Marketing budgets have flatlined at 7.7% of overall company revenue, according to Gartner's 2025 CMO Spend Survey, published via Business Wire. The figure extends a years-long plateau that has kept marketing's claim on corporate resources well below the highs recorded earlier in the decade.

For chief marketing officers, the number is the clearest signal yet that the era of post-pandemic budget expansion is over. Marketing now competes for a fixed slice of company revenue, and CMOs must fund innovation, technology and brand investment from within that static envelope.

What does the 7.7% figure mean for marketing leaders?

The headline finding matters because budget share, not absolute spend, is the metric boards watch. A flat percentage means marketing spend grows only as fast as the business itself. Any new obligation — AI tooling, data infrastructure, retail media — must displace something already inside the budget.

The survey, an annual benchmark that Gartner has run since 2020, tracks how marketing leaders across industries allocate resources. Its year-over-year comparisons have become a standard reference point for CMOs defending budgets in board discussions.

Why did budgets stop growing?

The plateau reflects sustained pressure from two directions. Finance teams have tightened discretionary spending amid economic uncertainty. At the same time, the cost of marketing operations — technology subscriptions, data compliance, talent — keeps rising.

The result is a structural squeeze. CMOs hold a roughly static share of revenue while the list of mandatory costs inside that share expands each year.

How should CMOs respond?

The survey's implication for marketing leadership is straightforward: growth in marketing impact must come from reallocation, not expansion. That puts a premium on:

• Rigorous measurement of channel-level returns
• Consolidation of overlapping martech tools
• Clear prioritization between brand investment and performance spend
• Demonstrating revenue contribution in finance-ready terms

What happens next?

Gartner releases the full CMO Spend Survey each year, with detailed breakdowns by industry, channel and company size. Marketing leaders should expect the 7.7% benchmark to anchor budget negotiations through the 2026 planning cycle.

For an industry that spent the last decade arguing for a bigger seat at the table, the flatline is a reality check. The question for 2026 is no longer whether marketing budgets will grow, but what CMOs cut to fund what comes next.