CMOs Reshape Marketing Budgets as Online Channels Take the Lead

At the 2025 Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo, industry leaders and marketing experts gathered to unpack the future of marketing strategy – and one message stood out loud and clear: digital has taken centre stage.

According to Gartner’s annual 2025 CMO Spend Survey, conducted between February and March across 402 CMOs and senior marketing leaders in North America, the UK, and Europe, digital channels now account for 61.1% of total marketing spend. 

This figure marks a significant milestone, as seven out of ten industries are now allocating more than 60% of their marketing budgets to digital.

This shift confirms what many already suspected – the era of digital-first marketing is no longer on the horizon. It’s here.

Paid Media Dominates the Digital Mix

Among the various digital channels, paid media continues to dominate, commanding 69% of the digital marketing budget. 

Within that, paid search has once again taken the lead, rising slightly from 13.6% to 13.9% of total digital spend – a testament to its high impact on both conversion and pre-purchase engagement.

Meanwhile, digital display advertising has overtaken social media advertising for the second spot in the rankings. Display spend surged by 17% year-over-year, climbing to 12.5%, while social media advertising held steady at 12.2%. 

While social remains vital, it’s clear that marketers are experimenting with broader visibility tactics outside the traditional social media feed.

Retail media networks have also emerged as a rising force, overtaking video and streaming channels in both spend and perceived impact. As consumer attention fragments across platforms, retail media offers a more controlled, intent-based environment – particularly valuable for brands seeking targeted reach and conversions.

Decline of Owned and Earned Channels – With One Exception

Not all channels are experiencing growth. Owned and earned media have seen a 9% year-over-year decline in budget allocation, reflecting a strategic retreat from lower-performing touchpoints. 

However, email marketing has defied the trend, holding its ground and even experiencing a marginal increase to reach 7.4% of total digital spend.

Its enduring value lies in retention. As the Gartner report highlights, email ranks fifth in overall impact and is the number one channel for customer loyalty, proving that in an age of fleeting attention spans, some channels still offer dependable, long-term ROI.

Channel Effectiveness: Impact Over Impression

Gartner’s findings also emphasise the importance of measuring impact – not just spend. 

Search advertising was identified as a high-spend, high-impact channel, outperforming other formats when it comes to conversion-driving power. Conversely, video and streaming platforms have slipped in their impact rankings, partly due to over-saturation and increasing challenges in precise targeting.

Even linear TV, though still absorbing mid-to-high budget allocations in some sectors, is beginning to lose traction. It remains a valuable awareness generator in select industries but lacks the agility and performance insights offered by digital counterparts.

According to the VP Analyst and Chief of Research in Gartner’s Marketing Practice, the shift reflects a broader trend. They noted that marketers are navigating a dynamic landscape shaped by technological change, evolving consumer behaviours, and uncertainty – from Google’s delayed cookie deprecation to the unclear future of platforms like TikTok. 

In such a context, the ability to strategically evaluate each channel’s impact is more critical than ever.

Strategic Implications for CMOs

With the dominance of digital now a reality, multichannel strategies must evolve. Budget constraints, platform volatility, and consumer unpredictability are all challenging marketing leaders to do more than simply spread budget across platforms – they must prioritise performance, impact, and flexibility.

Retail media, email, and paid search are proving to be the new pillars of a future-focused digital plan, while video and broad awareness channels are being reevaluated for efficiency and clarity of return.

CMOs are now tasked not only with investing smartly but with adapting quickly, as the digital environment continues to shift in real time.

Conclusion: A New Era Demands New Thinking

The 2025 Gartner CMO Spend Survey signals more than just a shift in budgets – it marks a strategic realignment. The digital majority is no longer a prediction; it’s a present reality. 

As marketing leaders look ahead, they must weigh the cost of visibility against the value of impact, the buzz of new platforms against the consistency of proven performers, and the complexity of choice against the clarity of results.

In this digital-first era, success belongs to the marketers who can adapt, optimise, and lead with insight.