{"id":2025,"slug":"industry-vertical-marketing-spend-spread","title":"Vertical variation in marketing % — ~3% (energy) to ~18-25% (CPG)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["marketing-spend-benchmarks"],"reference_body":"**Claim:** Industry / vertical variation is enormous: ~**3%** (energy/transportation) to ~**18-25%** (consumer packaged goods). B2C product ~15.5%; B2B services ~9%; B2B product ~6.4% (CMO Survey).\n\n**Source:** Duke CMO Survey + multiple cross-industry compilations.\n\n**Confidence:** Verified.\n\n**Why this matters for Candid:** The widget MUST adjust spend tiers by vertical — a generic \"spend 7.7% of revenue\" output would mislead a B2B firm (target ~6%) just as badly as a CPG firm (target ~15%). Cross-link to vertical brief [[research-brief-smb-widget-vertical-difficulty-june-2026]].","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-smb-widget-spend-benchmarks-june-2026","title":"Research brief: SMB widget spend benchmarks — feasibility of a \"digital-minus-ads\" % of revenue (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-23T19:16:01.906Z","updated_at":"2026-06-23T19:16:01.906Z"}