B2B marketing budget 2027: where demand generation money should go

If you are building your B2B marketing budget for 2027 right now, the outlook is better than it was a year ago. Forrester’s planning research finds that 91% of marketers expect their budgets to rise in 2027.1 The harder question is what to do with the increase. Gartner’s data shows marketing budgets barely moving as a share of revenue, while more than half of marketing leaders say they cannot fund the strategy they have been set.3 More money, spread the same way as last year, is unlikely to close that gap.

Below is what the latest budget research says, what it means for demand generation in particular, and a practical way to allocate spend for the year ahead.

What the 2027 budget research says

Forrester surveyed more than 2,600 business and technology decision-makers for its 2027 budget planning guides, published in July. More than 80% of leaders expect their budgets to grow over the next 12 months, and as many as a quarter expect growth of 10% or more. Among marketers, the figure is 91%.1

The CMO Survey, run by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business with Deloitte and the American Marketing Association, points the same way for US companies. Its January 2026 wave of 308 marketing leaders found overall spending had grown by a mean of 1.74% over the previous year (the median was zero), but leaders expected a mean rise of 7.61% over the following 12 months. Digital spending was expected to grow faster than brand building.4

Gartner’s view is more cautious. Its 2026 CMO Spend Survey of 401 marketing leaders in North America, the UK and Europe, most of them at companies with revenue above $1 billion, put average marketing budgets at 7.8% of company revenue, only slightly up from 7.7% in 2025. In the same survey, 56% said their marketing organisation lacks the budget to deliver its strategy and 54% said it lacks sufficient resources.3

Read together, the picture is of budgets rising modestly in 2027 from a flat base, with a gap between ambition and funding that will not close on its own. That makes allocation, not the size of the increase, the decision that matters.

AI is taking a growing share of the marketing budget

Gartner found that CMOs now allocate an average of 15.3% of their marketing budgets to AI. Yet 70% admit their internal processes are not mature enough to implement and scale it.3 For a demand generation budget, that combination is a warning. Spending on AI tools without changing how campaigns are planned, targeted and qualified tends to produce more output rather than more pipeline.

Research among sales development reps supports the point. In a 2026 survey of 872 BDRs by 6sense and MarketOne, almost every respondent now used AI. But the use most clearly linked to higher quota attainment was reviewing and analysing conversations, not generating content or automating outreach.7 If AI is in your 2027 plan, fund it where it improves judgement and quality, not only volume.

Brand versus demand generation: the budget split that still matters

The most cited guide to a B2B budget split comes from Les Binet and Peter Field’s work for LinkedIn’s B2B Institute, which concluded that B2B companies grow best when about 46% of budget goes to brand building and 54% to activation.5 It is an average drawn from effectiveness data, not a rule for every company, but it is a useful check on a budget that has drifted almost entirely into lead capture.

The reasoning links to the 95:5 rule. Research presented by the B2B Institute with Professor John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute estimates that only about 5% of B2B buyers are in-market at any one time.6 A demand generation budget built only for that 5% competes hard for a small pool and leaves you unknown to the 95% who will buy later. Forrester’s 2027 guidance for B2B marketing leaders also calls for closer integration of brand and demand programmes rather than funding them in separate silos.2

Intent data: paying for signals nobody acts on

One line in many demand generation budgets deserves extra scrutiny this year: intent data. The 6sense and MarketOne survey found that 90% of BDRs have tools that identify accounts likely to be in an active buying process. Yet only about 19% said those signals trigger their outreach, and about 2% said signals decide which accounts they work.7 This is vendor research from a company that sells intent data, which makes the gap more striking, not less.

The budget lesson is that a licence is not a programme. Before renewing an intent data contract, ask who acts on the signals, how quickly, and what happens to accounts that surge but never receive a call. If nobody can answer, move part of that money into the people and processes that turn signals into conversations, or into account-based marketing built around a defined list of target accounts. Our look at what separates ABM programmes that work covers the operating model.

What this means for your pipeline

Forrester’s advice to B2B marketing leaders for 2027 is to make targeted bets aligned with business priorities instead of spreading increases evenly, to keep a dedicated experimentation budget, and to stop output-heavy activity that is not tied to outcomes.2 Turned into a demand generation plan, that looks like this:

• Start from the pipeline target, not last year’s budget. Work back from revenue to opportunities, meetings and qualified leads, then fund the channels that have produced each stage, not the ones that produced the most names.
• Protect a reach line for accounts not yet in-market. Keep a meaningful share for content syndication, thought leadership and consistent presence across your ICP. Judge it on account coverage and engagement rather than cost per lead alone.
• Buy outcomes, not volume. Write lead criteria into every supplier contract: job titles, company size, region, qualifying questions, and what counts as a rejected lead. Our guide to judging content syndication lead quality includes a checklist.
• Fund the follow-up. Leads and intent signals only become pipeline if someone contacts them quickly. If your SDR team is stretched, budget for extra capacity, in-house or through SDR as a Service, before buying more top-of-funnel volume.
• Ring-fence an experimentation budget. Set aside a small, fixed amount for testing new channels, markets or messages, with an agreed success measure and a review date for each test.
• Reallocate what you cannot trace. Programmes that cannot be linked to meetings or opportunities after two quarters are candidates to cut, and Forrester argues that stopping weak activity is itself a route to growth.2

Frequently asked questions

How much should a B2B company spend on marketing in 2027?

There is no single right figure. Gartner’s 2026 CMO Spend Survey put the average at 7.8% of company revenue, mostly among large enterprises, while The CMO Survey found a US mean of 8.96% and a median of 5%. Growth stage, deal size and sales model matter more than averages, so start from your pipeline target and work backwards.

How should a B2B marketing budget be split between brand and demand generation?

Binet and Field’s research for LinkedIn’s B2B Institute suggests B2B companies grow best with roughly 46% on brand building and 54% on activation. Treat it as a reference point, not a formula. Companies with short sales cycles may lean towards activation; those in crowded categories with long cycles usually need more brand investment.

What should a demand generation budget include?

At minimum: programmes that reach your ICP (such as content syndication, paid social or events), data and intent tools, the people who follow up leads, and lead qualification. Many teams underfund follow-up. Budget for SDR or telemarketing capacity alongside lead volume, and keep a small reserve for testing new channels during the year.

A note on the evidence

These figures come from surveys with different samples, so they are not directly comparable. Gartner’s respondents are mostly large companies in North America, the UK and Europe. The CMO Survey covers US companies only, with 308 respondents. Forrester’s press release reports a total sample of more than 2,600 but does not say how many were marketers. The 6sense and MarketOne study is vendor research, and 70% of its respondents work in software and technology. The 46:54 split dates from 2019 and is an average across many brands. Use these numbers as benchmarks, not targets.