Marketing Budgets Stable, Growing

The economy isn’t slowing down marketers, budgets

Three fourths of marketing executives said they expect their marketing budgets to stay the same or increase in the 2010-2011 fiscal year, with fully one-third expecting an increase. These results are from a study by Forbes Insights, in association with MarketShare Partners.

Marketers with budgets of less than $1 million are focused on metrics (58%), whereas marketers above $1 million felt having a “big idea” was more important (58%).

• 40% of respondents said one of the biggest drivers for developing marketing measurement and accountability programs was to justify spend to senior executives
• 65% wanted to make marketing more strategic within their organization

Nearly six in 10 respondents (59%) use “lift” impact on sales volume and revenue to measure the success of their marketing programs. More traditional, customer engagement-oriented metrics such as cost-per-acquisition and brand awareness trailed distantly at 42% and 41%, respectively.

56% of respondents reported having formalized systems in place to measure effectiveness and ensure accountability. This may be changing.

One third of respondents said that they planned to have formal measurement systems in place in the future, while one in five respondents with marketing budgets greater than $1 million said the same, suggesting that nine in 10 marketing executives will have some sort of formal measurement system in the foreseeable future.