[Research Round-Up] The Latest Edition of "The CMO Survey" and a New Survey by EMARKETER

 (This month's Research Round-Up features the Spring 2025 edition of "The CMO Survey" and a new survey of senior B2B marketers by EMARKETER, in association with StackAdapt.)

Spring 2025 Edition of "The CMO Survey"

Source:  "The CMO Survey"

• A survey of 281 marketing leaders at U.S. for-profit companies
  
• 99% of the respondents were VP-level or above
• 58.4% of the respondents were with B2B companies
• The survey was in the field January 21 - February 12, 2025

"The CMO Survey" has been conducted semi-annually since 2008. It's directed by Dr. Christine Moorman and sponsored by Deloitte, Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, and the American Marketing Association.

For several years, each edition of the survey has asked participants about overall economic conditions, current marketing spending patterns, and future spending expectations. Here are some of the findings on those topics from the Spring 2025 survey.

Economic Outlook

The Spring 2025 survey found that marketing leaders were less optimistic about the economy than a year earlier. The survey asked participants to rate their optimism regarding the overall U.S. economy on a 100-point scale, with "0" being the least optimistic, and "100" being the most optimistic. The mean rating given by respondents was 62.2, down from 67.0 in the Spring 2024 survey.

The survey also asked if participants were more or less optimistic about the U.S. economy compared to the previous quarter, and only 31.2% of the respondents reported being more optimistic. That was down significantly from 43.7% in the Spring 2024 survey.

Meanwhile, 48.2% of the respondents in the Spring 2025 survey said they were less optimistic about the U.S. economy compared to the previous quarter. That was up from only 25.3% in the Spring 2024 survey.

Marketing Spending

In the Spring 2025 survey, respondents reported that marketing spending represented 9.4% of total company revenue, which was up from 7.7% in the Spring 2024 survey. Respondents also said that overall marketing spending increased 3.3% over the 12 months preceding the survey, and they expected spending to increase 8.9% over the 12 months following the survey.

The relative change in spending on digital marketing vs. traditional advertising remains significant. In the Spring 2025 survey, respondents reported that spending on digital marketing grew 7.3% over the prior 12 months. In contrast, respondents said they expect spending on traditional advertising to decrease by 0.3% over the 12 months following the survey.

Marketing's Role in the Organization Has Grown . . .

The Spring 2025 survey asked participants how marketing's role in their organization had changed over the previous five years. The survey asked participants to rate the amount and direction of change using a numerical scale ranging from -7 (significantly narrowed) to +7 (significantly broadened). The mean value given by respondents was 3.2, which indicates that marketing's role has expanded substantially.

But So Has the Pressure to Prove the Value of Marketing

Sixty-one percent (61%) of the respondents in the Spring 2025 survey said they felt pressure from their CEO to prove the value of marketing. That was up from 51% in the Fall 2023 edition of the survey. Sixty-three percent (63%) of the Spring 2025 respondents reported feeling the same kind of pressure from their CFO, and that was up from 52% in the Fall 2023 edition of the survey.

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As always, "The CMO Survey" contains a wealth of valuable insights, and I encourage you to review the full report.

"B2B Marketing Makes Room for Brand in Budgets and Strategies" by EMARKETER in
partnership with StackAdapt 

Source:  EMARKETER

• Based on a survey of 110 B2B enterprise executive marketing professionals in North America
• 6.4% of respondents were CEOs, presidents, or founders, 14.5% were C-level executives, and 79.1% were executive vice presidents, senior vice presidents, or vice presidents
• The survey was conducted during March 2025

The primary objective of this research was to better understand how B2B marketers are allocating budgets between performance and brand marketing, where they plan to invest next, and what barriers exist to additional brand investment.

Here are some of the major findings from the survey.

Brand and Performance Marketing

Over half of the survey respondents (58.2%) said they devote at least half of their marketing budget to lead generation, with paid search and paid social being the top two lead generation channels.

However, 40% of the respondents said they expect to increase their brand-building budgets in the 12 months following the survey. In addition, 45.5% said that if budget weren't a constraint, they would allocate more than half their marketing spend to brand initiatives.

The Measurement Challenge

Sixty-three percent (63%) of the respondents agreed that brand is a critical long-term play, but they struggle to quantify its impact. When survey participants were asked what challenges were preventing them from increasing investment in brand marketing, "proving ROI" was the top barrier identified. 

In addition, over a third of the survey respondents (35.5%) said they expect to face greater pressure to demonstrate ROI in real time over the 12 months following the survey.