Only 19% of marketers expect higher budgets despite 59% seeing business growth: WARC

New Delhi: Marketers are showing cautious optimism for 2026, but budget expectations are lagging behind business sentiment, according to WARC’s The Voice of the Marketer report.

While 59% of brand marketers expect business to improve next year, only 19% anticipate an increase in marketing budgets, highlighting a 40-point gap that underscores pressure on the industry.

Released as part of WARC’s Evolution of Marketing programme, the report draws on a survey of more than 1,000 marketers worldwide, conducted between September and October 2025.

It explores key themes including macroeconomic uncertainty, AI adoption, the dominance of digital channels in media planning, and short-termism in marketing strategy.

Stephanie Siew, Senior Research Executive at WARC, said, “Despite the decline in marketer optimism, it’s worth pointing out that the majority of both brand and agency marketers (54%) still expect next year to be better than this one. However, budget expectations are a lot lower, which will heap more pressure on marketers in 2026.”

Aditya Kishore, Insight Director at WARC, added, “A significant red flag for marketers is the tension between poor macroeconomic visibility and the need to plan for long-term business growth, which is why more than half see short-termism as a major industry concern.”

The survey found that marketers expecting lower budgets are more likely to invest in performance marketing (42%) than brand marketing (29%). However, WARC notes that balancing performance marketing with brand building can generate more sustainable returns and help avoid the so-called “doom loop”, a cycle of flawed metrics, wasted spending and diminishing returns.

Short-termism is a growing concern, with 55% of marketers citing it as a major industry issue, up from 25% in 2022. Economic conditions are another key concern, with 61% of marketers saying that US trade policies, tariffs and broader macroeconomic uncertainty could affect their strategies, particularly in North America.

Scenario planning is being increasingly adopted, with four in ten marketers using the method to model multiple economic scenarios and stress-test strategic decisions. Teams are also being restructured to be more agile and responsive to macro changes.

Alex Craddock, Chief Marketing and Content Officer at Citi, said, “We’ve had a lot of uncertainty this year, which has caused volatility... Markets have proven to be pretty resilient up until now; at some stage, that resilience will start to wane.”

AI disruption is another pressing concern, with 59% of marketers expressing worry, more than double the 28% recorded in 2023. The survey finds that marketers are increasingly using AI for tasks such as summarising large texts (76%), competitor and category analysis (74%), and customer insights (60%). 

However, uncertainty persists around AI’s impact on workflows, creative processes and employment, with 35% fearing it could replace human roles in marketing over the next three years. Agencies (40%) report higher levels of concern than brand marketers (30%), who are leaning on AI to scale more efficiently amid tighter budgets.

Lex Bradshaw-Zanger, Chief Marketing and Digital Officer of SAPMENA Zone for L’Oréal Groupe, commented, “The new rule of engagement is strategic orchestration: knowing when to deploy AI, how to combine it with human insight, and maintaining control over your data and brand integrity while scaling at unprecedented levels.”

Digital channels continue to dominate media investment, with 90.3% of advertising spend going to online-only platforms. WARC Media projects the global ad market to grow 7.4% to $1.17 trillion in 2025, with marketers planning to increase spending on online video, influencer and creator marketing, and social media.

Paid search remains significant, projected to reach $274 billion in 2026, though growth is expected to slow as consumers shift to platforms such as Amazon and TikTok.

Retail media is also gaining attention, with around a third of marketers expecting to increase investment, although 28–29% of marketers still report not spending in this area.

The Voice of the Marketer report builds on insights from WARC’s Marketer’s Toolkit, which analysed five key trends likely to disrupt marketing in the coming year, including the vanishing middle, the creator gamble, and the zero-click customer journey. Both reports form part of WARC Strategy’s Evolution of Marketing programme, with a third report, The Future of Media, scheduled for release in January.