5 Marketing Budget Trends in : Set Your Marketing Spend
New year, new marketing budget. But how do you know if you’re making the right call for your marketing spend? Spending too little can result in missed growth opportunities, but spending too much can break the bank with too few results for your investment.
Smart marketing budget planning is the best way to get your business on the right path for the new year.
By looking at your marketing performance data for this year, along with the latest marketing budget trends for 2025, you can set yourself up for success. Stay tuned as we cover the following:
1. People will explore ad opportunities on AI tools
Artificial intelligence (AI) is certainly shaking up the marketing world, and it’s going to continue to do so in 2025.
Perplexity AI is experimenting with ads on its platform via “sponsored follow-up questions.” While we’re not saying it’s something you need to invest in right this moment, it’s certainly a marketing budget trend to keep an eye on and consider if you’re looking to expand into new marketing channels:
Expert insights from
Trevin S.WebFX VP of Marketing
“With more users, particularly Gen Z, turning to AI-based tools for information retrieval, improving visibility on these emerging platforms (through ads or organically) gives you a nice early mover advantage. There is a lot of innovation in the space right now. OpenAI just released SearchGPT, for example, so I’d expect continued momentum and user growth for those platforms in 2025, which makes it a smart target for marketers looking for new channels to invest in.”
Our advice? Monitor AI advertising trends closely to determine if it’s the right move for you. Perplexity’s ad program is still new, so now is the best time to observe and evaluate if it’s a profitable investment for your business.
Meanwhile, consider investing in AI optimization strategies to boost your business’s visibility in AI results. With the launch of SearchGPT and more people relying on AI platforms as search engines, they’re a great place to generate visibility and establish yourself online.
2. Omnichannel strategies are becoming more commonplace
Another key marketing budget trend for 2025 is the growing emphasis on omnichannel marketing. In other words, using a mix of marketing strategies across different channels and platforms to deliver a more unified, robust campaign.
Omnichannel marketing is a balanced approach to marketing that delivers a quality customer experience to people throughout each stage of the customer journey. Whether through social media, video marketing, AI chatbot optimization, or something else, it’s all about cultivating a unified brand message across the channels that matter most to your target audience. As a result, you can prioritize channels that drive results for your business and avoid the ones that don’t.
So, in 2025, keep an eye on your campaign analytics and monitor which ones bring in results. Explore social media advertising costs, be flexible with your marketing budget, and anticipate when you may need to shift your investments to best support your marketing efforts.
3. Event marketing is on the rise
Real-world experiences are in demand again, and with that, offline advertising methods like event marketing are on the rise.
Expert insights from
Trevin S.WebFX VP of Marketing
“We’re a few years post-COVID now, and there’s been a big upswing in event spending. Folks are eager to get back to pre-COVID event schedules, so marketers are seeing nice ROIs right now from those more traditional channels. It can give people a nice break from Zoom fatigue and allows organizations who were successful with events as a marketing channel in the past to flex those muscles again.”
Specifically, micro-events are becoming a big trend for brands looking to connect with their audience and reach new customers in an interactive and personable way. Micro-events like pop-ups and product demos create an intimate, personalized experience for attendees. For brands, they’re much easier to plan and execute compared to traditional, large-scale events.
4. Martech and AI are must-use tools
As technology advances, AI and marketing technology use continues to increase. This year, 72% of businesses use AI for one or more functions within their business. With this adoption rate, it’s imperative businesses that aren’t utilizing AI and martech do so.
Why? AI and martech have revolutionized digital marketing and how we create campaigns. These tools have helped marketers and businesses realize the true value of data and analytics, and they’re using this information to create more data-driven marketing campaigns.
As a result, campaigns are more personalized to audiences, yielding higher ROIs. Allocating a portion of your budget to AI and martech is a major marketing budget trend that can’t be overlooked in 2025. Data- and impact-driven marketing are on the rise, and technology is playing a significant role in this. Without AI and martech, your campaigns could fall behind.
5. Digital marketing is still a priority
Data shows that businesses continue to see the value of digital marketing — worldwide digital ad spending is expected to reach over $730 billion by 2025. In 2022, ad spending capped off at $549 billion. These numbers are only expected to grow in the coming years.
With a digital strategy, businesses have more control over their budget, who they target, and when they run their ads. It’s a solid investment that, if used properly, will drive growth.
Plus, digital strategies such as SEO and content marketing can be done without additional ad spend (with an exception for the cost of your time or hiring an agency), allowing you to shift additional marketing spend to other areas.
What a business spends on marketing depends entirely on which strategies it uses. While we can’t give you a specific dollar amount for what your business should spend, we have a general idea of what percentage of your revenue should go toward your marketing spend.
Here’s a potential marketing budget based on the percentage of revenue:
Small business: 7–8% of your revenue
Mid-sized business: 10% of your revenue
Enterprise business: 15% of your business
Remember: These numbers from a typical marketing budget are not set in stone. You may need to adjust your marketing spending to help meet your goals and accommodate the specific strategies you’re using. You may also need to spend more depending on your industry.
Ultimately, the most important thing to remember is that you want to see a positive return on investment (ROI) from your marketing spend and budget.
WebFX specializes in marketing budgets and innovation
At WebFX, our team of experienced digital marketers understand what goes into the average marketing budget and constantly keep an eye on marketing trends from year to year.
We regularly learn about the industry and pass that expertise on to you so you can grow your business. With our talented team of experts, we’ll do everything we can to get you the results you want to see from your marketing investment.
