Try this exercise—if you can stand it. List the top ten items in your marketing spend, then rank them in order of effectiveness. Are the lists the same?

They’re probably not, judging by a report from MarketingProfs.

For example, B2B marketers rank Webinars one of the three most effective tactics in their marketing budgets to them, the study states. Yet they allocate an average of 7% to them in their budgets.

In contrast, trade shows draw 20%, and they’re not rated among the top three in efficacy.

Of course, it depends on how you define effectiveness. MarketingProf says it’s based on “generating high quality leads and delivering the greatest ROI.”

No wonder Webinars are rated so highly. They’re inexpensive to produce, and one or two solid leads can pay for them, a boon in a down economy. But that 7% may not reflect the true cost. Webinar registrations are largely driven by email. What about that expense?

Speaking of email, it takes up a mere 10% of the average budget, in comparison with 18% for TV and 16% for inside sales/telemarketing.

But that may be because it’s inexpensive.

Still, this is a valid question, given that 63% of the firms surveyed expect to “shift program budget dollars and alternatives” in 2009. As MarketingProfs puts it, they hope to align “marketing spending with tactic effectiveness.”

Here’s another disconnect: The most important activities (as opposed to being the most effective or having the most spent on them) are company Web sites, e-mail/electronic newsletters and Webinars. But the first two may be “approaching saturation in terms of usage,” MarketingProfs says.

We wonder if the data is out of date. It apparently is part of an earlier survey that was conducted at the end of 2008. That caveat aside, here are two more findings:

*The other big line items include print advertising (13%) and executive breakfasts and other events (12%).

*Blogs generate 5% of the average budget, and “other Web 2.0 media” get 4%. And when it comes to effectiveness, they’re down near the bottom.