Marketers plan to increase overall budgets by 4% this year, with nearly half prioritizing an increase in digital budgets, according to a new Forrester survey of 89 B2C marketing leaders. Conversely, just 12% of marketers plan to increase traditional marketing spend this year.

Additional budget findings from this new research include:

  • 25% of marketers plan to increase budgets at least 5%, compared with 12% in 2014.
  • Marketers plan to spend an equal share of their budget (14%) on traditional versus digital ads.
  • Mobile marketing is the top digital marketing priority (53%), followed by social (46%).

Despite heightened focused on digital spend, most marketers admit they don’t completely understand today’s marketing environment and what works, writes Forrester in the new research. Fewer than half of those surveyed believe they are extremely successful in developing and executing digital marketing programs and have clearly developed measurement processes. Why the disconnect? The aspiration for effective digital marketing capabilities has not been backed up with basic investments in the necessary technology and skills.

Learn more about the research here.