Companies More Discerning About Marketing Spend

B2B marketers are reining in their brand and communications investments in 2026, according to a new Forrester Research report.

Companies are targeting their spending to areas where they think agencies can play a meaningful role, a departure from the past practice of using agencies for broad growth strategies.

"While agencies remain an important part of the marketing ecosystem, the expectations for where and when they add value are becoming more stringent," Forrester notes. Ninety-three percent of businesses use agencies in some capacity, but relatively few are increasing their engagements with agencies, it said.

In a separate report, Forrester recommends that organizations' marketing ecosystems be adaptive rather than staying with a defined organizational chart with defined roles.

"A marketing ecosystem should include capabilities, structure, and orchestration together and root them in customer obsession," the research firm says. "This model helps marketing respond faster to market shifts and convert disruption into growth. Strong culture, infrastructure, governance, and accountability create an environment that supports greater agility."

According to Forrester's research, nearly half (46 percent) of all marketing leaders expect unchanged marketing budgets this year compared to 2025, but only 13 percent fewer expect to increase their marketing investments compared to those who expected an increase last year. Just more than one-quarter (26 percent) expect to decrease their marketing budgets this year, compared to 19 percent who had expected a decrease in 2025.

Those who are cutting budgets are doing so across the board, according to the research firm. The drops are most pronounced in the areas that had previously paced agency investment growth:

• Digital marketing, down 20 percent.
• Social media management, down 17 percent.
• Brand strategy, development and management, down 17 percent.
• Content creation and development, down 15 percent.

Many firms have moved the above work in house, relying increasingly on AI to handle most of the work.

Forrester offers a sourcing decision framework to help marketers determine the best functions to outsource and the best marketing efforts to retain or develop in house.

"Agencies' challenges in meeting expectations further reinforces this shift, as only a small minority of marketers report satisfaction with agencies' ability to deliver to their AI priorities," the research firm says. "As marketers operationalize AI internally and raise execution expectations, gaps in agency performance make it harder for agencies to justify expanded investment."

In a separate report, Forrester notes that B2B marketers who outsource AI capabilities to agencies report significant gaps between what they need and what agencies are delivering. In fact, 54 percent of marketing leaders say data strategy and AI readiness are important in agency selection, yet only 10 percent are satisfied with agencies' ability to execute.

"Every AI-related capability we measured shows a double-digit percentage-point gap between importance and satisfaction," the research firm says.

B2B companies that lead in the adoption of AI in marketing grow revenue faster and have stronger ties between their marketing and IT departments, the firm also found.

Forrester's analysis shows that even though the pace of AI adoption has slowed, the technology is being actively applied across a broad swath of use cases.

To succeed in this environment, agencies need to demonstrate differentiated value, particularly where marketing teams lack expertise, Forrester says. "Those that can't will be displaced as marketers build in-house capabilities."

Whether internal or external, marketers have other challenges that are intertwined with their ability to effectively use AI, Forrester notes. Among those challenges are the following:

• Demonstrating marketing's impact on revenue and ROI.
• Aligning marketing with sales, product, and finance stakeholders.
• Building capabilities across fragmented teams and functions.
• Adapting planning and budgeting to rapid market and technology changes.
• Identifying and closing skills and competency gaps.

To succeed, leaders must modernize marketing operations while clearly proving value to the business, Forrester says.