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Gartner for Marketing 2024 MarketingBudget Benchmarkfor Retail 2024 Marketing Budget Benchmark for Retail 30 May 2024 - ID G00807447 - 6 min read By Analyst(s): Matt Moorut, Kassi Socha Marketing budgets decreased for retailers while pressureincreased on online channels to drive sales. CMOs hope tech willimprove productivity and are increasing spend on searchadvertising. Retail CMOs can use this benchmarking report tocontextualize their marketing budget plans. Data Snapshot Marketing Budget as a Percent of Total Revenue (2020-2024) Retail CMOs benchmarking and setting their budget strategy for 2024 through 25 shouldknow: Retail CMOs face budget cuts.Retail CMOs’ marketing budgets fell below the cross-sector average to 7.2% of total revenue, the lowest point since COVID-19-era budgetfreezes. This slump is driven in part by economic headwinds, with inflationimpacting margins and resulting in 26% of retailers falling short of their profit growthtargets in 2023. Looking forward, 34% of responding retail CMOs also expectinflation to negatively impact their 2024 marketing strategy. To achieve revenue andprofit growth objectives in 2024 through 25, CMOs will need to drive a high level ofincreased productivity given continued pressures on budgets.■ Technology investment is rising.CMOs are hoping that technology investmentsdrive productivity gains in 2024. Seventy-five percent of retail CMOs are increasingtheir marketing technology investments in 2024. Generative AI (GenAI) is a majorsource of hope for CMOs, with 76% expecting it to positively impact their 2024strategy. The highest perceived benefit of GenAI is improved cost efficiency, ahead ofimproved ad targeting and time efficiency.■ Online customer acquisition remains challenging.Retail CMOs target 45.2% of salesto come via digital commerce in 2024, up from just 34.9% last year.1,2This addedfocus will add competition to already competitive digital channels that drivecustomer acquisition. In search advertising, for instance, 52% of retailers plan toincrease spend in 2024 while only 18% will reduce spend, which will likely increasebid prices for sales-driving keywords. More broadly, 68% of retailers will increasetheir paid media investments in 2024 as they seek to protect their acquisitionpipeline. For some, increased competition, ad inflation and budget pressures couldprove to be a problematic mix and force changes in strategy.■ Media spend is expected to drive conversion to sales.As a sign of changing timesin the costs of performance marketing, CMOs now allocate significantly more budgetto paid media than labor, martech or agencies and services. Media spend isparticularly focused on ads driving conversion to sales. CMOs increased spend onconversion-to-sales ads from 26.3% to 31.9% of media budgets while reducingspend on brand awareness ads from 28.3% to 24.9%. This highlights the level ofpressure retail CMOs face in producing confirmable results despite online trackingchallenges. This shift in media spend strategy could prove risky if brand recognitionfalls as a result of lower spend on brand campaigns.■ Online channels dominate budgets.Sixty-three percent of marketing channelbudgets are now going to online channels, a big increase from 2023 when just 51%was spent online. Last year, 76% of retail CMOs adjusted their digital channelinvestment priorities to meet evolving consumer behaviors and platform dynamics.Social advertising remains a high line-item, though search advertising became thebiggest digital channel investment for retail CMOs as marketers seek to navigatesignificant changes in Google and Bing’s search engine results pages (see Figure 2).■ Figure 2: Search Advertising Is the Top Digital Channel Investment What You Need to Do Retail CMOs conducting annual budget planning or facing cost reduction pressuresshould pursue the following actions: ■Build agility into long-term planning.Given the volatility of channel efficiency,customer sentiment and consumer behaviors, flexibility will be paramount withinlong- and short-term strategies. For an example of how a Genius retailer embedsflexibility into its strategy, see Sephora “Agility Lanes,” referenced in Digital IQ Index:In the Company of Genius 2023-2024. ■Prioritize high-impact use cases for generative AI.Retail CMOs perceive GenAI as akey opportunity to increase productivity. As the tech landscape rapidly changes, thechance of misplaced effort is high. To ensure resources are spent effectively, focusfirst on high-impact use cases for integrating GenAI into marketing activities (seeEffective GenAI Use Cases for Retail Marketing). ■Ruthlessly prioritize channel budgets.To increase the value of online assets, retailCMOs must optimize their messaging, assets and channel mix. For guidance onassessing which channels to use for key customer segments, see The CMO’s Guideto Multichannel Marketing Channel Strategy. Monitor brand awareness to surface potential issues.Shifting media investmentsa