Marketing budget benchmark data can be used to ensure a company’s resources are appropriately applied to marketing organizational and program efforts. However, marketing leaders must understand how to use the marketing spend data contained within Forrester’s True Costs of Marketing reports to extract the most value without misusing the data, which may lead to unwise decisions. In this report, we provide guidance and background information on the True Costs of Marketing data, and explain how to interpret and use this data to compare an organization’s investment level to its peers.