Marketing Budget Trends

Marketing Budgets in 2025: A Resilient Investment or Strategic Retrenchment?

Our AMP.25 survey reveals a cautiously optimistic outlook for B2B marketing budgets, with 45% of enterprise tech marketers reporting an increase in marketing spend for 2025, while 23% expect budgets to remain flat. However, a deeper look at the data introduces a more nuanced picture. Only 42% of fastest-growing companies report budget increases, with just 15% keeping budgets flat. Are these organizations shifting resources elsewhere? Are they optimizing marketing spend differently? Or are they prioritizing profitability and efficiency over expansion?

How Budgets Are Shifting
The most notable shift in AMP.25 is the rise in larger marketing investments, with 33% increasing budgets by more than 20%, up from 30% last year. At the same time, flat budgets have dropped from 32% to 23%. This suggests a growing divide between those doubling down on marketing as a growth driver and those tightening budgets.

What This Means for 2025 Strategy
For marketers, these findings reinforce the need for precision and impact. Brands increasing spend should focus on differentiation and efficiency— how do you make every dollar work harder? For those maintaining flat budgets the challenge is maximizing impact without additional investment—where do you double down to drive growth? For those scaling back, it’s about doing more with less—how do you optimize campaigns, content, and customer engagement without losing momentum?

At April Six, we see these dynamics playing out across our client base. While marketing is still a critical growth driver, the pressure to prove impact has never been greater. It’s not just about how much you spend, but how effectively and strategically you allocate resources. In 2025, success will be defined not just by budget size, but by the agility and strategy behind it.

80% of senior marketers believe they can easily hit or exceed their goals for 2025.

April Six’s AMP.25 Industry Pulse shows that 80% of senior marketers believe they can meet or exceed their annual goals in 2025. This optimistic outlook is significant, not just for the companies themselves, but for the tech sector as a whole. Marketers play a crucial role in driving growth, fostering innovation, and navigating the complexities of customer demands. Their confidence signals that tech companies are adapting well to the challenges of the today’s market, from adopting artificial intelligence to general economic uncertainty. When senior marketers are optimistic it suggests that they have a clear strategy in place to capitalize on emerging trends and technologies.

This level of confidence is also a direct reflection of how marketing teams are leveraging data, automation, and analytics to deliver more targeted, effective campaigns. With AI and machine learning taking a larger role in shaping marketing strategies, senior marketers are increasingly able to make data-driven decisions that fuel efficiency and innovation. As a result, the ability to meet or exceed annual goals becomes more achievable. The emphasis on data-driven insights also enables marketers to be more agile, quickly pivoting in response to shifts in consumer behavior or market conditions.

In addition to the use of data, realistic goal setting is a key contributor to the optimism that senior marketers are feeling in 2025. As marketing strategies become more data-driven, setting achievable goals based on solid insights and trends allows companies to align their targets with actual market conditions and customer behavior. Just knowing that marketing is being run with measurable outcomes, makes everyone feel more confident in goal setting and in meeting annual KPIs. So, let’s do it! Let’s leverage the tools and partnerships we have to make 2025 the year we want it to be!