Report: Marketers Focused on Digital Initiatives Despite Budget Constraints

Many marketers are feeling the pressure of working with a tight budget at their organization, but new research indicates that they might find room to spend when it comes to digital initiatives.

Statistics from the 28th edition of The CMO Survey recently suggested that at the majority of organizations, the marketing budget only accounts for 11.8% of the overall budget. In fact, research and development budgets are 7.2% larger, on average, than marketing budgets at most companies.

However, respondents indicated that they expect their digital marketing budget to rise by 16.2% over the next 12 months. This is an increase from the 14.3% recorded during the same period last year, indicating that organizations are still willing to invest in digital marketing initiatives. In turn, overall marketing spending is expected to rise 13.6% over the next 12 months.

Marketers Funnel Budget Toward Social Media Initiatives

As marketers decide how they want to use their budget, previous research suggests that social media is becoming a popular area of investment.

Ascend2 conducted “The Outlook on Performance Marketing” report, and data indicated that the majority of marketers (33%) are intent on using most of their budget to fuel social media initiatives. Other areas of investment include SEO (16%) and search (16%).

At the time, most marketers (73%) also claimed that they would be focusing on developing content for social media in the coming months. Video (32%), webinars (21%), and SEO (19%) have also been key areas of investment. Overall, the majority of respondents (76%) say that they have only been “somewhat successful” in achieving their performance marketing strategy goals to date.