Marketing leaders are changing how they allocate media investments as digital channels, artificial intelligence, and customer acquisition become increasingly important. Gartner’s 2026 CMO Spend Survey found that awareness and conversion account for 62.6% of total media spend, highlighting a strong focus on generating demand and driving measurable growth.
The research surveyed 401 CMOs and marketing leaders across North America, the United Kingdom, and Europe. The findings provide important technology insights into how organizations are adapting their marketing strategies as customer behavior and digital platforms continue to evolve.
Digital media now represents more than two thirds of total media investment, increasing 18% since 2024. This shift reflects how marketers are responding to customers who increasingly discover, research, and interact with brands through digital environments.
Moreover, artificial intelligence is influencing these decisions. Marketers are attracted to channels that can support personalization, optimization, measurement, and automated decision making. As a result, digital marketing innovations are becoming closely connected with broader growth strategies.
Acquisition Takes Priority Over Retention
The rise in awareness and conversion spending also shows a growing emphasis on customer acquisition. Gartner found that spending on customer loyalty and retention has declined 29% since 2024 and now represents less than 15% of total media spend.
However, this does not mean retention has lost its strategic importance. Gartner’s research suggests that the most AI mature marketing organizations actually dedicate a larger proportion of their budgets to loyalty and retention. This creates an important distinction between short term optimization and long term customer value.
Therefore, effective customer experience strategies should connect acquisition with retention rather than treating them as completely separate objectives.
AI Is Influencing Marketing Investment
Artificial intelligence is becoming an important factor in marketing budget decisions, but technology alone does not guarantee better results. Gartner reported that 70% of CMOs consider becoming an AI leader a critical goal for 2026, yet only 30% say their organizations have mature or fully developed AI readiness capabilities.
Meanwhile, 15.3% of marketing budgets are being allocated to AI initiatives. This growing investment is increasing demand for stronger data foundations, skilled teams, governance, and processes that can convert AI capabilities into measurable business outcomes.
Data Driven Marketing Becomes More Important
As more spending moves toward digital acquisition and conversion, measurement becomes a central part of marketing strategy. Marketers need to understand not only which channel generates attention but also how that attention contributes to customer journeys and revenue.
Data driven marketing can help organizations connect advertising performance with customer behavior, conversion activity, and long term engagement. Additionally, advanced analytics and AI can help identify patterns that traditional campaign reporting may overlook.
This shift is also changing marketing technology platforms. CRM systems, customer data platforms, analytics tools, advertising platforms, and AI solutions increasingly need to work together rather than operate as isolated systems.
Customer Journeys Matter More Than Individual Channels
Another important development is the move from channel focused optimization toward customer journey management. Gartner highlighted the need for marketers to focus on customer journeys rather than optimizing individual channels in isolation. Its research also found that 88% of consumers engage in omnichannel behaviors.
Consequently, marketers need to understand how customers move between search, social platforms, websites, advertising, email, commerce experiences, and other touchpoints.
Brand engagement strategies therefore need to become more connected. A customer may first discover a brand through an AI generated answer, visit its website through search, interact with an advertisement, and later make a purchase through another platform.
The Risk of Over Optimizing for Conversion
The 62.6% allocation toward awareness and conversion demonstrates how strongly marketers are prioritizing measurable growth. However, focusing too heavily on easily measurable activities can create a long term challenge.
Gartner warns that optimization is not the same as strategy. AI can make it easier to optimize channels and campaigns, but marketers still need to protect investments in experiences that build loyalty, trust, and lasting customer value.
Similarly, technology should support strategic decisions rather than dictate them. Human expertise remains essential when organizations decide where to invest and how to balance immediate performance with sustainable growth.
What This Means for the MarTech Ecosystem
The changing media mix is creating new opportunities for the MarTech ecosystem. Platforms are increasingly expected to provide real time insights, predictive analytics, personalization, automated optimization, and connected customer data.
Moreover, marketers are looking beyond basic automation. They want technology that can help identify high value audiences, understand customer intent, personalize experiences, and measure outcomes across increasingly complex journeys.
Marketing trends analysis therefore needs to consider both technology adoption and organizational readiness. The companies that gain the greatest value from AI are likely to be those that combine technology with strong processes, capable teams, reliable data, and clear business objectives.
Future Growth Will Require Balance
The latest Gartner Marketing Survey shows that awareness and conversion account for 62.6% of total media spend, reflecting a significant shift toward acquisition and measurable growth. However, the broader lesson is that marketing success cannot be defined by conversion alone.
As digital channels continue expanding, marketers will need to balance acquisition with loyalty, personalization with privacy, automation with human expertise, and short term performance with long term customer value.
For marketing leaders, the opportunity is to use AI and data as growth enablers while keeping the customer journey at the center of decision making. That approach can turn digital investment into stronger customer relationships and more sustainable business performance.
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Source : gartner.com
