Most established businesses should spend between 7% and 9% of revenue on marketing in 2026. The average marketing budget sits at 7.8% of company revenue according to Gartner's 2026 CMO Spend Survey, while The CMO Survey (Deloitte/Duke/AMA) puts it at 9.0%. Smaller and growth-stage businesses typically need to invest a higher percentage than large, established firms, and the right figure for your business depends on your industry, size and growth ambition — all covered below.
Key Takeaway
The two big benchmark surveys disagree for a good reason: Gartner (7.8%) mostly surveys large enterprises, while The CMO Survey (9.0%) covers a broader mix of company sizes. Treat 7–9% as the reference range for an established business — then adjust up for growth ambition and competitive intensity, or down for mature, low-marketing-intensity sectors.
What is the average marketing budget in 2026?
Two long-running surveys anchor the answer, and it pays to understand both.
7.8%
Of company revenue
Gartner 2026 CMO Spend Survey (n=401)
9.0%
Of company revenue
The CMO Survey, Spring 2026 (35th edition)
+6.9%
UK net budget revisions
IPA Bellwether, Q2 2026 — second-highest in two years
£50bn+
UK ad spend forecast 2026
AA/WARC, January 2026 — up 7.5% year on year
Sources: Gartner 2026 CMO Spend Survey (fielded January–March 2026), The CMO Survey Spring 2026, IPA Bellwether Q2 2026, AA/WARC Expenditure Report January 2026
Gartner's 2026 CMO Spend Survey of 401 marketing leaders across North America and Europe found the average marketing budget at 7.8% of company revenue — up marginally from 7.7% in 2025 and effectively flat for three years. The CMO Survey's Spring 2026 edition reports 9.0% of revenues (and 9.6% of overall company budgets), its lowest level in several years, with total marketing spending growing just 1.7% over the prior twelve months — the smallest increase since 2021.
The gap between the two isn't an error. Gartner's sample skews towards enterprises with revenue above $1 billion; The CMO Survey covers a broader mix of sizes and industries, including more mid-sized, growth-oriented firms that naturally spend a higher share of revenue. Read them together and the honest answer for an established business is a 7–9% reference range, not a single magic number.
Why budgets are lower than they used to be
Today's averages sit well below historical norms. Gartner's own data show marketing budgets averaged 11.2% of revenue in the five years before the pandemic, collapsed to 6.4% in 2021, partially recovered to 9.5% in 2022 and 9.1% in 2023, then settled at 7.7–7.8% from 2024 onwards — an average of just 8.1% across the five post-pandemic years. Gartner calls this the "era of less", and the mean only tells part of the story: half of CMOs report budgets of 6% of revenue or less. If your budget feels tight, you are in the majority — the question is whether the businesses outspending you are buying growth you're conceding.
Average marketing budget by industry
Industry is the single biggest driver of how much companies spend. Consumer-facing categories spend multiples of what industrial sectors do:
| Industry | Typical spend (% of revenue) | Marketing intensity |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer packaged goods | ~18% | Very high |
| Communications & media | ~18% | Very high |
| Technology & software | 11–15% | High |
| Healthcare & pharma | 6–14% | Varies widely |
| Home services | 8–12% (12–15% in competitive areas) | High |
| Financial services | 7–10% | Medium |
| Manufacturing & industrial | 5–7.5% | Lower |
| Energy | ~3.2% | Low |
Source: industry analyses of Gartner CMO Spend Survey and The CMO Survey data, 2025. Figures are indicative global ranges, not UK-specific.
The pattern behind the numbers: B2C product companies spend roughly two and a half times what B2B product companies do as a percentage of revenue, because consumer demand is created through visibility while industrial demand runs on relationships and longer sales cycles. If you're a B2B company benchmarking in detail, our companion guide to B2B marketing budget benchmarks covers sector splits, allocation models and B2B-specific spend data in depth.
How much should a small business spend on marketing?
Size changes the maths. The US Small Business Administration's long-standing guidance is that small businesses (under $5 million revenue) should allocate 7–8% of revenue to marketing as a baseline. The CMO Survey's firm-size breakouts consistently show that smaller, higher-online-sales and B2C companies carry the largest marketing budgets as a percentage of revenue, while the largest enterprises can sustain the smallest percentages because established brand equity does part of the work for them.
Stage matters as much as size. A business in aggressive growth mode — launching, entering a new market, or fighting for share against bigger names — will typically need double-digit percentages for a period, while a stable business defending an established position can operate nearer the bottom of its industry range. The practical rule: new and growing businesses budget above their industry average; mature ones can budget at or slightly below it.
The Trap of Budgeting to the Average
Common mistake: a £2m business copies the 7.8% enterprise benchmark, spends £156k, and wonders why it can't build awareness against competitors with decades of brand equity.
The reality: the headline averages are weighted towards billion-dollar firms. A small business matching an enterprise percentage is usually underinvesting relative to its own size band — the percentage needs to buy visibility the brand hasn't yet earned.
What UK businesses are actually doing in 2026
UK-specific data says confidence is returning. The IPA Bellwether Report — the quarterly survey of UK marketing budget revisions — recorded a net balance of +7.3% of companies revising total marketing budgets upwards in Q1 2026 (the highest in nearly two years) and +6.9% in Q2 2026. Events led both quarters (+14.7%, then +11.0%), and main media advertising saw its strongest upward revision since Q3 2023 (+4.5% in Q1). That follows a flat Q4 2025 (net balance 0.0%), so the direction of travel through 2026 is clearly up.
At the macro level, AA/WARC estimates UK advertising spend grew 10.1% to £46.9 billion in 2025 and forecasts a further 7.5% rise in 2026 — past £50 billion for the first time. Search and online display already account for 83% of UK ad spend, and digital's total share is forecast to approach 89% in 2026. Whatever budget you set, the practical reality is that most of it will compete in digital channels — which is why channel-level decisions like PPC versus SEO matter as much as the headline number.
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View Services & PricingHow to set your marketing budget: three methods
Revenue-percentage method
Pick a percentage of current or forecast revenue, guided by the benchmarks above. Simple to agree with finance and it scales with the business. Weakness: it anchors to history and ignores what your goals actually cost. Best used as the starting point, never the cap.
Objective-and-task method
Define the marketing objectives first — awareness targets, lead volumes, launch goals — then cost the tasks needed to hit them and sum it. This is the method to use for launches, new markets and AI adoption projects, where a flat percentage would underfund the plan. It pairs naturally with a written marketing plan.
Competitive-parity method
Benchmark against what competitors appear to spend, aiming for a share of voice that supports your share-of-market ambition. Competitor budgets are opaque, but visibility in paid search, social feeds and share-of-search are workable proxies. Use it as the sense-check: if your planned budget can't buy comparable visibility, either raise it or narrow your focus.
In practice the strongest budgets combine all three: set the baseline percentage from your size and industry, stress-test it against the cost of your actual objectives, then sanity-check share of voice in the channels — like content marketing and search — where your buyers spend their time. And build the measurement in from the start: a budget you can't attribute is a budget you can't defend, so decide how you'll measure ROI before the money moves.
How AI is changing marketing budgets in 2026
The most significant structural change in 2026 budgets is that AI has become a line item. Gartner's 2026 CMO Spend Survey found CMOs allocating 15.3% of marketing budgets to AI initiatives — yet only 30% of marketing organisations say they're ready to scale AI capabilities. The productivity dividend is real but unevenly claimed: budgets overall stayed flat at 7.8% of revenue, which means AI spend is being funded by reallocation — chiefly from agency fees and labour — rather than by budget growth.
For smaller businesses the takeaway is practical rather than dramatic. AI tools now handle a meaningful share of production work — content adaptation, reporting, campaign housekeeping — which shifts where the money goes: less on volume production, more on strategy, distinctive creative and the channels that compound. Plan an AI tools allocation (Gartner's average suggests low-to-mid teens as the emerging norm for larger firms), but fund it by re-weighting the budget, not by inflating it.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of revenue should I spend on marketing?
Most established businesses should budget 7–9% of revenue, based on Gartner's 2026 figure of 7.8% and The CMO Survey's 9.0%. Small and growth-stage businesses typically need more — often double-digit percentages — while large enterprises with strong brand equity can sustain less.
What is the average marketing budget by industry?
Consumer packaged goods and media companies average around 18% of revenue, technology 11–15%, financial services 7–10%, manufacturing 5–7.5% and energy roughly 3%. Consumer-facing sectors consistently outspend industrial ones because demand there is created through visibility.
What percentage of sales should go to advertising?
Paid media typically absorbs 30–40% of the total marketing budget, so a business spending 8% of revenue on marketing would put roughly 2.5–3% of revenue into advertising. In the UK, over four-fifths of that advertising money now flows to digital channels — primarily search and online display.
How much do UK businesses spend on marketing in 2026?
UK advertising spend is forecast to exceed £50 billion in 2026, up 7.5% year on year (AA/WARC). The IPA Bellwether shows more UK companies raising marketing budgets than cutting them in both Q1 and Q2 2026 — net balances of +7.3% and +6.9% respectively.
Should my marketing budget include AI tools?
Yes — treat AI as a planned line item rather than an ad-hoc expense. Gartner's 2026 CMO Spend Survey shows CMOs allocating an average of 15.3% of marketing budgets to AI. Most firms fund this by reallocating from agency and production costs rather than increasing the total budget.
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Sources: Gartner 2026 CMO Spend Survey (May 2026); Gartner Marketing Symposium keynote data (May 2025); The CMO Survey, Spring 2026 (35th edition, Deloitte/Duke/AMA); IPA Bellwether Reports Q4 2025–Q2 2026; AA/WARC Expenditure Report (January 2026); US Small Business Administration guidance.
Clwyd Probert
CEO, Whitehat SEO
Clwyd is the founder and CEO of Whitehat, a London-based B2B agency and HubSpot Diamond Partner. He advises UK companies on marketing strategy, budgeting and AI-era search visibility, and has helped hundreds of businesses build marketing plans that stand up to CFO scrutiny.