{"id":1055,"slug":"buildern-2026-1-8-to-3-2pct-residential-builder-spend","title":"Buildern Residential Construction Marketing Report 2026 — residential builder marketing spend is 1.8–3.2% of revenue","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["gc-vertical","psychology-aversion","marketing-budgets","builder-economics"],"reference_body":"**Claim:** Buildern's 2026 *Residential Construction Marketing Report* puts residential builder marketing spend at **1.8%–3.2% of revenue**.\n\n**Source:** Buildern, *Residential Construction Marketing Report 2026*.\n\n**Confidence:** Industry-consensus / Directional (vendor-produced, but consistent with NAHB's 0.8%-of-sale-price figure — see [[nahb-cost-of-constructing-2024-marketing-0-8pct]]).\n\n**For Candid — the load-bearing inference:** A structurally low number that suggests **most GCs have not invested enough to be \"burned\" in any deep sense**. The aversion exists at the **category level**, before specific vendor experiences accumulate. This directly contradicts the dominant \"agency-burned\" narrative pushed by trade-press marketing blogs and reframes the problem for Candid: the obstacle is not bad prior vendors, it is pre-engagement category resistance. Used in the master brief's TL;DR.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"research-brief-psychology-gc-marketing-aversion-may-2026","title":"Research brief: the psychology of marketing aversion among general contractor owners (May 2026 foundation)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"gartner-cmo-spend-2024-2025-7-7pct","title":"Gartner CMO Spend Survey 2024 & 2025 — marketing budgets averaged 7.7% of revenue (down from 11% pre-pandemic); 59% of CMOs report insufficient budget in 2025","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}],"incoming":[]},"created_at":"2026-05-24T23:24:06.291Z","updated_at":"2026-05-24T23:24:06.291Z"}