{ "name": "costseo.co.uk Marketing Budget Share Benchmark", "title": "Marketing Budget Share Benchmark", "url": "https://costseo.co.uk/datasets/marketing-budget-share-benchmark/", "csv": "https://costseo.co.uk/datasets/marketing-budget-share-benchmark.csv", "markdown": "https://costseo.co.uk/datasets/marketing-budget-share-benchmark/index.md", "computed_at": "2026-11-05", "license": "https://costseo.co.uk/terms", "headline": "The Marketing Budget Share Benchmark carries 5 published figures read from 3 sources' own pages; the 3 published figures given by survey run from 26.10 to 90.50 percent, read 29 October 2026.", "quotes": [ "The Marketing Budget Share Benchmark carries 5 published figures read from 3 sources' own pages; the 3 published figures given by survey run from 26.10 to 90.50 percent, read 29 October 2026.", "3 of the 12 named sources read in full publish a figure; 9 publish none, read 29 October 2026.", "Marketing Budget Share Benchmark, survey UENI: median 39.40 percent across 1 source, read 29 October 2026.", "Marketing Budget Share Benchmark, time 2026: median 7.80 percent across 1 source, read 29 October 2026.", "Marketing Budget Share Benchmark, time 2024: median 7.70 percent across 1 source, read 29 October 2026." ], "citation": "\"costseo.co.uk Marketing Budget Share Benchmark\", updated 2026-11-05, https://costseo.co.uk/datasets/marketing-budget-share-benchmark/.", "changed_since": null, "national": { "unit": "%", "n": 3, "median": 7.8, "min": 7.7, "max": 39.4, "p25": 7.7, "p75": 39.4, "mean": 18.3, "units": { "%": 3 }, "published_sources": 3, "named_sources": 13, "read_sources": 12, "not_published": 9, "published_share": 0.25 }, "by_axis": { "survey": { "UENI": { "%": { "n": 1, "median": 39.4, "min": 39.4, "max": 39.4, "p25": 39.4, "p75": 39.4, "mean": 39.4 } } }, "time": { "2024": { "%": { "n": 1, "median": 7.7, "min": 7.7, "max": 7.7, "p25": 7.7, "p75": 7.7, "mean": 7.7 } }, "2026": { "%": { "n": 1, "median": 7.8, "min": 7.8, "max": 7.8, "p25": 7.8, "p75": 7.8, "mean": 7.8 } } } }, "rows": [ { "source": "UENI - Small Business Marketing Budget 2026", "url": "https://ueni.com/blog/small-business-marketing-budget/", "figure": "39.4%", "value": 39.4, "unit": "%", "vat": null, "axis": { "survey": "UENI" }, "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29", "quote": "What is the average small business marketing budget? Among 7,413 businesses answering at signup in UENI’s data (counted 10 August 2026), the most common small business marketing budget is $1 to $50 a month, chosen by 39.4%.", "source_class": "first-party-index", "text_sha256": "d46f55da252e6681c1eefb6dc51adbaa51cb1dc7fd5aedfb06f70b7f76973cfc" }, { "source": "UENI - Small Business Marketing Budget 2026", "url": "https://ueni.com/blog/small-business-marketing-budget/", "figure": "26.1%", "value": 26.1, "unit": "%", "vat": null, "axis": { "survey": "UENI" }, "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29", "quote": "A further 26.1% plan to spend nothing, 24.9% plan $51 to $200, 5.7% plan $201 to $500 and 3.8% plan $500 or more.", "source_class": "first-party-index", "text_sha256": "d46f55da252e6681c1eefb6dc51adbaa51cb1dc7fd5aedfb06f70b7f76973cfc" }, { "source": "UENI - Small Business Marketing Budget 2026", "url": "https://ueni.com/blog/small-business-marketing-budget/", "figure": "90.5%", "value": 90.5, "unit": "%", "vat": null, "axis": { "survey": "UENI" }, "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29", "quote": "Nine in ten, 90.5%, plan to spend under $200 a month.", "source_class": "first-party-index", "text_sha256": "d46f55da252e6681c1eefb6dc51adbaa51cb1dc7fd5aedfb06f70b7f76973cfc" }, { "source": "Gartner - CMO Spend 2026 (research summary)", "url": "https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/cmo-spend", "figure": "7.8%", "value": 7.8, "unit": "%", "vat": null, "axis": { "time": "2026" }, "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29", "quote": "Marketing budgets have been on a plateau since 2022, with today’s average budget at just 7.8% of company revenue — which is 18% lower than the mean budget allocation just four years ago.", "source_class": "first-party-index", "text_sha256": "8f82759b69a0a8da2671053fca55717ab03134c9876c4a83b2be71c9d9fbca6c" }, { "source": "Gartner - 2024 CMO Spend Survey (press release)", "url": "https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-05-13-gartner-cmo-survey-reveals-marketing-budgets-have-dropped-to-seven-point-seven-percent-of-overall-company-revenue-in-2024", "figure": "7.7%", "value": 7.7, "unit": "%", "vat": null, "axis": { "time": "2024" }, "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29", "quote": "Average marketing budgets have fallen to 7.7% of overall company revenue, down from 9.1% in 2023, according to a Gartner, Inc.", "source_class": "first-party-index", "text_sha256": "f54ef90426f5bbdf3942911f50c29fe085b2fbc2856345dd42f62249d837893c" } ], "not_published": [ { "source": "Gartner - 2025 CMO Spend Survey (press release)", "url": "https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-05-12-gartner-2025-cmo-spend-survey-reveals-marketing-budgets-have-flatlined-at-seven-percent-of-overall-company-revenue", "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29", "reason": "every candidate on the page was refused" }, { "source": "Gartner - 2026 CMO Spend Survey (press release)", "url": "https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2026-05-11-gartner-2026-cmo-spend-survey-finds-cmos-allocate-15-point-3-percent-of-marketing-budgets-to-ai-but-only-30-percent-are-ready-to-scale-ai-capabilities", "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29", "reason": "every candidate on the page was refused" }, { "source": "The CMO Survey - 2026 Highlights and Insights Report (PDF)", "url": "https://cmosurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/The_CMO_Survey-Highlights_and_Insights_Report-2026.pdf", "retrieved_at": "2026-09-29", "reason": "every candidate on the page was refused" }, { "source": "The CMO Survey - 2026 Topline Report (PDF)", "url": "https://cmosurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/The_CMO_Survey-Topline_Report-2026.pdf", "retrieved_at": "2026-09-29", "reason": "every candidate on the page was refused" }, { "source": "IPA - Bellwether Report Q2 2026 (UK)", "url": "https://ipa.co.uk/news/bellwether-report-q2-2026", "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29", "reason": "read in full and no accepted figure on the page" }, { "source": "S&P Global - IPA Bellwether Report 2026 Q2 (release PDF)", "url": "https://www.pmi.spglobal.com/Public/Home/PressRelease/08eadc9286e746898e6d9466c86ff542", "retrieved_at": "2026-09-29", "reason": "every candidate on the page was refused" }, { "source": "Clutch - small business marketing spend survey (2017 release)", "url": "https://clutch.co/press-releases/small-businesses-increase-marketing-spend-2017", "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29", "reason": "read in full and no accepted figure on the page" }, { "source": "Clutch - digital marketing spend survey (2018 release)", "url": "https://clutch.co/press-releases/digital-marketing-spend-10000-or-less-nearly-half-small-businesses", "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29", "reason": "read in full and no accepted figure on the page" }, { "source": "Clutch - Marketing Budget Planning in 2026", "url": "https://clutch.co/resources/marketing-budget-planning-2026", "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29", "reason": "read in full and no accepted figure on the page" } ], "sources": [ { "url": "https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-05-12-gartner-2025-cmo-spend-survey-reveals-marketing-budgets-have-flatlined-at-seven-percent-of-overall-company-revenue", "label": "Gartner - 2025 CMO Spend Survey (press release)", "license": "the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment" }, { "url": "https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-05-13-gartner-cmo-survey-reveals-marketing-budgets-have-dropped-to-seven-point-seven-percent-of-overall-company-revenue-in-2024", "label": "Gartner - 2024 CMO Spend Survey (press release)", "license": "the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment" }, { "url": "https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2026-05-11-gartner-2026-cmo-spend-survey-finds-cmos-allocate-15-point-3-percent-of-marketing-budgets-to-ai-but-only-30-percent-are-ready-to-scale-ai-capabilities", "label": "Gartner - 2026 CMO Spend Survey (press release)", "license": "the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment" }, { "url": "https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/cmo-spend", "label": "Gartner - CMO Spend 2026 (research summary)", "license": "the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment" }, { "url": "https://cmosurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/The_CMO_Survey-Highlights_and_Insights_Report-2026.pdf", "label": "The CMO Survey - 2026 Highlights and Insights Report (PDF)", "license": "the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment" }, { "url": "https://cmosurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/The_CMO_Survey-Topline_Report-2026.pdf", "label": "The CMO Survey - 2026 Topline Report (PDF)", "license": "the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment" }, { "url": "https://ipa.co.uk/news/bellwether-report-q2-2026", "label": "IPA - Bellwether Report Q2 2026 (UK)", "license": "the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment" }, { "url": "https://www.pmi.spglobal.com/Public/Home/PressRelease/08eadc9286e746898e6d9466c86ff542", "label": "S&P Global - IPA Bellwether Report 2026 Q2 (release PDF)", "license": "the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment" }, { "url": "https://clutch.co/press-releases/small-businesses-increase-marketing-spend-2017", "label": "Clutch - small business marketing spend survey (2017 release)", "license": "the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment" }, { "url": "https://clutch.co/press-releases/digital-marketing-spend-10000-or-less-nearly-half-small-businesses", "label": "Clutch - digital marketing spend survey (2018 release)", "license": "the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment" }, { "url": "https://clutch.co/resources/marketing-budget-planning-2026", "label": "Clutch - Marketing Budget Planning in 2026", "license": "the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment" }, { "url": "https://ueni.com/blog/small-business-marketing-budget/", "label": "UENI - Small Business Marketing Budget 2026", "license": "the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment" }, { "url": "https://www.gartner.com/en/marketing/research/annual-cmo-spend-data-snapshots", "label": "gartner.com", "license": "the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment" } ], "methodology": "Every row is a verbatim sentence read from the named source's own page through our fetch service on the date shown, hash-pinned to the stored read (the sha of the page's visible text; the raw page is mirrored to R2). 3 of the 12 named sources that could be read published a usable figure; 9 published none and are recorded as not published, never filled in; 1 could not be read (blocked, dead or unreachable) and count nowhere. The headline figures (median, minimum, maximum, quartiles) are over ONE figure per source in % (a source's median where its page yielded several accepted sentences), so N counts sources, never sentences; 53 candidate sentence(s) were refused by a reviewer with the reason recorded. The fuller derivation this dataset is chartered to grow into (not yet what the figures above are; they are each source's own published figure as read): every published reading of marketing spend laid side by side with its publisher, date, method, sample and population, which no single survey does: Gartner's CMO Spend Survey as a mean share of company revenue among large enterprises (9.1% in 2023, 7.7% in 2024, 7.7% in 2025, 7.8% in 2026), The CMO Survey across firm sizes (9.0% of revenues and 9.6% of company budgets in 2026), the IPA Bellwether's quarterly UK net balance of budget revisions (+6.9% in Q2 2026 after +7.3% in Q1), Clutch's small-business surveys in pounds-and-dollars bands (41% spent under $10,000 on marketing in 2016; 47% under $10,000 on digital in 2017; 60% planning an increase for 2026 and 45% of marketers planning to invest in content marketing and SEO) and UENI's census of 7,413 new small businesses' planned monthly spend (26.1% planning nothing); the spread between the enterprise percentage and the small-business amount, the newest reading of each series, the change between editions, and the share each survey says goes to SEO, set beside this site's own retainer index so a reader can see how many months of a published SEO retainer a given marketing budget buys. The 7.7% figure publishers quote is a large-enterprise mean (the vast majority of Gartner's respondents report revenue over $1 billion); this dataset is what puts it next to the small-business readings it is usually applied to", "embed": "

26.10 to 90.50 percent

3 of 5 published figures (survey), Marketing Budget Share Benchmark, across 3 sources, read 29 October 2026

Source: costseo.co.uk Marketing Budget Share Benchmark
" }