With inflation easing and geopolitical changes underway, we wanted to find out how companies are planning their marketing budgets for 2025. So, we surveyed 11,093 marketers to understand where they intend to invest and why. Here’s a breakdown of what we discovered:
Earned Media
SEO
- 44% plan to increase their SEO budget because they believe SEO is still effective, and AI hasn’t significantly impacted their traffic.
- 39% will maintain their current spending since SEO continues to deliver results.
- 17% plan to reduce their budget due to concerns about algorithm changes and AI’s future role in search results.
Organic Social Media
- 25% will increase spending, seeing organic social as a strong tool for brand awareness, even without direct conversions.
- 17% plan to keep the budget the same because social media is essential for staying connected with customers.
- 58% will decrease their budget as organic reach keeps declining, despite their efforts to improve it.
Content Creation
- 63% will boost their budget to cover diverse content formats, produce higher-quality human-generated content, and invest in podcasting.
- 33% will maintain spending, as repurposing content works across campaigns.
- 4% plan to cut costs by leveraging AI tools for content creation.
AI SEO
- 97% are investing in AI-based SEO platforms like ChatGPT and SearchGPT, seeing these as untapped opportunities.
- 2% will maintain their budgets, already utilizing AI platforms.
- 1% plan to decrease investment due to a lack of positive results so far.
Email Marketing
- 28% plan to increase budgets to manage growing email lists and stay ahead of platform algorithm changes.
- 59% will keep the budget the same since it continues to drive sales.
- 13% will reduce spending by switching providers or refining their email lists.
CRO and UX
- 59% will invest more to improve user experience, which boosts SEO rankings and ad ROI, especially in a tough economy.
- 21% will maintain budgets as they already see good returns.
- 20% will cut costs, believing their conversions are already optimized.
Community Building
- 81% will increase spending, recognizing the value of human connection in an AI-driven world and the return of impactful in-person events.
- 3% will maintain their budget as it works but lacks economic flexibility to increase.
- 16% will decrease spending due to financial challenges and the difficulty in measuring ROI for community-building efforts.
Paid Advertising
Paid Search
- 52% plan to spend more on Google Ads, while 64% will increase spending on Bing Ads due to better ROI and less competition.
- Rising costs and economic constraints will lead 38% to spend less on Google Ads and 7% less on Bing Ads.
Social Ads
- X leads with a 55% increase in ad budgets due to affordability and shifting political sentiment.
- Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube remain stable as marketers prioritize influencer collaborations for better ROI.
- Budget cuts across platforms are due to rising costs and better returns from influencer marketing over direct platform ads.
Traditional Ads
- Increased budgets are attributed to discounted rates in traditional media as brands shift to digital.
- Reductions stem from reallocating funds to digital channels like CTV, which offer better reporting and metrics.
Other Ad Channels
- Remarketing budgets are up by 89%, with marketers focusing on warming up cold traffic to improve sales.
- Challenges like managing influencer relationships internally are leading some to decrease influencer marketing budgets.
Conclusion
Most marketers, whether in B2B or B2C, are optimistic about 2025. Around 83% of B2C and 85% of B2B companies plan to maintain or increase their marketing budgets.
The optimism is fueled by declining inflation and interest rates. While some are cutting budgets due to economic challenges, the majority remain focused on growth.
We hope these insights help you plan your 2025 marketing strategy effectively!