01.
Q1 Marketing Wynter Index: 58.6

MARKETING INVESTMENT ACCELERATES AS TEAMS BET ON SOFTWARE, ADS & HEADCOUNT

• B2B marketing activity expanded to begin 2026, with the composite Wynter Index rising to 58.6, up more than 3 points from Q4 2025. The biggest movers: software and advertising investments hit new highs, with nearly half of respondents citing AI tools as their top investment area.
• Teams are selectively adding headcount, led by mid-market and VC-backed companies, while performance-to-plan improved notably but still sits just below 50 as smaller firms continue to struggle.
• The one pullback: agency spend slipped as enterprise and publicly-traded companies bring work in-house, though mid-market firms remain the bright spot for external partners.
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Q1 PRIORITIES: PIPELINE PRESSURE, AI URGENCY AND BRAND

• Pipeline is the unquestioned #1 priority, as 72% of respondents cited pipeline, demand gen, or acquisition as a top-three focus, up from 66% in Q4 2025. Strategy and efficiency hold steady at #2 (48%) as "do more with less" remains table stakes.

• Brand is back as a strategic priority, jumping to 45.5% of respondents, up from 39% in Q425. Marketers are reinvesting in narrative, differentiation, and trust-building, with several explicitly tying brand work to AI discoverability.
• AI adoption is mainstream and woven throughout the operating model, with 39.5% naming it a top priority, from AI SDRs to agentic workflows to personalization.
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02.
Performance to revenue plan: 49.0 (Contraction)

• Performance improved notably, climbing 5 points to 49, still below the neutral 50 line but no longer the clear drag it was last quarter. The middle is expanding as more teams land on or near their targets, with "well below plan" dropping from 7% to 4.5%.
• Company size tells the real story: mid-market firms (200-999 employees) are the only segment in expansion territory at 52.7, while medium-sized companies (50-199) are struggling at 35.7 with over half below plan.
• Bootstrapped companies are quietly outperforming (52.2), while VC-backed firms show the most pressure at 47.1, suggesting investor expectations remain high while execution is harder. Performance is recovering but won't reach expansion territory until pipeline investments translate to closed revenue.

03.
Full-time marketing headcount: 61.0 (Expansion)

• Headcount expansion picked up pace, with the sub-index climbing 3 points to 61. 37% of teams expect to add FTEs (up from 31% in Q425) as more move into hiring mode; 48% hold flat, 15% reduce.
• Medium-sized companies show the highest headcount diffusion (65.7) despite having the weakest performance-to-plan, suggesting teams are too lean to cut further and are hiring to close the gap. VC-backed companies are adding most aggressively (66.2) even as results lag, while PE-backed and public companies remain more cautious.
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04.
Ads & paid media spend: 64.3 (Expansion)

• Paid budgets accelerated sharply to 64.3 (up from 59.5 in Q425) with 47% increasing spend and cuts dropping from 25% in Q4 to just 18.5%. Medium-sized and VC-backed companies are spending most aggressively, appearing to invest their way out of performance gaps.
• Paid Search (42%) and LinkedIn (32%) dominate the bet list, while SEO and content marketing lead organic investments at 44% as teams double down on owned assets.
• Over half (53.5%) cite low ROI as the primary driver for cuts, followed by cost inflation (27%). AI-driven disruption — zero-click behavior, AI Overviews compressing search CTR, and privacy changes — continues to reshape channel economics.

05.
Software spend: 64.8 (Expansion)

• Software budgets hit their highest expansion reading in the Index's history at 64.8, with 45% planning to increase spend (up from 33.5% in Q425). Nearly half (49%) are directing new dollars toward AI and automation with no other category coming close.
• The second tier of investment tells a coherent story: teams are building infrastructure for pipeline and organic discovery, with content/SEO/AEO (23%), marketing ops (22%), and ABM/outbound (17%) rounding out the top categories.
• Consolidation is a major theme in the Index data, with 26% eliminating redundant tools and rationalizing bloated stacks. AI and ABM appear in both investment and cut columns: winners are getting more budget while underperformers are being abandoned as teams demand ROI clarity.
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06.
Agency, consultant and fractional spend: 53.8 (Expansion)

• Agency and fractional spend is the lone soft spot in an otherwise strengthening index, slipping a point to 53.8. The reading masks a sharp divergence: mid-market firms (59.0) are actively increasing external support, while enterprise (46.1) and publicly-traded companies (40.7) have tipped into steep contraction.
• The squeeze comes from both ends, as smaller teams lack the budget for outside specialists, while larger organizations are pulling work in-house, likely under cost scrutiny and efficiency mandates from leadership.
• Bootstrapped companies buck the trend (59.1), suggesting lean teams without deep benches still see external specialists as a flexible way to access expertise they can't hire full-time. Agencies' path forward depends on mid-market budgets holding and whether enterprise cost-cutting stabilizes.
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07.
Other insights of note

The medium company paradox

Medium-sized companies (50-199 employees) show the starkest disconnect in the data: worst performance-to-plan (35.7, deep contraction) yet the most aggressive hiring (65.7) and highest propensity to increase software spend (42.5%). They're betting big despite struggling, either a calculated growth play or a sign of desperation.

Mid-market sweet spot

‍Mid-market companies (200-999 employees) are quietly winning. They posted the best performance-to-plan (52.7, the only segment above 50), strong headcount expansion (60.4), and lead agency spend (59.0). Scale without public-company constraints appears to be an advantage.

VC growth mandates override performance

‍VC-backed firms are hiring the most aggressively (66.2 headcount diffusion) despite underperforming on plan (47.1). Investor growth expectations appear to be overriding near-term profitability concerns; a familiar pattern, but notable given the efficiency narrative elsewhere.

AI as the great consolidator

‍Tool consolidation (26%) is the top software cut theme, and many respondents explicitly noted AI investments are replacing legacy point solutions. The pattern: cut seat-based enrichment tools, ABM platforms, and underused standalone software; reinvest in AI that can do multiple jobs.

Channel ROI reckoning

‍Low ROI (53.5%) is the #1 reason teams are cutting ad channels, ahead of budget pressure or strategic shifts. The winners: paid search and LinkedIn for paid; SEO/content for organic. The losers: Meta, YouTube, and programmatic display, all cited for poor attribution or efficiency.
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08.
About the Wynter Index

The Wynter Index is a quarterly diffusion gauge of B2B marketing activity, designed to give senior leaders, vendors and other interested parties a clean view of momentum in spend, hiring, and execution across B2B SaaS. Data is gathered using a Wynter survey of 200 B2B marketing leaders.

How the Wynter Index is calculated
The Wynter Index headline number is the equal-weighted average of the five core components: performance to revenue plan, FTE headcount change, paid advertising change, software investment change, and agency/consultant spend change.

The Index and each sub-index is a diffusion score rounded to 1 decimal with 50 representing no change. Note that diffusion measures breadth of change, not size. 52-55 = mild expansion; >55 = solid expansion; <48 = contraction.

Field window and participant composition
This survey was conducted in January 2026 with a participant panel of 200 B2B SaaS marketing leaders based in the United States and Canada.

(n = 200; CMO 38, VP/SVP 63, Sr. Director/Director/Head of 99)‍

Segment definitions‍

“Medium” refers to companies with 51-199 employees; “Mid-market” to companies with 200-999 employees; “Enterprise” to 1000+ employees.

Seasonal adjustment

The Wynter Index is not seasonally-adjusted. We will review this after ≥8 waves.

Revisions and adjustments‍

We correct material errors and may restate prior readings if methods change. Any revisions or changes will be noted first at wynter.com/index and in subsequent Wynter Index reports.

Data access, licensing and citation‍

Wynter Index snapshot (headline + sub-indices), commentary and data are free for editorial use with attribution. Commercial use requires permission.

You can find current and past Wynter Index data, including all survey questions and participant responses, at wynter.com/index.

Press & analyst contacts‍

Please reach out by email at hello@wynter.com.

About Wynter‍

Wynter is the fast alternative to traditional B2B market research: an on-demand platform enabling professionals to quickly gather insights from verified target buyers. Wynter’s self-serve platform combines brand tracking, surveys, message testing, preference tests, and more, leveraging a panel of over 80,000 verified B2B decision-makers filterable by role, seniority, industry, location, and company size. Results are typically delivered within 48 hours, summarized into clear, actionable findings. Learn more at wynter.com.

Join the Wynter participant panel
Apply to join Wynter at wynter.com/participants/join.

09.
Get the raw Wynter Index data

You can view the entire question set and all 200 responses at Wynter here.

To get the full dataset in CSV or Markdown, tap "Download" at the top right.