by Nycole Walsh
Every year, marketing leaders set ambitious goals, build their plans, and head into January with conviction. Then reality sets in.
We wanted to know what that reality actually looked like this quarter. So we surveyed over 200 CMOs, VPs of Marketing, and Heads of Marketing across B2B tech sectors including cybersecurity, mobility, robotics, edtech, and sales and marketing technology. We asked them about their goals, their resources, their performance, and what they actually expect by December 31.
The result is the Q1 CMO Pulse, and the findings are worth your time.
Goal clarity is high. Confidence in execution is a different story.
Nearly all respondents said their goals are clearly defined (98%) and their success metrics are agreed upon (94%). Good news, right? Sort of.
When we asked those same leaders to rate whether their goals are actually realistic and achievable, the numbers dropped significantly. Only 21% rated goal realism as excellent and only 30% said the same about achievability.
The gap between having a plan and believing in it is real, and it’s showing up in the data.
One in three is already behind.
67% of leaders ended Q1 on track or ahead of plan. That sounds reassuring until you flip it: roughly one in three is already behind heading into April. The areas struggling most are new customer acquisition (29% behind), customer advocacy and referrals (26%), and brand awareness/share of voice (25%).
The bright spot? Website and organic performance, where 74% report being on track or ahead.
Resources are the fault line.
When we looked at leaders who rated their resourcing as excellent versus everyone else, the performance gap was stark. Well-resourced leaders were twice as likely to be significantly ahead of plan.
For the leaders who don’t feel well-resourced, the top reasons included were budget constraints (64%), too many priorities with too small a team (53%), and hiring limitations (40%).
This isn’t about effort, it’s about alignment. When resourcing matches the plan, teams actually have a shot at hitting it.
The macro environment is a real variable.
65% of respondents said the current U.S. administration is having some impact on their business. Education/EdTech leaders were 93% more likely to report the administration having a negative impact on their business. Hypergrowth companies were 78% more likely to say the impact has been positive.
Where you land on that spectrum has a lot to do with your category, your customers, and your competitive position.
What’s working (and what isn’t)?
Product marketing, website/SEO/content, and partnerships/co-marketing topped the list of highest-performing channels. The biggest pain point? Webinars and virtual events, cited by 22% as an underperformer, followed closely by paid media and email/nurture programs.
One interesting wrinkle: paid media appeared on both the top-performing and pain-point lists. That’s not a contradiction. It’s a reminder that channel selection matters less than execution quality. The same budget in the same channel can drive results or drain resources depending on how you deploy it.
The full report has more details. We also dug into vertical-specific storylines in cybersecurity, education/edtech, and robotics and automation. Each tells a meaningfully different story about how sector dynamics are shaping marketing performance right now.
Download the Q1 CMO Pulse to read the full findings, including what leaders forecast for year-end and what the data says heading into Q2.
