A Gartner report analyses 2024 European marketing budget trends, revealing a 15% year-on-year decrease despite CMOs exceeding revenue goals. This decline is attributed to affordability concerns outweighing objective-based budgeting. The report highlights increased investment in bottom-of-the-funnel activities like demand generation and search marketing, while agency and labour costs were reduced. Gartner recommends strategies to improve communication of marketing's value and advocates for objective-based budgeting to secure future funding. The findings are based on a survey of 195 European CMOs across various sectors.