Thriving in the Era of “Less”
As we wrap up 2024, it’s an understatement to say that this year has been marked by change and transformation. When talking to our clients, it’s clear that marketing and revenue leaders have had a tough year in most industries. Working with shrinking budgets but having to adapt to the ‘never normal’ in a landscape that’s constantly shifting has been a never-ending battle. And you’re not alone! According to Gartner's 2024 CMO Spend Survey, marketing leaders are navigating an "era of less", where the need to optimise every dollar spent is critical.
.png?width=1020&height=638&name=Blog%20images%20(8).png)
If you’re currently planning your 2025 budget – and trying to figure out how to keep doing more with less – this blog is for you! First, we’ll explore key findings from Gartner’s latest report, highlighting budgetary changes and investment priorities that have defined 2024. Then, our team will highlight the biggest changes they observed in the past year. Understanding what happened this year will help you be better prepared for what’s to come. Keep an eye on our blog as our next trend piece will focus on our predictions for 2025.
Doing More with Less
According to Gartner, marketing budget as a percentage of company revenue dropped by 15% in 2024, falling to 7.7% (for reference it was around 11% pre-pandemic). B2B businesses allocated slightly more than the average with 8.4% when B2C dropped severely to 5.7%. This decline underscores the mounting pressure on marketing leaders to deliver measurable outcomes under tighter constraints. For B2B and B2C organisations alike, priorities have shifted, driving significant realignments in resource allocation.
Source: Gartner
Where Did the Money Go? Key Allocations in 2024
Source: Gartner
1. Paid Media Keeps the Largest Slice
With an average of 24.4% of B2B and 34.2% of B2C marketing budgets, paid media continues to dominate. For B2C brands, this heavier focus signals a reliance on high-impact campaigns to compete in crowded markets.
While brand awareness remains a goal, there is an increasing shift towards channels that drive conversions directly, particularly search advertising, which has emerged as the leading digital channel investment. This is interesting as we’ve seen a decline in Google Ads performance with rising costs and lower return on ad spend. Although this could explain the lower investment from B2B businesses in paid media, as they’re looking for alternative ways to get new leads in a crowded market, whereas B2C are still finding some value in search advertising as Google focuses more heavily on shopping and purchase intent results.
Source: Gartner
2. Search and SEO Dominate Digital Priorities
Investments in search advertising and SEO are leading digital spending, as businesses prioritise visibility and discoverability. This highlights the need to take market shares from competitors in order to grow, as many industries have been stagnating or shrinking.
However, we’re seeing this investment can still fall short as businesses try to keep up with constant changes in search that demand more time and resources to maintain visibility. CMOs are having to invest more in those channels just to maintain their presence which will inevitably affect other channels and reduce their ROI. The key here is to stay focused on impact and use smart strategies to produce the same volume of high-quality output with less resources. AI is a great example of how to achieve this but it needs to be used carefully to avoid churning high volumes of low-quality output that will have the reverse effect on performance!
3. MarTech is Being Consolidated
While marketing technology (MarTech) historically accounted for a larger share of the budget, it has seen a steady decline with only 23.8% allocation. Although B2B businesses still allocate the highest share of their marketing budget to MarTech, B2C have reduced it to only 20%. This shift reflects growing caution toward new platform investments, as organisations focus on maximising the potential of existing technologies.
We’ve seen an increasing trend amongst our clients to review their tech stack and streamline spending. Although this is important – and the right thing to do, businesses need to be careful that they don’t cut technology without a solid strategy in place. As the marketing landscape and consumer behaviours are changing, technology is key in achieving more with less. Both B2B and B2C need smart technology embedded with AI to stay relevant and compete.
Not sure how to streamline your MarTech without affecting performance negatively? Contact our team of experts who can guide you through an efficient tech stack audit and provide invaluable insights on how to maximise revenue with the right technology for your business.
4. Event Marketing is Back
Source: Gartner
This is a trend that already started in 2023 and is continuing in 2024. 17% of offline budgets are allocated to event marketing, the top investment in this category. People buy from people and as some digital platforms get saturated, businesses are finding that events can still bring a good ROI, especially for B2B.
To maximise ROI, combine event marketing efforts with smart technology. This will allow you to create hype before the event, attract more visitors, and follow up in a more personalised way post event, maximising the chances of conversion.
5. Agencies Under Scrutiny
Spend on agencies saw a decline although it has been fluctuating for many years and tends to be sensitive to market conditions. In difficult conditions, businesses tend to cut agencies first as it’s the easiest investment to stop. Even if you’ll think we’re a bit biased as an agency ourselves, there are genuine risks in replacing an agency with in-house labour or paid media spend.
Bringing marketing capabilities in house isn’t always a cheaper option and can end up costing you way more in the long term than hiring an efficient agency. Not convinced? We’ve compared the costs of digital marketing between in house and agency to take you through important considerations before making this decision.
Replacing an agency with paid media budget might also not give you the return you hope for. As mentioned earlier, paid advertising isn’t as efficient as it used to be and the landscape keeps changing at a fast pace. Your internal team might not be able to keep up or they might not have valuable insights from different industries that an agency will have. This can lead to poor decisions and bad performance.
Our Best of Marketing in 2024
Discover our team’s highlights from 2024 with the biggest trends we saw throughout the year:
Client Services – Authenticity Over AI
A key highlight for our clients has been the evolving focus on authenticity in brand messaging. With AI-generated content becoming the norm, the challenge has been to stand out with genuine, consumer-focused communication. We’ve prioritised storytelling and meaningful engagement over content designed purely for search rankings. For example, harnessing real customer stories and testimonials has proven invaluable in creating relatable, trustworthy campaigns. AI has also become an integral tool, streamlining ideation, campaign planning, and execution, which has allowed us to dedicate more energy to creativity and innovation. This year has truly underscored the importance of human connection in marketing, pushing us to innovate in ways that ensure our clients’ voices resonate authentically amidst a rapidly evolving landscape.
MarTech – Creating a Single Source of Truth
This year, many of our clients have focused on consolidating their tech stacks to ensure their software and data work seamlessly together. This approach has been key to aligning teams, improving collaboration and creating a single source of truth—often with HubSpot at the centre. Alongside this, there’s been a strong emphasis on user adoption and training. Clients are prioritising getting their teams up to speed on processes and using software effectively, recognising that the value of data depends on how accurately and consistently it is inputted.
Paid Advertising – Moving Beyond Google
2024 has seen a significant shift in the paid search landscape, with rising costs per click (CPC) and cost per lead becoming a common challenge across most industries. As Google Ads continues to dominate the space, its AI-driven changes and ongoing legal scrutiny have sparked increased scepticism among advertisers. Many clients have begun to recognise the risks of over-reliance on Google and are exploring alternative platforms to diversify their digital strategies. This multi-platform approach has not only helped manage rising costs but has also opened up new opportunities for reaching target audiences in innovative and cost-effective ways.
Another key trend has been the growing emphasis on efficiency and value in PPC campaigns. As CPCs rise, clients have focused more on maximising return on investment by refining targeting, optimising ad copy, and leveraging first-party data. Testing alternative platforms, such as Microsoft Advertising and programmatic display networks, has provided fresh avenues to engage audiences while reducing dependency on Google. This shift highlights a broader industry movement towards a more resilient, diversified paid media strategy that balances cost considerations with audience reach and campaign effectiveness.
SEO – AI Overtaking Search
In 2024, a significant shift in digital marketing strategies has emerged, driven by the increasing influence of AI. One key development is Google’s AI-generated search overviews, which summarise queries using generative AI and push organic search results further down the page. This makes it harder to drive clicks to clients' websites when consumers are satisfied with the AI-generated answer.
In response, many businesses are adopting a multi-channel marketing approach, diversifying their strategies to reduce reliance on organic search. Paid campaigns, social media, email marketing, and other channels are now essential for maintaining visibility and driving results.
Furthermore, the introduction of AI Overviews (AIO) has reshaped SEO, meaning businesses must create informative, original, and authoritative content to appear in these overviews and avoid losing traffic to competitors. Regular search listings are also impacted, with Google now prioritising content that demonstrates expertise and provides value.
E-commerce – From Search to Social Commerce
E-commerce saw big changes in 2024 with Google completely rethinking its search results pages while consumer behaviours and technological advancements continuously evolve.
Google has been reshaping its e-commerce results, pushing more shopping cards across results pages and providing information within AI Overviews. They’ve also introduced “store ratings” based on onsite reviews, making it crucial for businesses to collect reviews and showcase social proof to stay competitive. This means there’s less opportunity for e-commerce to drive awareness in search and competition is getting fiercer as price is becoming the main differentiator with this layout. This has pushed businesses towards social to raise brand awareness and differentiate themselves from the competition.
The 2024 Klaviyo Consumer Spending Report highlights a notable rise in consumers turning to platforms like TikTok for search, with younger demographics increasingly bypassing traditional search engines like Google. This change is reflective of a broader shift towards social commerce, where platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are also becoming critical tools for product discovery.
In response to these shifts, brands are recognising the need to optimise their digital strategies, prioritising user-generated content and influencer partnerships, especially in video format, to meet the evolving needs of a more social-savvy audience. The rise of AI-powered search and personalised marketing is another major trend, enhancing the consumer experience with tailored product recommendations and seamless interactions.
Let’s Plan for a Better 2025!
If you would like help in planning for 2025, do not hesitate to contact our team of digital and technology experts. We’ve already been preparing our clients in the face of more changes to come next year and implementing strategies that will provide long-term results in a demanding market.
Stay tuned for our next piece where we’ll predict upcoming trends for 2025 and how to prepare for them.
