Augsburg – September 12, 2026 -- German B2B marketing budgets grew a nominal 2.1 percent to an average of €3.57 million in 2026, even as prices for externally purchased marketing services climbed roughly 12 percent over the same period, leaving companies with less real spending power than a year earlier. The findings come from the 14th edition of the "B2B-Marketing-Budgets 2026" study published by the Bundesverband Industrie Kommunikation e.V. (bvik), conducted with scientific support from Prof. Dr. Hannes Huttelmaier of the Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt.
Budget growth fails to keep pace with rising service costs
"Whoever invests counter-cyclically now secures a market advantage tomorrow. Cutting marketing budgets is convenient in the short term and costly in the long run," said Ramona Kaden, Managing Director of bvik.
85 percent of firms now deploy generative AI in marketing operations
Artificial intelligence has become embedded in industrial marketing: 85 percent of surveyed companies use generative AI tools, while 72 percent invest in AI agents and workflow automation. AI has risen to become the second-highest budget priority, trailing only lead generation.
Lothar Marth of Bosch Building Technologies described the company's internal approach as strictly operational, noting that citizen-developer teams combine business users with AI specialists to build practical applications rather than pursuing technology for its own sake.
61 percent of companies spend under €1,000 per employee on AI training
Despite heavy AI investment, skills development is lagging: 61 percent of respondents allocate a maximum of €1,000 per employee annually for training, while marketing team sizes have remained largely unchanged. Prof. Huttelmaier noted that 2026 marks the year AI becomes standard, but that competitive advantage will depend on which organizations build the competencies, processes and mandate to deploy it effectively — not on who buys the most tools.
Trade fairs retain 41 percent of external budgets as content spending rises
Trade fairs, external events and customer events remain the largest single line item, absorbing 41 percent of external budgets and ranking as the top lead-generation format in B2B marketing. Meanwhile, spending on in-house content production rose from 7.5 percent to 11.4 percent year-over-year, increasingly supported by AI tools, while spending on paid media advertising declined.
Budget sentiment for the next two years has improved modestly: 32 percent of respondents expect external budgets to rise, up from 27 percent in the 2025 survey.