• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, November 9, 2018

CMOs are becoming more confident in their technology investments. Marketing budgets remained steady in 2018 at about 11.2% of company revenue, but 63% of CMOs expect their budgets to increase in 2019, according to the latest CMO Spend Survey by Gartner. 

Gartner surveyed 621 marketing executives between July and August 2018 to understand their budget and spending commitments in North America and the U.K.

The report, Gartner’s 2018 Marketing Technology Survey, notes that marketing technology budgets this year accounted for about 29% of the total marketing budge, up from 22% in 2017.

Advertising dominated the CMO’s multichannel marketing budget, with digital surpassing offline. In fact, two-thirds of CMOs’ ad budgets are invested in digital channels.

Those participating in the study said they rely heavily on paid and organic search, website, and email. Combined, these digital channels account for 25% of marketing investments.

CMOs spend an average of 14.2% of their budget on personalizing ads. About 18% of their overall marketing budgets are allocated to customer experience, and one in every $6 goes toward innovation.

Over 9% of the marketing budget is allocated to digital commerce, but only 19% place the media in their top three marketing strategy priorities. About 12% report brand awareness is the most important metric they measure, compared with just 1% for customer lifetime value.

And while marketing technology budgets rose, labor budgets fell to 24% in 2018 -- down from 28% in 2017.

Ewan McIntyre, senior research director at Gartner and author of the report, doesn’t think marketers shouldn’t be quick to relate a decline in labor budgets to the start of automation reducing human capital. She believes the shift in marketing spend is a result of organizations dealing with capabilities, resources and talent in increasingly complex ways.