Vendor reportCreatorIQ, 2025

More than half of brands said economic volatility pushed them to focus harder on ROI

Strategy review & optimization

Response	Brands overall (%)	Enterprise brands (%)
Increased focus on ROI	51%	56%
Seeking cost saving measures	46%	49%
Budget restrictions	44%	43%
Reallocation of resources to proven channels	38%	43%
Job or role uncertainty	29%	39%
Other	1%	0%
No change	9%	10%

How Economic Volatility Has Affected Marketing Strategy, Overall vs Enterprise Brands

Reader Note:: This table asks brands how economic volatility affected their marketing strategy. The top response overall is increased focus on ROI at 51%, ahead of seeking cost saving measures at 46%, budget restrictions at 44%, and reallocation of resources to proven channels at 38%. For enterprise brands, increased focus on ROI is even higher at 56%. The table reflects brand-reported strategic reactions rather than observed spend changes.
Evidence:: Self-reported behaviour
Vendor interest:: High — This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
Sample:: Survey of 1,723 respondents: 747 brands, 676 agencies, and 300 creators across 17+ industries and 9+ regions, conducted by Sapio Research in July 2025, with additional CreatorIQ research in August 2025.

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 comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
The source says how much it looked at, but not how any of it was chosen.

Planning questions suggested by Gartner: objectives and goals, primary strategies and execution, direction of product lines or services, success measures, long-term success factors, and major obstacles

Template: Strategic Alignment Discussion Guide for Business Partner Conversations
Questions about that business partner's domain	Notes of your business partner's answer
What are your key business objectives and resultant goals for the next two to five years?	—
What are your primary strategies? How do you plan to execute on these strategies?	—
What is the direction of the key product line, supply chain, service offerings, etc.?	—
How will you know if your unit is successful? What will you measure?	—
What are the key success factors that will make or break your unit's success in the long term?	—

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34%

of CEOs and CFOs are aligned with their CMOs about how marketing supports growth

37% of B2B SaaS leaders say team misalignment is the biggest blocker to partner revenue, while 7% blame tech

Alignment between teams37%
No clear partner program/process20%
Lack of visibility into partner impact14%
Other13%
Lack of executive support9%

Biggest blockers to driving more revenue through partners
Blocker	Share of respondents (%)
Alignment between teams	37%
No clear partner program/process	20%
Lack of visibility into partner impact	14%
Other	13%
Lack of executive support	9%
We don't have the right tech	7%

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Lead quality and MQLs are the top KPI marketers track overall

Top KPIs marketers prioritize overall (2026)
KPI	Share of marketers prioritizing it (%)
Lead quality and MQLs	39%
Lead-to-customer conversion rates	34%
Return on marketing investment	31%
Customer acquisition cost	30%
Lead generation volume	29%

48% of B2B SaaS leaders say aligning affiliate partnerships with sales and marketing shortens sales cycles

Revenue impacts reported from strong alignment between partnerships and other go-to-market teams
Revenue impact	Share of respondents (%)
Shortens sales cycles	48%
Partnerships open doors to customers	31%
Land bigger deals	23%
Drive pipeline growth	12%
Help lower churn	10%

1.5x

more likely CMOs who plan 18 months or more ahead are to report high marketing and business performance than those who do not

More than half of brands said economic volatility pushed them to focus harder on ROI

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