{
  "schema_version": "1.1",
  "id": "gartner-marketing-budget-7-8-percent-revenue-2026",
  "slug": "gartner-marketing-budget-7-8-percent-revenue-2026",
  "url": "https://groundedkit.com/claims/gartner-marketing-budget-7-8-percent-revenue-2026/",
  "api_url": "https://groundedkit.com/api/claims/gartner-marketing-budget-7-8-percent-revenue-2026.json",
  "claim": "Marketing budgets average 7.8% of company revenue in 2026 (Gartner CMO Spend Survey)",
  "commonly_cited_as": "\"What percent of revenue should go to marketing?\" / \"Marketing budgets are 7.7% of revenue\"",
  "verdict": "verified",
  "verdict_definition": "Primary source found; it says the same thing, the scope matches, and it is reasonably current.",
  "confidence": "high",
  "rating": {
    "value": 5,
    "best": 5,
    "worst": 1
  },
  "origin": {
    "publisher": "Gartner",
    "title": "Gartner 2026 CMO Spend Survey (press release, May 11, 2026)",
    "year": "2026"
  },
  "quote": "Marketing budgets remain effectively flat, rising only slightly to 7.8% of company revenue in 2026 from 7.7% in 2025.",
  "method": "Survey of 401 CMOs and marketing leaders in North America, the UK and Europe, Jan.–March 2026; the vast majority from companies with over $1 billion in revenue.",
  "drift": [
    "Population: mostly $1B+ companies, so not a benchmark for small businesses"
  ],
  "interest": "Gartner sells research and advisory services to marketing leaders.",
  "safe_rephrasing": "Gartner's 2026 CMO Spend Survey (401 leaders, mostly at $1B+ companies) found marketing budgets averaged 7.8% of company revenue, up from 7.7% in 2025.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Gartner — 2026 CMO Spend Survey press release",
      "url": "https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2026-05-11-gartner-2026-cmo-spend-survey-finds-cmos-allocate-15-point-3-percent-of-marketing-budgets-to-ai-but-only-30-percent-are-ready-to-scale-ai-capabilities",
      "primary": true
    }
  ],
  "kind": "reference_fact",
  "as_of": "Survey fielded Jan.–March 2026",
  "last_checked": "2026-10-16",
  "stale": false,
  "date_reviewed": "2026-10-16",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0",
  "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}