Digital marketing budgets soaring in europe

European and United Kingdom companies are pouring more money into digital marketing than ever before. A study by E-Consultancy shows 77% of the 600 surveyed companies are increasing their interactive budgets in 2015. The average budget increase reported was 27%. Participants said digital marketing will consume more than one-third of their total marketing budget this year. One of the big reasons for the increase: 72% said it is now easier to get boardroom funding for digital marketing strategies. How does the average digital budget break down?

• Paid media – 40%
• Owned media (internal digital properties) – 35%
• Earned media (content marketing and social media) – 25%

The top three areas that will see budget increases include content marketing (73%), lead generation (68%), and e-mail marketing for lead nurturing (60%), while paid media and paid search are most likely to see budget cuts. Lead acquisition continues to be European marketers’ focus as companies surveyed are budgeting twice as much money to acquire prospects than to retain/engage them. In addition, 74% reported they are working to deliver cohesive customer experiences rather than standalone marketing campaigns. This research confirms Tiziani Whitmyre’s experience.

While European B2B companies initially were slow to embrace digital marketing strategies, they have become much more adept at incorporating interactive tools and tactics in their marketing mix. Learn more about the study.  Source: Marketing Budgets 2015, E-Consultancy in association with Oracle Marketing Cloud, February 2015.