As Vistatec CMO Simon Hodgkins points out, “To avoid the pitfalls of reduced marketing budgets, companies must reframe their view of marketing from a cost to an investment. This investment should be aimed at achieving long-term objectives, such as brand building, customer acquisition, and market expansion.”
It may be tempting to cut costs by thoughtlessly trimming your marketing budget — but that’s unlikely to pay off in the long term.
Inside a Typical Marketing Budget
According to a recent survey from HubSpot, today’s marketers are seeing the biggest ROI from social media marketing tools. As such, it’s no surprise that these platforms are receiving the lion’s share of many organizations’ marketing budgets.
Specifically, when asked which formats deliver the highest ROI, survey respondents highlighted the following areas:
- Short-form video (21.02%).
- Images (19.47%).
- Live streaming video (15.53%).
- Interviews (15.19%).
- Blog posts (14.79%).
In addition, when asked where they plan to increase marketing investment in 2025, respondents mentioned the following areas:
- Short-form video (17.13%).
- Images (14.85%).
- UGC (13.93%).
- Live streaming (13.88%).
- Podcasts or other audio content (13.08%).
Of course, social media has been a core component of marketing for years. However, in 2024, another growing marketing trend emerged: Nearly one in four survey respondents reported that influencer marketing played a substantial role in their 2024 strategy.
Moreover, respondents shared that in many cases, working with small-scale influencers (that is, influencers with audiences under 100k) is particularly effective.
