net margin of 10 to 12%, as one small business guide puts it (Chron). The guides that repeat it don’t link to an SBA source, and we could not find one.
The SBA’s own marketing budget guidance says “there’s no hard and fast answer” (U.S. Small Business Administration, 2019). Instead of a rule, it quotes other sources’ averages: businesses spend 1.08% of revenue on advertising (about 4% for retailers and 1.93% for restaurants), and companies spent 7.9% of revenue on marketing in 2018.
By business type, that 2018 average ran from 6.3% for B2B product companies to 11.8% for B2C services companies, with B2B services at 6.9% and B2C products at 9.6% (SBA, citing Web Strategies, 2019). The SBA’s actual advice is that B2C companies and new businesses should budget more.
Marketers expect 7.6% more spending next year after 1.7% last year
Overall marketing spending grew 1.74% over the prior 12 months, while digital marketing spending grew 8.20% (CMO Survey, 2026).
Marketing leaders expect overall spending to rise 7.61% in the next 12 months, led by digital marketing at 10.40% and brand building at 5.87% (CMO Survey, 2026). Customer relationship management (3.50%) and customer experience (3.03%) trail, and traditional advertising is expected to fall 1.50%.
When profits come in below expectations, 53.1% of companies prioritize cutting expenses over growing revenue, against 26.8% that prioritize growth (CMO Survey, 2026). When they do cut, executives choose marketing over other areas 45.4% of the time on average.
70.6% of marketers cope with the pressure by focusing on short-term impact over long-run gains, 47.1% return to established strategies and 25.5% limit the ambition of their goals (CMO Survey, 2026). 58.8% feel increasing pressure from the CEO to prove marketing’s value, and 55.5% from the CFO.
Where marketing budgets are moving
Social media takes 14.25% of the average marketing budget today, expected to reach 17.06% within a year and 23.06% within five years (CMO Survey, 2026). Platform numbers are in social media statistics.
66.1% of companies spend more on acquiring customers than on keeping them, and the average acquisition budget is 26% larger than the retention budget (CMO Survey, 2026). Only 17.9% spend more on retention. The case for the other side of that ledger is in customer retention statistics.
57.6% of companies have increased the number of marketing channels they use over the last three years, while 6.7% decreased them (CMO Survey, 2026). 47.9% are opening new digital channels, 30.3% new face-to-face channels and 23.6% are using more retail media.
15.3% of marketing budgets go to AI initiatives, but only 30% of CMOs report mature AI readiness (Gartner, 2026). How marketing teams are using it is covered in AI marketing statistics.
Marketing teams grew 2.49% over the past year on average, with a median of zero, and companies expect marketing hires to rise 2.64% next year (CMO Survey, 2026).
CMOs last 4.1 years, and most leave for something bigger
The average S&P 500 CMO has been in the role 4.1 years, against 5.0 years for the C-suite overall (Spencer Stuart, 2026). Only COOs are shorter, at 3.3 years.
62% of the 218 CMOs who left between 2021 and 2025 were promoted or took a similar or bigger job elsewhere (Spencer Stuart, 2026). 9% became CEO, 13% became a divisional CEO, president or COO, and 77% of those who left their company landed a new role within six months.
Consumer companies have the shortest CMO tenure, at 3.5 years, followed by healthcare at 3.9 (Spencer Stuart, 2026).
31% of S&P 500 companies have no enterprise CMO, in line with historical averages (Spencer Stuart, 2026). Only 53% of industrial companies and 56% of healthcare companies have one. 73% of sitting CMOs are in the role for the first time.
The “$36 for every $1” email return is a vendor survey figure
“Email delivers the highest ROI of any digital channel, $36 for every $1 spent” is how Litmus, which sells email testing software, puts it (Litmus, 2026). The page gives no source or method for the number. Litmus’s earlier published ROI estimates came from surveys of marketers rather than measured campaign revenue.
When Litmus published its 38-to-1 estimate in 2018, from nearly 400 marketers, 70% of brands admitted they couldn’t measure their email ROI well (Litmus, 2018). Brands that could measure it very well reported 46:1, against 33:1 for those that measured it adequately.
Litmus’s own research director called those returns “a sign of mismanagement”, arguing companies should invest enough to drive email ROI down “to somewhere closer to 20:1, if not lower” (Litmus, 2018). The point of the argument: a very high ratio is a sign a channel is underfunded, not a promise that more money would earn the same multiple.
Turning a flat budget into more customers
With budgets flat and 70.6% of marketers chasing short-term impact, the cheapest return is converting the leads the budget has already paid for. Carly works the inbound side: a new inquiry from a web form, an email or your CRM gets an immediate reply from your own inbox, a meeting booked on the right teammate’s calendar and follow-ups until the lead answers, all run as workflows instead of a task someone has to remember. Carly connects to thousands of apps, so it fits whatever forms and CRM a marketing team already runs. What each lead costs to buy is in advertising statistics, and why the first minutes matter is in speed to lead statistics.
FAQ
What percentage of revenue should a company spend on marketing? There is no official rule. Large companies average 7.8% of revenue in 2026 (Gartner, 2026), and a broader sample of US companies averages 9.0% with a median of 5% (The CMO Survey, 2026). B2C companies typically spend more than B2B: 9.6% to 11.8% against 6.3% to 6.9% in 2018 figures the SBA cites.
Does the SBA recommend spending 7 to 8% of revenue on marketing? Not in its own budget guidance, which says “there’s no hard and fast answer” and quotes averages from other sources, including 7.9% of revenue on marketing in 2018 (SBA, 2019). We could not find an SBA source for the 7 to 8% rule.
How long do CMOs stay in the job? 4.1 years on average at S&P 500 companies, against 5.0 years for the C-suite overall. 62% of departing CMOs move up or to a similar or bigger role (Spencer Stuart, 2026).
What is the ROI of email marketing? Litmus, an email software vendor, puts it at $36 for every $1 spent without citing a method (Litmus, 2026). Its 2018 survey of nearly 400 marketers found an average of 38:1, and 70% of brands said they couldn’t measure email ROI well (Litmus, 2018).
Related: AI Marketing Statistics · Advertising Statistics · Content Marketing Statistics · Social Media Statistics · SEO Statistics · Lead Generation Statistics · Influencer Marketing Statistics · B2B Marketing Statistics · Account-Based Marketing Statistics
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