Preparing for Change: 5 Practical Tips For 2022 Marketing Budget Success

Woman planning marketing budgets at desk image.

How can B2B marketers weigh confidence for the future with adequate caution and still plan thoroughly for 2022 budgeting success?

Confidence is rising for 2022 marketing spending, and as B2B brands move forward after the turmoil and uncertainty of the pandemic, savvy marketers benefit from embracing budgeting optimism while simultaneously seasoning budgeting strategy with a healthy dose of vigilance and care.

Digital advertising budget optimism has risen significantly since the initial months of the global health crisis, and recent report data is showing this increased confidence.

A net 76 percent of marketers plan to expand their media budget for digital video during 2022, representing the top area of media expansion planned for next year, followed by branded content by influencers at 71 percent and social media story ads at 70 percent — several of many statistics of interest to B2B marketers contained in recently-released budget trend survey data from Kantar and MarketingCharts.

When it comes to B2B-specific digital advertising spending, 2021 will see a jump of 25 percent, according to eMarketer’s U.S. B2B Advertising Forecast data, and there has been a shift from search spending to display advertising, newly-released data from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) shows.

According to data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), some 61 percent of U.S. advertising executives are confident or very confident in the stability of their advertising budget for the rest of 2021 — sharply higher than the 22 percent who expressed the same levels of confidence in November of 2020.

Our own groundbreaking report, the 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report, revealed that B2B brands expected influencer marketing to weather the pandemic better than other forms of marketing. 90 percent of B2B brands said that they expected their budget for influencer marketing to increase or stay the same. If you’re currently among those utilizing B2B influencer marketing and haven’t yet taken our 2021 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Survey, make your voice heard and take a few minutes to complete it.

The recently-released twelfth annual B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends research report from Content Marketing Institute (CMI), MarketingProfs, and ON24 also offers a look at budgeting trends. 75 percent of those at the most successful organizations expect content marketing budgets to increase in 2022. We took a look at this report recently in, “10 Actionable B2B Content Marketing Insights From New Research.”

Where does this all lead for B2B marketers looking to prepare for these changes and build a successful 2022 marketing budget?

Let’s step right up and examine five practical tips that will make your 2022 marketing budget a successful one.