What’s Driving Budget Changes for B2B Marketers?

November 2, 2022

This article is included in these additional categories:

Analytics, Automated & MarTech | B2B | Business of Marketing | Customer-Centric | Industries | Marketing Budgets

3 in 4 B2B marketers say their marketing budget has changed in some way from 2021, whether that be in the form of an increase (43%) or decrease (32%), according to a report [download page] from Integrate and Demand Metric. The study indicates that inflation is a driving force behind changes to marketing budgets.

Asked what are the primary driving forces behind changes to their marketing budget from 2021 to 2022, a leading 38% of respondents pointed to inflation. It’s likely that this is having a negative impact on budgets: in a recent survey, 42% of CMOs in the US said that inflation is leading to decreased spending levels, more than double the share who said it has led to increased spending (17%). Inflation is one of the top issues keeping CMOs up at night, with more than 9 in 10 saying it has them concerned.

There are also other areas that are behind budget changes for marketers. The lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is a key one, cited by one-third (33%), while economic recession is also a driving force for some (32%). By comparison, rising interest rates (24%) and the “Great Resignation” (14%) appear to be having less of an impact on budgets.

Separately, the results paint a mixed picture for marketing technology usage and effectiveness at B2B companies. Around half (48%) say that their current martech stack supports the marketing team’s work either very well (12%) or well (36%). However, this figure drops to 40% among large companies with more than $500 million in annual revenue. The report’s analysts note that companies who feel well supported by their martech stack are more likely to be constantly evaluating solutions to improve their stack than those who feel their stack isn’t supporting them well.

Meanwhile, there’s a belief that martech stacks contain redundancies or unused features. Fully 95% agreed that to at least a little extent their martech stack includes solutions, tools, or technologies that are redundant or simply not used. Of more concern, 38% said that’s the case “to a very great extent” (11%) or “to a great extent” (27%).

This brings to mind recent research in which marketers estimated using just 42% of the capabilities available in their overall martech stacks, down from an estimated 58% usage in 2020.

For more, download the Integrate study here.

About the Data: The results are based on a September survey of more than 500 US and UK-based B2B marketers, the majority of whom work at companies with more than $50 million in annual revenue.

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