The 2027 Marketing Investment Guide

Plan 2027 knowing where every dollar works hardest

Built on $48 billion in measured marketing investment, the guide shows where your budget has room to grow, which weeks pay most, and what to change in six industries. Most of the moves need no new money.

Get the 2027 Marketing Investment Guide

Bring channel, timing and industry benchmarks into your next planning meeting.

Plan for the next dollar

Every Q4 comes back to the same four questions: how much to spend, where it should go, when it should land, and what to do differently from last year. Average ROI tells you how last year's money performed. The 2027 guide goes a step further and shows what the next dollar you commit is likely to return.

The findings come from Keen AI Cortex, which measures the relationship between marketing investment and business outcomes across consumer brands on the Keen platform. The guide covers the last 52 weeks of data and reads every return three ways:

$48B

in historical marketing investment measured

52 weeks

of the most recent platform data

6 industry chapters

with specific recommendations

01

$2.00+

The average dollar returns $1.57 and the next dollar on today's plan returns $0.68. Put that same next dollar in the right channel and week, and it returns more than $2.00 with no change to the budget.

02

$0.96 vs. $0.57

A dollar spent in a light week earned $0.96. In a heavy week, the same brand in the same channel earned $0.57. The pattern holds in 94% of brand and channel combinations.

03

2.04 vs. 1.36

Inside retail media, display returned 2.04 and search formats returned 1.36. Search formats hold about 65% of retail media dollars, so the shift can happen inside the existing line item.

04

1.76 vs. 1.48

Top of funnel out-returned bottom of funnel across all measured brands, and the gap holds within each vertical.

05

Week 51

The best-returning week of the holiday season, and the only one where the next dollar clears $1.00. Most brands have already started pulling spend by then.

06

$0.29 vs. $0.12

Brands that followed their plan earned $0.29 per dollar. Brands that drifted earned $0.12.

Part One: What the data says

01

Where the money went

how media share shifted across linear TV, retail media, search and social, and where influencer spend is growing fastest

02

Where the return is

the channels and tactics that still have room for the next dollar, and the ones that are past the point where it pays

03

The holiday calendar

when awareness channels need to start, which weeks pay most, and a playbook built around your own peak week

04

Next year's plans

how brands are shifting search, streaming and display for 2027

01

Check which channels have room. The headroom table shows, by vertical and channel, where the next dollar still pays.

02

Move spend into the weeks that return more. Shift dollars out of your heaviest weeks and into lighter ones without changing the total.

03

Split retail media before you set the number. Plan search and display formats separately, since they're moving in opposite directions.

04

Make the case for top of funnel. Pair any upper-funnel shift with a measurement window longer than 30 days so it holds up in quarterly review.

05

Build the holiday calendar backwards from your peak. Use the channel lead times to decide when each channel should start, and keep budget for weeks 50 and 51.

06

Name an owner for the plan. Brands that followed their plan earned more than twice as much per dollar as brands that drifted.