Our newsletterIndustry surveyThe CMO Survey, 2026
Digital marketing is the fastest-growing budget line for US marketing leaders at 10.4%, against 7.6% for overall marketing, while traditional advertising is the only line not growing at all
Channel mix & planning
| Spending Area | Mean Change (%) |
|---|---|
| Digital marketing spending | 10.4% |
| Overall marketing spending | 7.61% |
| Brand building | 5.87% |
| New product introductions | 5.85% |
| Customer relationship management | 3.5% |
| New service introductions | 3.17% |
| Customer experience spending | 3.03% |
| Traditional advertising spending | -1.5% |
Marketing Spending: Expected marketing budget changes reported by US CMOs in 2026 (mean % change by area)
Marketing Spending: Expected marketing budget changes reported by US CMOs in 2026 (mean % change by area)- Reader Note:
- Each line has its own base, from 138 to 154 respondents, and each is a mean of self-estimated percentage changes for the coming 12 months. Digital marketing and overall marketing have medians of 10% and 5%. Traditional advertising is the only line that does not grow, but its mean of -1.50% carries a 95% confidence interval from -3.68% to +0.68% and a median of exactly zero: the typical company is not cutting it, and the negative mean comes from a minority cutting deeply, as far as -39%. These are expectations stated in January 2026, not committed budgets.
- Evidence:
- Self-reported behaviour
- Vendor interest:
- Low
- Sample:
- Online survey of 308 marketing leaders at U.S. for-profit companies drawn from a sample of 2,111; 14.6% response rate; 97% were VP level or above.
Reader Note:
Evidence:
Vendor interest:
Sample:Good for
A rough sense of size and direction, and deciding what to look at first.
Not for
- Exact numbers, or saying that one thing caused another.
- This is an aggregated or average number that covers very different cases. Real results in a particular segment may differ.
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