Jun 18, 2025

2X, a leader in subscription-based marketing as a service (MaaS), released a new report, “Rethinking B2B Marketing Execution: The Age of Execution Reinvention,” in partnership with Avasant, a leading digital transformation consultancy. The new report reveals a strategic shift in B2B marketing execution, as marketers prioritize AI-driven campaigns and focus on personalization to boost performance and ROI—even in a challenging economic climate. Marketing budgets are rising 5-10%1 this year, while headcount remains flat. Meanwhile, CMOs are being told to spend new money more effectively, avoiding the temptation to focus it solely on payroll. The only scalable levers left are strategic reallocation and AI-enabled productivity. Gartner’s latest CMO Spend Survey highlights this challenge of balancing declining marketing budgets as a percentage of revenue with high expectations for growing ROI. This landscape is driving brands to rethink traditional agency relationships and embrace more flexible, tech-enabled partnerships that accelerate speed, personalization, and innovation. Key Findings from the Report Budget Growth, Flat Teams: There’s an accelerating demand for external capacity. Tech growth is funded by reallocating program dollars, not cutting headcount. Less than 20%2 of the budget goes to technology, with the average budget split amongst 56% personnel and 24%3 non-personnel programs. AI Goes Mainstream: 72%4 of CMOs now count AI-driven campaigns among their top priorities. Execution Bottleneck: Campaign channels absorb 23% of spend and outsource 56%5 of work, making them the #1 target for hybrid MaaS models. Tech Spend Breaks 20% Barrier: One in five marketing dollars now funds technology—double the share of five years ago, sourced from program budgets. Outcome KPIs Rule: Net-new revenue, ROI, and CLV top the scorecard, displacing legacy funnel metrics. Outsourcing Covering More Marketing Functions: Budgets for outsourcing rose from 39% to 42%6. Core marketing functions (e.g., brand and GTM strategy, budgeting, retention) remain largely in-house (<25%), ensuring strategic control. Specialized areas like campaigns (60.6%) and channel marketing (61.4%)7 are increasingly outsourced to tap into expertise and boost speed. 2X has grown rapidly through strategic investments, acquisitions, and deep partnerships across the B2B marketing ecosystem. As 6sense’s largest implementation partner, 2X is uniquely positioned to help clients succeed on the ABM platform that now leads the category with a 21.8% market share. 2X delivers next-generation marketing performance and capabilities by applying enterprise-grade frameworks, automation, and data-driven strategies, empowering marketing organizations of all sizes to thrive in an increasingly competitive $100B B2B marketing services market. “The report offers a clear view into how marketers are innovating on their operating model where cost efficiency, smarter execution, and leaner teams are the new mandate,” said Domenic Colasante, CEO and Co-Founder of 2X. “At 2X, we’re committed to helping B2B enterprise marketers lead with operating impact, realize the benefit of AI, and deliver more with increasingly scarce resources.” “Today’s CMOs face a stark choice: cling to legacy metrics and fragmented teams, or embrace a new era where technology, data, and external expertise converge,” said Swapnil Bhatnagar, Partner at Avasant. “By aligning KPIs to revenue impact and partnering for specialized skills, marketing organizations can move at the speed of the market, delivering measurable value and agility that legacy models simply can’t match.” Methodology The report combines survey data and expert interviews to provide a comprehensive view of B2B marketing execution. It focuses on how large enterprises—those with over $250 million—are rethinking marketing outsourcing, defined as leveraging external partners for campaign execution, analytics, and content production. Insights were drawn from responses by 87 senior marketers and in-depth interviews with 11 marketing leaders, analyzed to identify key trends and strategies shaping today’s dynamic marketing environment. For more such updates, follow us on Google News  Martech News