What Do Budgets Currently Look Like? The market sample surveyed by PPAI Media suggests a healthy annual promo budget for end buyers (see Figure 1). With a large range of budget sizes, there’s a commonality among them: Even buyers with significant capital are intentional with their allocation toward promo. • 62% of end buyers report annual budgets over $10,000. • A little more than one third (36%) spend more than $25,000. The $50 Psychological Ceiling Is Real When it comes to unit pricing, there seems to be something of a comfort zone. Just under 80% of respondents looked for unit pricing below $50. Under that number, there was a fairly even cluster of ranges (see Figure 2). This implies a psychological pricing ceiling for most buyers that sits around $50. “Buyers are generally comfortable spending between $10-$50 per item,” Bhat says. “Once you get past that number, they are more likely to start asking, ‘Is it really worth it?’ To get beyond that number, there needs to be a strong story behind the product.” Between $10-$50 per unit are nearly even clusters of budgets broken down as follows: • 17.4% spend $10-$20. • 17.7% spend $20-$30. • 17.4% spend $30-$50. What Makes End Buyers Pay More? If end buyers agree that budgets can be elastic, then something has to get them past that initial budget. They are willing to listen, but what are they looking for? • The most common response (59%) is budgetfriendly but high-impact items, which suggests that when spending increases, cost is still a top consideration. • 53% of buyers want proof of ROI. • About half (51%) are willing to be flexible when they receive creative product recommendations. • A similar number (49.3%) want streamlined ordering. • More than a third (37.7%) claim they have more money to spend if they see better audience targeting. Fig. 1 | Annual Promo Budget Fig. 2 | Spend Per Unit Fig. 3 | What End Buyers Want Under $2,000 - 9% Over $100,000, 16% $2,001 - $5,000, 11% $5,001 - $10,000, 18% $10,001 - $25,000, 26% $25,001 - $100,000, 20% It depends on the campaign, 6% $5-$10, 10.4% Under $2-%5, 6% Under $2, 1.7% Above $100, 11.5% $30-$50, 17.4% $20-$30, 17.7% $10-$20m 17.4% 53% 43.9% 51% 37.7% .04% 59% More Budget Friendly, High Impace Items Proof of ROI Streamlined Ordering Creative Recommendations Better Targeting Options Other 46 • JULY 2025 • PPAI Must Read | 2025 Consumer Study
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