How to Navigate Marketing in a Time of Market Uncertainty

As new tariffs roll in and market uncertainty rises across global markets, brands are bracing for another wave of budget scrutiny. When financial markets shift and market volatility spikes, marketing spend is almost always the first line item questioned. But the instinct to immediately slash brand, prospecting, and measurement budgets can hurt long-term performance far more than it helps short-term cash flow.

Here’s why—and how to navigate smarter in periods of economic uncertainty and unstable market conditions.

In every cycle of heightened uncertainty, the same pattern emerges.

“We can’t measure it—cut it.”
“Shift everything to performance.”
“Our brand ROAS looks terrible in dashboards.”

Prospecting budgets evaporate
Display shuts off
Video and CTV go dark

Testing stops
Incrementality budgets shrink
Data and modeling projects get delayed

This reaction is understandable when market participants are nervous, consumer confidence softens, and leadership feels pressure to mitigate downside risk. But it’s also directly at odds with how to grow through uncertain times.

Only 5% of your audience is in-market at any moment. The other 95% aren’t buying today but will in the future. When brands pull back during periods of market uncertainty or stock market volatility, they lose visibility with that future demand. Competitors who maintain presence—especially during high uncertainty—capture the long-term market share others unknowingly give up.

Brand marketing doesn’t operate on the same time horizon as a fluctuating stock market or week-to-week performance fluctuations. It shapes perception, recall, and category preference. Cutting it removes the foundation of your next revenue cycle.

At fusepoint, we see this across multiple industries and market cycles. When brands retreat too aggressively, they lose not just awareness but also efficiency and momentum. Eliminating brand and TOF spend teaches your media engine to focus solely on the lowest-hanging fruit, which eventually dries up—especially when consumer spending slows or inflation expectations rise.

When companies also pause measurement, they lose insight into which channels are truly driving lift. That means more waste, more blind spots, and weaker alignment with evolving market sentiment and customer behavior.

In periods of market volatility, teams need clarity—not guesses. Incrementality measurement shows which channels truly drive lift versus those merely harvesting demand created elsewhere.

At fusepoint, we run:

These give brands a clearer picture of where to cut without harming growth.

Marketing Mix Modeling reveals the interplay between channels, helping marketers see the halo effect performance dashboards miss. It’s especially valuable when navigating shifting market expectations, inflationary pressures, or unpredictable demand cycles.

Feeding incrementality learnings back into the MMM creates an adaptive system—one that adjusts to economic shifts, evolving consumer spending, and changing market conditions.

When budgets tighten, it’s critical to identify which channels add net-new customers and which simply capture users who would have converted anyway. In volatile markets, every dollar must go toward channels that expand demand, not cannibalize it.

Instead of shutting off channels entirely during periods of market uncertainty, test controlled reductions:

We’ve seen brands cut 30% of spend while retaining over 90% of their performance simply by reallocating with precision.

fusepoint exists to provide clarity when market cycles are unstable and leadership teams are facing complex decisions. We’re not another performance agency—we’re an objective measurement and strategy partner focused on helping brands:

During moments of heightened uncertainty, brands need a partner who can translate data into action—not more noise.

In downturns, the brands that win aren’t the ones who cut the deepest. They’re the ones who cut with intention, invest strategically, and measure relentlessly. As market uncertainty increases, clarity becomes a competitive advantage.

If you want to understand what’s working, what’s wasting spend, and where to reallocate in volatile conditions, schedule a measurement assessment with fusepoint.