More than one-third of marketers plan to cut their advertising budgets over the next six months as they face a continuing down economy, according to a study by the Association of National Advertisers. However, this is an improvement from an ANA survey conducted earlier this year, when nearly half of respondents said they planned budget cuts.

The study, “ANA Recession Survey—3rd Edition,” was based on an online survey of 128 b-to-b and b-to-c client-side marketers conducted in late July and early August. The first “edition” of the survey was conducted in July/August 2008, as the economy began to falter, and a second edition was conducted in January/February.

The latest survey found that 39.3% of marketers expect to cut their advertising budgets over the next six months, while 16.8% are hopeful that their budgets will increase; 43.9% plan to keep budgets the same.

When asked this question in January/February, 48.8% of the 127 marketers surveyed said they expected their ad budgets to be cut over the following six months; 43.2% said they expected them to stay the same; and 8.0% said they expected an increase.