{"id":1056,"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","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["psychology-aversion","marketing-budgets"],"reference_body":"**Claim:** Gartner's May 13, 2024 press release (395 CMOs surveyed Feb–Mar 2024; median respondent revenue >$5.3B) reports marketing budgets averaged **7.7% of revenue, down from 9.1% in 2023**. Ewan McIntyre, VP Analyst and Chief of Research at the Gartner Marketing Practice: *\"CMOs are living in an 'era of less' [...]. In the four years preceding the pandemic, average marketing budgets were 11% of overall revenue.\"*\n\nGartner's May 12, 2025 update (402 CMOs) found the figure **flat at 7.7%**, with **59% of CMOs reporting insufficient budget to execute 2025 strategy** (down 5pp from 2024). McIntyre: *\"While marketing budgets have stabilized, marketing spending has stalled at a level that falls short for many CMOs.\"*\n\n**Sources:**\n- Gartner press release, May 13, 2024: <https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-05-13>\n- Gartner press release, May 12, 2025.\n\n**Confidence:** Verified.\n\n**For Candid:** The cross-industry CMO benchmark is **7.7%**, residential builders sit at **0.8–3.2%** ([[nahb-cost-of-constructing-2024-marketing-0-8pct]], [[buildern-2026-1-8-to-3-2pct-residential-builder-spend]]). The construction-industry undershoot is **3–10×**, depending on which builder figure you use. Candid cannot pitch the GC on \"catching up\" to the cross-industry norm; that pitch fails the [[nahb-remodelers-cdb-2024-6-3pct-net-margin]] take-home test in five seconds. Honest framing is in [[marketing-budget-benchmarks-cross-industry-vs-construction-table]].","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"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"nahb-cost-of-constructing-2024-marketing-0-8pct","title":"NAHB Cost of Constructing a Home 2024 — marketing = 0.8% of average new home sale price; builder profit 11.0%","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"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","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-05-24T23:24:06.295Z","updated_at":"2026-05-24T23:24:06.295Z"}