What Does Your Industry Spend on Marketing?

Just a few months in the past I wrote about marketing budgets and the way the fastest-growing companies spend considerably extra on advertising than their slower-growing friends. As proof, I shared this information from the 2026 High Growth Study Executive Summary:

This chart compares the proportion of income that high-growth and no-growth companies dedicate to advertising.

On this article, nonetheless, I wish to dig a bit of deeper and share some comparative information from the 4 skilled companies industries we studied in depth this yr:

• Accounting & Monetary Providers (A&FS)
• Structure, Engineering & Building (AEC)
• Consulting
• Know-how & Software program

Whereas there’s a nice deal you’ll be able to be taught from the aggregated skilled companies govt abstract, there are a lot of variations between industries. Beneath is a breakdown by {industry} of selling spend as a share of income, not together with workers compensation prices.

What a distinct story this information tells than the all-industry chart I shared above!

Earlier than I’m going additional, I’ve to level out that these two charts evaluate completely different cohorts. The baseline within the high chart is “no progress” companies—companies that both didn’t develop or shrank over a three-year analysis interval. Within the second chart, the baseline is high-growth companies—those who develop at a compound annual price of 20% for 3 consecutive years.

Why the distinction? In our examine, we typically evaluate the 2 extremes (excessive progress vs no progress) to distinction the behaviors, approaches or outcomes between high performers and low performers. If you want to check apples to apples, nonetheless, the all-industry median p.c of income devoted to advertising is 8%.

Why Advertising Budgets Fluctuate by Business

Wanting on the second chart above, I discover one factor proper off the bat. The technology & software industry’s marketing spend runs twice as sizzling because the accounting & monetary companies {industry}’s. That’s true of the excessive progress cohort in addition to the {industry} as a complete.

There could also be a few causes for this. First, and we expertise this primary hand with our personal shoppers on this vertical, they’re extra liable to spend money on advertising tech earlier and use its most refined options. Of all of the industries we studied, expertise & software program had the best scores for digital maturity and proficiency in utilizing advertising metrics.

Second, the accounting & financial services sector is among the many most conservative relating to advertising. Traditionally, the {industry} has lagged others in advertising spend. Dive deeper and separate accounting from the remainder of monetary companies, and our analysis with the Association for Accounting Marketing exhibits finances spending is considerably extra conservative than this. And it will get the best proportion of its leads from referrals (48%) of every other {industry}. That’s twice as many as expertise & software program (24%).

The consulting industry has the least separation between the 2 classes (excessive progress vs all skilled companies)—and is the {industry} that almost all carefully matches the all-industry numbers. It is because consulting not solely represented the biggest proportion of the examine pattern (35.8%), a variety of subindustries roll up beneath it, from administration consulting to HR to staffing companies. It’s a broad and numerous world unto itself.

The AEC industry falls someplace within the center. The {industry} as a complete spends the second least on advertising (although effectively forward of accounting & monetary companies). Nonetheless, its high-growth companies spend the second most on advertising (although effectively under their tech friends). To me, this says the AEC {industry}—as soon as an {industry} not recognized for attempting new issues relating to advertising (as a result of they didn’t must—their referral recreation has at all times been sturdy)—is starting to alter and embrace new advertising applied sciences and maybe a broader array of strategies.

As I level out in my authentic article on this subject, new AI-driven applied sciences could also be driving a few of the improve in advertising spending at high-growth companies. Whereas these investments could be costly, the potential payoff is nice. As companies be taught to make use of them and because the merchandise mature, they’ll ship better effectivity and deeper insights. Exactly what it takes to outperform the sphere!

I’ve assembled the information above particularly for you, my pricey reader, and made it out there for the primary time. Use it to benchmark your personal agency in opposition to your {industry} as a complete and in opposition to the highest performers.

Method again in 2008 after we first began finding out high-growth companies, they really spent much less on advertising than their slower-growing rivals. They have been merely utilizing their budgets extra effectively. At this time, that’s not sufficient. Corporations that wish to obtain high efficiency are investing closely to get there. It’s doable that this dynamic will change sooner or later, however within the present market it seems to take cash—and a wise technique—to distance your self from the pack.