Nearly two-thirds of CMOs face budget barriers in 2023, report says

CMOs are still feeling the squeeze on their budgets, according to Gartner’s latest CMO Spend Survey.

The majority of CMOs surveyed said that they lack the budget (71%) or resources (74%) to execute their strategy for the year, according to Gartner’s survey, which polled more than 400 CMOs in North America and Europe in March and April. Marketing budgets fell slightly from last year, from 9.5% to 9.1% of total company revenue, according to the report.

As CMOs report budget struggles, three-quarters said they’re also feeling pressure to “do more with less” this year, and 86% said that “significant changes” have to be made within their marketing organizations “to achieve sustainable results.”

Social > SMS: Of the budgets CMOs do have to work with this year, the largest percentage (25.6%) is being allocated toward paid media, followed by marketing tech, labor, and agencies—very similar to the breakdown last year.

• Social advertising accounts for the largest share of paid media budgets, beating out digital video and digital display advertising.
• Among CMOs who said they made changes in their digital investment channels this year, the largest share (53%) said they increased spending on social, while 14% said they pulled back on the category.
• The smallest share of CMOs, in contrast, said they were upping their spend on SMS and push notifications: 33% said they increased spend, while 16% said they decreased investment.

Tech turbulence: Three in four CMOs said they were “facing pressure” to spend less on martech this year. With that said, 63% said they’re increasing their investments in martech, compared to 23% who said they’re pulling back.

• Across major resources, “people costs,” aka labor, saw the biggest pullback, with 35% of CMOs saying they’re decreasing investments in the category, and 51% saying they’re increasing spend.—AM