# SEO budget: Marketing Budget Share Benchmark

> 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.

Cost SEO · https://costseo.co.uk/datasets/marketing-budget-share-benchmark/ · computed 2026-11-05

**Range by survey:** 26.1 to 90.5 % (range 26.1 to 90.5 %; 3 published figures; 3 of 12 sources read publish one).

3 of the 12 named sources read in full publish a figure; 9 publish none, read 29 October 2026.

## By survey and time

| Breakdown | Median | Range | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| survey UENI | 39.4 % | 39.4 to 39.4 % | 1 |
| time 2024 | 7.7 % | 7.7 to 7.7 % | 1 |
| time 2026 | 7.8 % | 7.8 to 7.8 % | 1 |

## Every figure, with its source

One row per source: the figure the source's own page publishes, the page, and the day it was read.

| Source | Figure | Breakdown | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| [UENI - Small Business Marketing Budget 2026](https://ueni.com/blog/small-business-marketing-budget/) | 90.5 % | UENI | 2026-10-29 |
| [UENI - Small Business Marketing Budget 2026](https://ueni.com/blog/small-business-marketing-budget/) | 39.4 % | UENI | 2026-10-29 |
| [UENI - Small Business Marketing Budget 2026](https://ueni.com/blog/small-business-marketing-budget/) | 26.1 % | UENI | 2026-10-29 |
| [Gartner - CMO Spend 2026 (research summary)](https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/cmo-spend) | 7.8 % | 2026 | 2026-10-29 |
| [Gartner - 2024 CMO Spend Survey (press release)](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) | 7.7 % | 2024 | 2026-10-29 |

## The sentence each figure was read from (5)

- [UENI - Small Business Marketing Budget 2026](https://ueni.com/blog/small-business-marketing-budget/), read 2026-10-29: "Nine in ten, 90.5%, plan to spend under $200 a month."
- [UENI - Small Business Marketing Budget 2026](https://ueni.com/blog/small-business-marketing-budget/), read 2026-10-29: "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%."
- [UENI - Small Business Marketing Budget 2026](https://ueni.com/blog/small-business-marketing-budget/), read 2026-10-29: "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."
- [Gartner - CMO Spend 2026 (research summary)](https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/cmo-spend), read 2026-10-29: "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."
- [Gartner - 2024 CMO Spend Survey (press release)](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), read 2026-10-29: "Average marketing budgets have fallen to 7.7% of overall company revenue, down from 9.1% in 2023, according to a Gartner, Inc."

## Read in full, publishes no figure

- [Gartner - 2025 CMO Spend Survey (press release)](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), read 2026-10-29: every candidate on the page was refused
- [Gartner - 2026 CMO Spend Survey (press release)](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), read 2026-10-29: every candidate on the page was refused
- [The CMO Survey - 2026 Highlights and Insights Report (PDF)](https://cmosurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/The_CMO_Survey-Highlights_and_Insights_Report-2026.pdf), read 2026-09-29: every candidate on the page was refused
- [The CMO Survey - 2026 Topline Report (PDF)](https://cmosurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/The_CMO_Survey-Topline_Report-2026.pdf), read 2026-09-29: every candidate on the page was refused
- [IPA - Bellwether Report Q2 2026 (UK)](https://ipa.co.uk/news/bellwether-report-q2-2026), read 2026-10-29: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- [S&P Global - IPA Bellwether Report 2026 Q2 (release PDF)](https://www.pmi.spglobal.com/Public/Home/PressRelease/08eadc9286e746898e6d9466c86ff542), read 2026-09-29: every candidate on the page was refused
- [Clutch - small business marketing spend survey (2017 release)](https://clutch.co/press-releases/small-businesses-increase-marketing-spend-2017), read 2026-10-29: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- [Clutch - digital marketing spend survey (2018 release)](https://clutch.co/press-releases/digital-marketing-spend-10000-or-less-nearly-half-small-businesses), read 2026-10-29: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- [Clutch - Marketing Budget Planning in 2026](https://clutch.co/resources/marketing-budget-planning-2026), read 2026-10-29: read in full and no accepted figure on the page

## 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

## Sources

- [Gartner - 2025 CMO Spend Survey (press release)](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) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Gartner - 2024 CMO Spend Survey (press release)](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) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Gartner - 2026 CMO Spend Survey (press release)](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) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Gartner - CMO Spend 2026 (research summary)](https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/cmo-spend) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [The CMO Survey - 2026 Highlights and Insights Report (PDF)](https://cmosurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/The_CMO_Survey-Highlights_and_Insights_Report-2026.pdf) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [The CMO Survey - 2026 Topline Report (PDF)](https://cmosurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/The_CMO_Survey-Topline_Report-2026.pdf) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [IPA - Bellwether Report Q2 2026 (UK)](https://ipa.co.uk/news/bellwether-report-q2-2026) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [S&P Global - IPA Bellwether Report 2026 Q2 (release PDF)](https://www.pmi.spglobal.com/Public/Home/PressRelease/08eadc9286e746898e6d9466c86ff542) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Clutch - small business marketing spend survey (2017 release)](https://clutch.co/press-releases/small-businesses-increase-marketing-spend-2017) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Clutch - digital marketing spend survey (2018 release)](https://clutch.co/press-releases/digital-marketing-spend-10000-or-less-nearly-half-small-businesses) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Clutch - Marketing Budget Planning in 2026](https://clutch.co/resources/marketing-budget-planning-2026) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [UENI - Small Business Marketing Budget 2026](https://ueni.com/blog/small-business-marketing-budget/) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [gartner.com](https://www.gartner.com/en/marketing/research/annual-cmo-spend-data-snapshots) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)

## Cite or embed

- 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.

Cite as: "costseo.co.uk Marketing Budget Share Benchmark", updated 2026-11-05, https://costseo.co.uk/datasets/marketing-budget-share-benchmark/.

CSV: https://costseo.co.uk/datasets/marketing-budget-share-benchmark.csv
JSON: https://costseo.co.uk/datasets/marketing-budget-share-benchmark.json
Embed (plain HTML, static link back): see https://costseo.co.uk/datasets/marketing-budget-share-benchmark/#median