Gartner Survey Reveals 71% of CMOs Believe They Lack Sufficient Budget to Fully Execute Their Strategy in 2023

Seventy-one percent of CMOs said they lack the budget to fully execute their strategy in 2023, according to a Gartner, Inc. survey of 410 CMOs and marketing leaders.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230522005585/en/

Figure 1: 2023 Marketing Budget as a Percent of Total Revenue (2019-2023)

The annual Gartner 2023 CMO Spend and Strategy Survey was conducted in March and April 2023. Survey respondents were CMOs and marketing leaders in North America and Northern and Western Europe across different industries, company sizes and revenue, with the vast majority of respondents reporting annual revenue of over $1 billion. Gartner experts presented the findings today during the Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo, which is taking place here through Wednesday.

The survey revealed that marketing budgets compose 9.1% of total company revenue in 2023, remaining relatively flat but still dipping slightly from the 9.5% reported in 2022 (see Figure 1).

“Suppressed budgets, increasing costs and lower productivity are squeezing CMOs’ spending power,” said Ewan McIntyre, Chief of Research and VP Analyst in the Gartner Marketing practice. “As volatility becomes the new normal, many CMOs are pricing disruption into their 2023 plans.”

Seventy-five percent of CMOs are facing increased pressure to “do more with less” to deliver profitable growth in 2023. Because of this, 86% of marketers said they must make significant changes to how the marketing function works to achieve sustainable results.

“In 2023, CMOs need to become a new type of enterprise leader. This goes beyond serving at the helm of the brand but also assuming a more business-focused role that pivots into a period of investing for profitability versus growth. Those that carry on status-quo will face significant challenges in the near-term,” said McIntyre.

Majority of Marketers Under Pressure to Cut Technology Spend

CMOs have seen technology investments tumble into new lows of unproductivity, with utilization rates falling from 58% in 2020 to 42% in 2022, according to Gartner research. For this reason, 75% of marketers report being under pressure to cut martech spend this year to deliver better ROI. However, the highest reported investment increase across all major marketing resources by CMOs this year goes toward marketing technology, while the largest decrease to labor.