More than 50% of B2B marketers report bigger budgets

A little more than half (53%) of B2B marketing managers say their budgets are up this year compared to 2022, according to a new study. 

Despite this, the marketers don’t believe that they’re getting the funding they need. While they asked for an average of $88,000 per campaign, the approved average was just $62,000, according to the survey by the website B2Breviews.com. 

Why we care. It’s interesting to see how budgets are shifting now that people no longer feel like there’s a recession around the corner. Judging by this survey it looks like B2B marketers are being told to hold steady, but add AI. If the economy holds steady through the end of the year, it’s likely more marketers will see increased budgets next year.

Social media marketing is the most popular digital marketing strategy, with 61% of B2B marketing budgets including allocations for it. The next most popular were digital advertising (50%), email marketing (48%), and websites and blogs (45%).

Dig deeper: The 7 B2B website essentials: What customers want

While only 31% of marketing budgets now include allocations for AI, 75% of B2B marketing managers reported increased AI marketing spending from last year. This was the highest increase among all marketing strategies surveyed. Other AI findings:

• 78% of those surveyed are integrating AI into their marketing workflows.
• Nearly 25% are reducing staff as a result of this.
• 57% believe AI workflow assistance has made their marketing campaigns more effective.
• 59% of managers said using AI was the most effective tactic for reaching target audiences. 

The top uses for AI were content ideation (42%), data collection (41%), ad optimization (40%), and market research (37%).The report is based on a survey of 230 B2B marketing managers. The full study is available here.