AI and economic woes stir up uncertainty for more than half of senior marketers

Marketers reported that their businesses had had to make structural changes due to economic pressures, from updating or changing product offerings (34%) and restructuring teams (29%) to changing marketing channels (29%).

While the past year had brought a reliance on above-the-line advertising, next year marketers will invest more in paid social, according to the report, with the channel expected to take up the largest share of budgets. Above-the-line will see a budgetary decrease of 1.1%, but paid social will grow by 2.4%.

"Paid online advertising is expected to drop dramatically in the next 12 months, from 9.1% to 6.7%, perhaps due to the challenges faced by third-party cookies and the over-investment in online channels during Covid, which resulted in an overall drop in ROI of these channels," Linehub said. "Two in five (40%) believe that the end of third party cookies spells the end of online advertising."

Martijn Zoetebier, Linehub's group director business development, said: "As we face a future of continued uncertainty on every marketing front, I believe the best way to unlock true potential and achieve sustainable success is to build a solid marketing ecosystem and tech stack and not to put all of the eggs in one basket. By investing in a wide range of solutions, marketers can spread their risk while enhancing their brand.

"This will help brands to secure and maintain a voice at the strategy table, instead of just playing a supportive role. That's why we carried out this research – to ensure marketers have the most up to date and relevant insights at their fingertips to help them to progress faster."

A full version of the report is available here.

The research was conducted by Sapio Research on behalf of Linehub, among marketers in the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Sweden.