Planning Your 2026 Marketing Budget: A Strategic Guide for B2B Brands

When it comes to planning marketing budgets, there's no one-size-fits-all answer. But there are strategic principles that B2B brands can use to make smarter investment decisions, especially as 2026 brings us new technologies, changing buyer behaviours, and evolving channels to navigate.

Start with Customer Value, Not Arbitrary Percentages

The foundation of any marketing budget should be a clear understanding of what a customer is worth to your business. Marketing exists to generate growth, leads, and revenue, so there needs to be a direct link between what you invest and the value it returns. For B2B businesses with long sales cycles, where a single customer might represent six figures in revenue, this becomes even more critical. The question moves from "how much should we spend on marketing?" to "how much does it cost to find, nurture, and acquire a customer of this value?" Bear in mind that any benchmark percentages you do choose should be starting points, not rigid rules. Allocating a portion of net profit, gross profit, or tying marketing spend to growth targets can be great starting points, but the true measure should always come back to customer lifetime value and acquisition cost.

The Biggest Budget Mistake: Chasing Leads at the Expense of Everything Else

One of the most common pitfalls we see with B2B brands is the need to attribute every part of marketing spend directly to specific leads. Whilst it’s understandable that businesses want to see tangible returns, this narrow focus can undermine the entire marketing strategy. The reality is that different channels play different roles in the customer journey. Some budget works towards brand awareness. Some supports nurturing. Some facilitates that final conversion. When businesses lose faith in channels that don't directly generate enquiries, they run the risk of neglecting the critical top-of-funnel and nurturing activities that make conversions possible in the first place. The most effective marketing strategies recognise that all these channels work together. As long as each is performing its intended role, you should see sustainable growth.

AI and Efficiency: Invest Smart, Not Just More

The rise of AI and automation is reshaping how brands need to invest in marketing. But the key lesson here is discernment: just because a tool exists doesn't mean you need it.Consider whether a new AI tool will add genuine efficiency or streamline meaningful processes. If it will, it's worth testing. If not, it's likely just adding complexity and cost. At Next Chapter and Show + Tell, we've embraced AI strategically. It's transformed our content creation process by allowing us to do things like making one piece of content into ten variations at great speed, something that would previously have taken hours of manual work. It's enhanced our research and planning capabilities. But we've been selective about where and how we implement it. For brands considering AI adoption, we recommend starting with test beds. Implement tools within a specific team, department, or location first. Once it’s working, refine it, prove its value, and then scale. This minimises risk and maximises learning.

Tracking ROI: Beyond Revenue to Efficiency and Quality

Measuring marketing impact shouldn't stop at sales figures, though of course revenue is a critical metric. If you spend X and it delivers Y enquiries, Z of which close, generating hundreds of thousands in revenue, then that's clearly valuable. But there's another dimension: efficiency. When AI or automation speeds up processes, that doesn't just mean you can do the same work faster and pocket the difference. It means you can deliver more, better work, more comprehensive research, and greater value to your clients or customers. Time saved is as valuable as revenue generated, and whilst quality is harder to quantify, time can be measured.

The HubSpot Advantage

For B2B brands serious about tracking and demonstrating marketing impact, having a system like HubSpot in place is essential. Even the free version provides capabilities that go far beyond standard analytics platforms. Without a proper CRM and marketing automation system, you might celebrate organic traffic generating form submissions - only to discover later that 90% were recruitment enquiries, not genuine sales leads. HubSpot allows you to see exactly who is converting, attribute that conversion back to specific ads or campaigns, and then work with your sales team to determine if these are the right quality leads. “With HubSpot, we're able to actually go further than analytics tools like GA4, as we can see exactly who those people are that are converting. This allows us to speak to sales and work with the board and C-suite to establish that they’re the right type of enquiries for our clients.” – Daniel Swepson, Marketing Director This granular visibility enables agile strategy adjustments. Instead of merely measuring volume, you're measuring quality, source, and business impact. For any businessramping up marketing spend or entering the market for the first time, this level of insight is invaluable.

2026 Priorities: AI Efficiency and First-Party Data

If we had to recommend just two priorities for B2B brands planning their 2026 marketing budgets, they would be these: First, invest in AI for efficiency and scale. Look at how AI can streamline content creation, enhance research, and take on repetitive tasks. As your business and marketing grow, AI can help you scale without proportionally scaling costs. But be strategic - test, refine, then roll out. Second, make the most of your first-party data. Too many brands pour budget into acquiring new leads whilst neglecting the prospects and customers they already have. This creates what we call a "leaky bucket" - you're constantly filling it, but never plugging the holes. Investing in data cleansing, nurturing programmes, and personalised communication can deliver quick wins. AI can help here too, automating and personalising customer journeys at scale. The brands that will win in 2026 will be the ones who convert, retain, and grow the relationships they already have, alongside their new leads.

The Bottom Line

Smart marketing budgeting in 2026 is about spending strategically. B2B brands need to understand their customer value, respect the role each channel plays, embrace efficiency through AI, and make the most of the data they already have. In addition, they’ll need the right systems in place to track, measure, and demonstrate the impact of every pound spent. That’s how we’ll see B2B brands achieving meaningful, measurable growth.