I hear this question at least twice a month: are we spending enough on marketing?
The answer people want is simple. A number. A percentage. Something they can anchor to and feel confident about.
The answer that actually helps is more nuanced.
Here's what I've seen work at the number of B2B companies we've worked with at mrge Marketing: the percentage matters less than understanding what's behind it. A company spending 12% of revenue on marketing, but allocating it wrong ends up worse off than a company spending 6% with a coherent strategy.
But let's start with what the research says.
Gartner's 2025 CMO Spend Survey shows that marketing teams across all industries consume about 7.7% of overall company revenue on average. Forrester puts it slightly higher for B2B - closer to an average of 8%.
But here's what gets missed: those numbers describe averages, and averages hide the real story.
The range is actually massive. Early-stage and high-growth companies are spending 10–15%+ of revenue on marketing because they're building awareness and capturing market share. Mature, established B2B firms are down to 5–7% because they're managing an installed customer base and relying on referrals and reputation. Those aren't different rules. They're different business realities.
Three things change the calculus dramatically.
Revenue stage matters. A $10M revenue company in hypergrowth mode needs to allocate differently than a $50M revenue company in steady state. The earlier you are in revenue, the more you need to spend to build pipeline and awareness.
Your customer acquisition model changes the math. A consulting firm with a 60-month average contract lifespan can afford to spend less upfront because the lifetime value is enormous. A SaaS company with a 24-month contract might need to spend more aggressively to stay ahead of churn.
Your competitive position determines urgency. If you're defending market share in an established segment, your percentage can be lower. If you're emerging in a category nobody knows about yet, you're spending to educate the market. That's expensive.
In our work at mrge Marketing, we've seen companies at the exact same revenue point spending 4% and 14% on marketing and both being correct for their specific situation. The key is knowing which situation you're in.
Professional services firms (legal, accounting, consulting, IT services) typically spend 3–7% of revenue on marketing. Their model is relationship-driven. Partner reputation does a lot of the work. The sales cycle is long. The contract value is high. You don't need to reach everyone, you need to reach the right 200 people in your market.
B2B tech companies in high growth typically spend 8–15% of revenue on marketing. They're competing in noisier segments. They need to build brand awareness faster. Their customer acquisition depends more heavily on marketing motion. The market is less forgiving of invisibility.
If you're a $25M professional services firm trying to match a $25M SaaS company's marketing budget percentage, you're probably overspending. You're not the same business.
Most companies think marketing budget means paid advertising. It doesn't.
Personnel (~35%): Marketing manager, content creators, and campaign specialists. In Canada, a marketing manager runs $75,000–$110,000 CAD base salary. Add a content specialist at $55,000–$75,000. Add 30% for CPP, EI, and benefits, and two people cost $170,000–$240,000 fully loaded.
Programs and campaigns (~42%): Paid advertising (LinkedIn, Google), events, webinars, content distribution, and PR.
Technology (~23%): Marketing automation, CRM, analytics, content management, and email platforms. A lean martech stack for a small team runs $10,000–$25,000 CAD annually.
Most companies we audit have wildly underestimated what they're actually spending because costs are spread across different P&Ls. Add it all up - salaries plus tools plus campaign spend, and the real percentage becomes clear.
Mistake #1: Overweighting paid channels relative to strategy work. Paid ads show activity. Strategy work doesn't. So the budget leans 70% toward campaigns and 30% toward the strategic thinking that would make those campaigns actually work. Then everyone wonders why the campaigns underperform.
Mistake #2: Underinvesting in people. Tools feel cheaper than people, so you buy more tools. You end up with a sophisticated martech stack and nobody to actually use it strategically. You've bought a Formula 1 car but hired a driving student.
Mistake #3: Splitting budget across too many initiatives. You want brand awareness and lead generation and thought leadership and customer retention. So you split $500K into five $100K programs. Each one runs at a scale too small to create momentum. This is the Campaign Treadmill — motion without direction. Nothing reaches critical mass. Pick 2–3 initiatives. Fund them properly. Kill everything else.
Start here: what's your revenue growth target for the next 12 months?
Then map to customer acquisition reality. How many new customers do you need to hit that target? What's your average deal size? What's your close rate from qualified lead to customer? How many leads do you need to generate? What will it cost in marketing spend, people, and tools to generate those leads?
That exercise typically reveals whether you need to be at 6% or 12% of revenue — not because of an industry average, but because of your actual math.
Then allocate inside the budget: start with people (recruiting and onboarding take time), layer in the minimum viable tech stack, allocate the rest to 2–3 core programs, and reserve 10% for testing.
Not necessarily. Gartner's average includes companies at every revenue stage and in every industry. A $45M professional services firm operating profitably might spend 4% and be in the right place. A $8M tech company trying to double revenue might need 14%. The average tells you the range exists. It doesn't tell you where you fit.
It depends on your stage and what you're trying to build. A fractional CMO or agency retainer might cost $8,000–$15,000 CAD monthly — often less than one full-time marketing manager salary. But you're trading depth for breadth. For most $5M–$50M companies, a blended model works best: a core in-house person or small team, paired with outsourced expertise where it fills gaps.
Most B2B companies need both, but the ratio depends on your situation. If you're unknown in your market, brand-building gets 40–50% of spend. If you're established and just need pipeline, it's 20–30%. Most companies shortchange brand work because it's harder to measure. That's a mistake. It compounds over time.
Sometimes, yes. If your competitors are cutting back, increased marketing becomes more efficient. Your CPL drops. Your brand visibility increases. Cutting poorly-performing programs and reallocating to high-efficiency channels is smart. Cutting marketing entirely because revenue is down is self-defeating.
Tie it to revenue outcomes. Connect marketing to CAC, payback period, and LTV. Show the math. Boards respond to numbers, not activity metrics.
By Melissa Gallo, Founder, mrge Marketing. Last updated: April 2026.
