CMOs brace for cuts as marketing budgets stay flat

Marketing budgets flat-lined at 7.7% of revenue this year, according to The Gartner 2025 CMO Spend Survey released today. That is grim news in the face of a possible recession and the budget cuts that come with it. 

“While marketing budgets have stabilized, marketing spending has stalled at a level that falls short for many CMOs,” Ewan McIntyre, VP analyst and chief of research in Gartner Marketing Practice, said in a statement. “Given the looming macroeconomic uncertainties, CMOs are now confronting the prospect of in-year budget cuts.”

CMOs were already feeling the budget pinch with 59% saying they didn’t have the budget to execute this year’s strategies. There is some good news: That’s a five-percentage-point decrease from 2024. 

With no more money in the pipeline, CMOs are doing all they can to boost productivity and “squeeze more from static budgets.” That means a greater emphasis on technology, particularly AI, for everything from optimizing campaign performance to automating tasks.

Fortunately, marketing is one of the leading business functions when it comes to getting ROI from genAI. CMOs said the technology improved efficiency regarding time (49%) and costs (40%) and increased capacity to produce more content and/or handle more business (27%). 

Furthermore, 22% said the technology is reducing the use of outside agencies for creativity and strategy building. Thirty-nine percent say they plan to cut back on agency spending by eliminating unproductive agency relationships, streamlining agency rosters and renegotiating agency contracts and scopes of work.

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Of course, productivity gains make it easier to save money by using fewer employees, something 39% of those surveyed said they are planning to do.

Paid media continues to dominate marketing spend, accounting for 30.6% of marketing budgets or 2.4% of company revenue. However, media price inflation means CMOs are getting less bang per buck.

Methodology

The survey was conducted in February and March 2025 among 402 CMOs and other marketing leaders, primarily from companies with over $1 billion in annual revenue.