Gartner — budget-conscious vs big-spender divide; low-budget CMOs pour into search/performance

Claim: Gartner identifies a "budget-conscious vs. big spender" divide:

• Low-budget CMOs (≤4% of revenue): pour digital spend into search/performance and UNDERINVEST in data, brand, and transformation.
• Big spenders (>10.5%): diversify.

Source: Gartner 2025 CMO Spend Survey commentary.

Confidence: Verified.

Why this matters for Candid: Supports tiering BY competitive posture in the widget. A "budget-conscious" SMB should not be told to mimic enterprise channel diversification — the right recommendation is concentrated, owned-digital investment. Reinforces Rule — Output tiers, NOT a hard percentage-of-revenue, for digital-minus-ads spend.