The average marketing budget of a Czech B2B company is 3.6 million CZK a year. Yet a third of large companies spend under 500 thousand on marketing. Among companies whose revenue grew, half raised their budget recently. Among those that stagnated, only a quarter did.
That is what the data from the current *B2B Monitor 2026* survey says. The agency B-inside ran it together with the digital agency Effectix at the turn of 2025 and 2026 among 367 Czech B2B companies. Respondents were marketing and sales directors of companies with revenue above 100 million CZK in IT and services, or above 500 million CZK in manufacturing.
These numbers open up several questions about how Czech B2B companies approach marketing, who invests in it and why. And also what companies can do if they sense they could get more out of marketing but lack the appetite or the certainty to raise the budget sharply without checking whether it would pay off.
Let us go through the data one point at a time.
What the marketing budgets of Czech B2B companies look like
The study split respondents into four budget bands. The result looks like this:
- 35 % of companies have a budget up to 500 thousand CZK a year.
- 18 % of companies have a budget between 500 thousand and 1 million CZK.
- 32 % of companies have a budget between 1 and 5 million CZK.
- 15 % of companies spend more than 5 million a year on marketing.
The average marketing budget across the sample is 3.6 million CZK a year. But the median company sits between 1 and 2 million; the average is pulled up by large advertisers.
Budget size correlates strongly with the size of the target market the company operates in. The study distinguishes three types:
- Companies targeting tens of customers spend 1.6 million CZK a year on average.
- Companies targeting hundreds of customers, 2.5 million CZK.
- Companies targeting thousands of customers, 5.9 million CZK.
This correlation makes intuitive sense. The broader the target market, the greater the need for reach, and the greater the investment in the channels that deliver it. What is more interesting, though, is a different angle we will get to in a moment: the correlation between budget size and whether the company’s revenue grew over the past year or not.
Budgets grow where the business already grows
Recently, 38 % of respondents raised their marketing budget. But when we split the data by how the company did over the past year, a much more interesting picture emerges:
- Among companies whose revenue grew, 44 % raised their budget.
- Among companies that stagnated, only 27 % raised their budget.
- Among companies whose revenue declined, 32 % raised their budget.
From this data the study concludes that budget increases more often applied to companies that were doing well, and that, according to the survey’s long-term results, these are very often the same companies that are doing well precisely because they work on marketing systematically.
The "budgets grow where the business already grows" angle opens up an interesting question. Does it work so that successful companies raise their budgets because they can afford to? Or does it work so that successful companies grow precisely because they invest in marketing consistently? The study leans toward the second reading. But clear causality cannot be proven from the data itself. Both can be true at once and reinforce each other.
For a company that stagnates today and is considering raising its marketing budget, the practical consequence is the same either way. If the second reading holds, investing in marketing could be the way out of stagnation. If the first holds, the company loses nothing by raising the budget, because it runs an experiment with limited risk.
Why a third of large companies invest only pocket change in marketing
The study itself does not give a direct answer to the question "why are budgets at a third of large companies so low". But the data lets us build a few hypotheses worth considering.
Marketing may not be seen as an engine of growth
The study says budgets more often grow at companies where marketing has a strategic role (37 % raised them). At companies where marketing does not have a strategic role, increases reached 40 %. Which is surprisingly similar. The difference between "strategic" and "non-strategic" marketing does not show up strongly in the decision to raise the budget. What does differ is the total budget size and how many tools the company uses.
In practice this may mean that leadership at companies where marketing does not play a strategic role sees it more as a support function for sales or a "necessary evil" (website, materials, trade show attendance). They do not see it as a standalone engine of growth. And without that perspective they have no reason to invest more.
Marketing may not have a clear owner in the company
The study does not examine this directly, but it is reasonable to assume that companies with very low budgets often lack senior marketing leadership. In such companies marketing falls under the sales director, under the CEO or under a junior marketer without senior backing. In none of these does marketing typically have a strategic head who can justify a bigger investment with results.
If nobody in the company has the mandate or the ability to show what marketing brings, leadership has no reason to add to it. In that constellation, the budget is more an indicator of missing ownership than of thrift.
Without measuring results there is no reason to invest
The third possible hypothesis is that B2B marketing is measured differently from e-commerce. The sales cycle is longer; weeks or months often pass between the customer’s first contact and closing the deal. If a company does not measure marketing systematically, has no funnel set up and cannot attribute a lead to a specific activity, leadership sees only cost with no return. You cannot calculate ROI, and if you do, you do it very badly.
And when they do not see what it brings, the rational response is to keep the budget as low as possible. This loop can run for years in B2B companies and is often the single reason not to invest anything in marketing.
What senior marketing leadership costs in the Czech market
If the hypotheses above hold even partly, they lead to a logical question: how much does it actually cost a company to bring in someone who could lead marketing strategically and defend results?
The salary expectation of a senior marketing director (CMO) in the Czech market usually sits between 90 and 160 thousand CZK gross a month. Plus payroll taxes, plus bonuses, plus benefits. The annual cost of one experienced full-time CMO climbs past two million CZK gross. On top of that comes a search of several months, onboarding and the risk that the hire does not work out.
For a company spending 380 or 500 thousand a year on marketing today, that is a huge leap. A leap that is hard to take for a company that does not yet have a reason to believe it will pay off.
Between "we have nobody to lead marketing strategically" and "we hire a full-time CMO for two million a year" there is one more model, which was long missing in the Czech market and is only now starting to spread.
A fractional CMO as an affordable experiment
A fractional CMO is external strategic marketing leadership for a few days a month. A monthly flat fee, a plan for three to six months, a clear project frame. Not an employee, an external partner. In the Czech market the price typically ranges between 38 and 80 thousand CZK a month, depending on the scope of the engagement.
Over six months the math works out considerably better. You can calculate your specific saving in our calculator.
For a company facing the question of whether it is even worth investing in marketing more aggressively, this is practically the smallest possible investment that can answer it. Over three to six months of working with a fractional CMO, a company gets:
- A real picture of what is happening in marketing today and what of it brings results and what does not.
- A strategy built on the company’s specific situation, not a generic recommendation from a deck.
- A view of what marketing can realistically bring to the business, measurably, and on what horizon.
- Delivery of the goals agreed at the start of the engagement against a clear definition.
- A basis for deciding what next. Either raise the investment and continue (possibly moving to a full-time CMO), or confirm that a bigger investment does not make sense in that business model.
Both outcomes are more valuable to a company than more years of quiet stagnation with a budget under 500 thousand that nobody can defend and nobody knows whether a bigger budget would bring anything.
An important distinction worth mentioning: a fractional CMO is not the same as an interim one. An interim manager comes into the company most of the week, stands in for a permanent director long term and works for only one company. A fractional manager is there a few days a month, works in parallel for two to four clients and comes to build something new, not to hold something that is already running. We describe the difference between a fractional and an interim CMO in more detail in a separate article. We do the fractional model only.
FAQ: the most common questions about B2B marketing budgets
How much should a B2B company realistically invest in marketing?
The usual recommendation in B2B ranges between 2 and 5 percent of revenue, and easily more for growing companies. The specific number depends heavily on the company’s stage, the size of the target market and its growth ambitions. The B2B Monitor 2026 study shows that the average budget across large Czech B2B companies is 3.6 million CZK a year. But more important than the absolute figure is whether someone manages the budget strategically.
What do companies that invest more in marketing do?
According to the B2B Monitor 2026 study, companies with higher budgets usually serve larger markets (companies targeting thousands of customers spend 5.9 million CZK on average). At the same time, according to the study, they are more often companies whose revenue grew. 44 % of them raised their budget recently, compared with 27 % of stagnating companies.
Why is a fractional CMO cheaper than a full-time one?
A fractional CMO works for your company one to 2 days a week, not full time. You pay for the part of their time you actually need. The monthly flat fee in the Czech market ranges between 38 and 80 thousand CZK depending on the scope, versus roughly two million CZK a year for a full-time CMO all in.
When does it make sense to hire a fractional CMO instead of an agency?
An agency is good when you know what you want to do and need someone to execute it. A fractional CMO is good when you do not know what to do, or you know that what you are doing does not work. In many B2B companies the combination works best: a fractional CMO builds the strategy and watches the results, while the agency executes what it does best.
Do you also do interim CMO?
No. We do the fractional model only, external leadership for one to three days a week. An interim manager comes into the company most of the week and stands in for a permanent director long term, which is not what we do. If you need interim, we will point you elsewhere.
Conclusion: when to meet us over lunch
The data from B2B Monitor 2026 shows one clear pattern. Marketing budgets grow where the business already grows. And where it stagnates, only a quarter of companies raise the budget. The question of whether marketing helps growth or growth helps marketing stays open. But the practical consequence for a company that stagnates and wonders what to do about it is clear: it is worth investing more in marketing, but with sense and with accountability for results.
A fractional CMO is, in such a situation, the smallest possible investment that can answer the biggest question: can marketing in this company bring measurable business, or not? Over three to six months the answer is on the table. And for a company weighing whether it is even worth putting more money into marketing, it is the cheapest way to check.
If you recognize yourself in something from this article, that you approve the budget without appetite, that you do not know what marketing really brings, or that you sense you could get more out of it but do not want to raise it blindly, let us meet.
Let us meet over lunch. No slides, no commitments. We will talk about where you are, where you want to go and whether we can help. And if we cannot, we will say so straight.
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