Marketing Budget Allocation

The last 5 conversations I’ve had with CMOs go like this: “I need to cut my budget by 20% and still hit the Q4 number. What should I do?” And the crazy thing is that almost every B2B SaaS company is clearly wasting at least 20% of their Marketing budget with clear data to show it. Here’s an example: I just finished an analysis with a Series D SaaS company with a $9MM/year Marketing program budget and found $1.7MM in clearly wasted spend. The common culprits are: 1. 3rd Party Content Syndication: 15,600 “MQLs”, 3 Closed Won Deals - $775,000 annualized wasted spend 2. Non-Branded Low Intent Google Paid Search: 831 “Conversions”, No CRM Tracking in Place - $220,000 annualized wasted spend 3. Google Programmatic / Display Ads: 0 MQLs, 0 Closed Won Deals, No Effective Measurement - $270,000 annualized wasted spend 4. LinkedIn Gated Content “Lead Gen” Campaigns: 1 Closed Won Deal - $520,000 annualized wasted spend In 8 weeks, we helped the CMO save $1.7MM per year in Marketing program budget and expect effectively no negative impact on qualified pipeline / revenue production. We also re-architected their Events strategy, which could recoup another $750k+ per year in spend that can be saved or re-deployed to programs that drive significantly higher ROI. ___ This analysis called “Split the Funnel” is highly effective in identifying wasted spend in a pure MQL model, which most B2B SaaS companies still run due to outdated demand waterfall models and misguided requirements for digital touchpoint-based attribution. When pressure gets put on the Marketing budget, it starts to become very clear what’s working and what’s not. Especially when you scrutinize each program against actual ROI (revenue) instead of cost per MQL. #marketing #b2b #demand #sales

If I was the Head of Events at a $100M ARR SaaS, and had a $1,000,000 event budget, here’s the exact playbook I’d run (with budget): BACKGROUND: Replicating SaaS is only getting easier. Building moats is not. The best moat you can build is your community. That should be the #1 focus of every GTM team. Here’s the event program: 1. Flagship Event 60% of budget is going here. Pair on the back of a major product announcement. Use sponsorship and ticket sales to generate another $500k - $1m Attendance: 50% customers, 20% BoFu, 10% partners, 10% MoFu Invest in niche influencers. Make your event the “it” event. 2. Field Marketing Target 15-20 cities Bring in 1-3 partners. Total cost per city should be < $10k including travel Attendance: 20% Customers, 20% BoFu, 40% MoFu, 20% ToFu Get your SDR team onboard. Watch response rates go from <1% for cold outbound to >18% with dinner invites 3. Webinars / Virtual Full time role + $1,000 per event for promotion & speaker gifts 3 objectives here Build relationships with speakers Generate content You can’t be in every city every month. Use this to maintain mindshare throughout the year Attendance: 10% Customers, 10% BoFu, 40% MoFu, 40% ToFu (I'd use Accelevents to manage 1 through 3) 4. 3rd Party Events Only invest in the top 3-5 industry events Spend $50k - $100k per event Host a micro event at each You can’t build a moat from 3rd party events so I’d focus on our owned event program. 5. Content distribution Any remaining budget goes to content distribution. You’re building a brand around your events. Allocate 90% of budget to creating and distributing short form video. Not lengthy sessions. Look, it’s a lot of work. But it can define your brand. And your brand will be the only thing that matters when products get commoditized. P.S. Your CEO and CMO need to believe in events. What would you change? How would you allocate your budget? One platform can run all your owned events. Check out Accelevents --> https://hubs.la/Q03d3MZ70

Faster growing companies invest more in marketing. 🔥 Every time marketing budgets are up for approval, the dance begins. CMOs scramble for benchmarks to defend their asks, CFOs demand proof of efficiency, and CEOs wonder if they're investing enough to outpace competitors. That’s why I recently worked with Carilu Dietrich, Bill Macaitis, and Ray Rike (Benchmarkit) to survey 300+ marketing leaders to generate 𝐓𝐡𝐞 2025 𝐁2𝐁 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭. We found there is a direct correlation between growth rates and marketing budget allocation. In other words, growth and investment in marketing go hand in hand. (Admittedly, it’s not clear which comes first. Does marketing drive growth, or does growth allow for more marketing? Let me know what you think in the comments.) Specifically, companies growing >30% allocate more than 2x to marketing than those growing <10%. Among companies above $50M in revenue, the fastest-growing firms invest nearly 3x more than slower-growth peers! The Benchmark report also has these juicy nuggets: 1️⃣ THE PRODUCT-LED REVOLUTION PLG companies invest more in marketing (13% of revenue vs 9% for sales-led) while allocating more to programs and less to people. 2️⃣ THE METRICS PARADOX Over a third of companies still track MQLs as a top-three metric, while only 15% monitor Marketing CAC ratio. And just 8% measure awareness. This reflects how difficult it is for CMOs to move their organizations beyond the "gumball machine" mentality of marketing — insert budget, collect leads — toward understanding the nuanced, complex way marketing actually works. 3️⃣ THE MARKETING-SALES BUDGET SPLIT Marketing receives approximately 1/3 of the total Sales and Marketing budget, and as deal sizes increase, marketing's slice of the pie shrinks — from 36% at companies with <$10K ACV to just 25% at those with >$250K deals. Why? As sales complexity increases, companies shift investment toward high-touch, relationship-driven sales motions. But this risks underinvesting in marketing's ability to shape buyer preferences before that first sales contact — a period when 80% of buyer decisions are already forming. We’ll be going over all this and so much more at a webinar on March 11th at 1:00 PM ET/10:00 AM PT. (Sign up in the comments.)  We’ll cover: 1) Budget as a percentage of revenue for 2024 and 2025  2) Budget allocation across people, process, technology  3) Budget broken down by the functions within Marketing  4) Performance metrics 5) GTM efficiency metrics 6) Marketing budget setting process  7) Growth Rates by Marketing expenses By the way, there’s also an interactive version of the benchmark where you can get data for companies that match your specific profile! Let me know in the comments if you'd like access! #B2BMarketing #MarketingStrategy #MarketingROI #CMO #GrowthMarketing

#LinkedInAds can be challenging when trying to get high-quality marketing leads from the US. Here's how we tackle it for our B2B clients. Two Campaign Groups: 1. Cold Prospecting or Demand Gen - 60% of total budget 2. Retargeting - 40% of total budget These Campaign Groups consist of three funnels: Funnel 1 - Awareness & Brand Recall Audience: Target Account list or ICP-based native targeting Goals: Reach 80-90% of the audience with a frequency of 5+ across different campaigns. Introduce our company, services, and value proposition. Assets: Funding News, Company Videos, Founder's 1-Minute Loom, Thought Leadership Blogs KPIs: Website Visits, CTRs, Accounts Engaged, Video Watch Rate Path: Homepage and Blogs Budget: 10% -------------------------------- Funnel 2 - Content-based MoFu Before starting Funnel 2, refresh Funnel 1 audience or acquire a new list/audience. Audience: Engaged users from Funnel 1 Goal: Engage the vetted audience with our content Assets: Playbooks, Ungated Reports, Gated Reports, Webinars KPIs: Valid Gated Content Submissions, Leads from Targeted Lists Path: Lead Generation Forms only Budget: 25% ------------------------- Funnel 3 - Direct Acquisition Audience: Engaged users from Funnels 1 & 2, Ad engagers, form opens, downloaded gated forms, Frequency 5+ or Days 30+ eligibility Assets: Job-to-be-Done (JBTD) based ads, Conversational ads, Integrated product-based ads KPIs: Meeting bookings, Signups, Get Quote, High-intent form fills Path: 50% Lead Generation Forms, 50% Direct LP Testing Budget: 25% ---------------------------------------- The remaining 40% is allocated to Retargeting, which consists of two buckets: First-party website data and CRM data. Retargeting Audience: 1) Non-converters from Funnels 1-3 2) High-intent page visitors from other sources (organic, paid search competitor traffic, core terms, referral traffic) 3) Low-intent but high-value users (e.g., blog scroll depth 70%, 2 pages visited, session duration > 2 minutes) Assets: Case Studies, Testimonial Floaters, G2, Gartner, Forrester badges & Awards, Integration News, Efficiency/Cost savings messaging Path: Create new landing page for returning users and add a microsite link to case studies, customer testimonial videos, etc. Budget: 20% -------------------------------- Lastly, Pipeline Marketing focuses on helping our SDRs move users' lifecycle stages from lead to MQl, MQL to OPP, or Closed Lost to MQL. Assets: Company News, Product Launch Updates, Integration Updates, Upcoming Events, FOMO ads, Funding News KPIs: Sales Replies, Lifecycle Stage Movements, Webinar and Event Registrations This structure will works for most of the B2B brands. Pls share your thoughts on comments. Ideal budget to execute this structure is $10k - $15k monthly budget for linkedin. #ppc #linkedinads

PE Investor: (reviewing the 2025 marketing budget) investing this much into brand is ridiculous. keep it at 3-5%. the rest needs to drive accountable revenue. CMO: classic duplicitous PE Investor saying 'we invested in you because you have a strong brand' out of one side of your mouth, and 'if it doesn't drive short term revenue i'm skeptical' out of the other. PE Investor: i know it's not perfect, but short term ROAS is the only apples to apples measure we have of marketing spend. CMO: nope. cutting brand spend will boost short term ROAS, but that metric increasing doesn't necessarily help the fundamental business. it's one of the main reasons we've had such a tough 2023 and 2024 from a customer acquisition perspective. PE Investor: but we need to be sure we're not wasting money CMO: by cutting brand and other “underperforming” conversion DR spend, putting more of the remaining spend into high ROAS places, we reduce the incrementality of our spend PE Investor: remind me what that means again? CMO: driving purchases that would not have happened otherwise PE Investor: wait - why would we spend any money to claim credit for a purchase that would have happened anyway? CMO: exactly. we're doing the very thing we don't want to do with our precious remaining capital: waste money PE Investor: so cutting brand and low ROAS spend and over-rotating to high ROAS feels good short-term but harms the business even more long term? CMO: there's nuance, but overall, yes. what makes more sense is to move more from bottom funnel spend to upper funnel brand PE Investor: that makes no sense CMO: try to apply the thinking from this conversation PE Investor: ok, let's do this: if we pull back on the highest short term ROAS areas, rather than gutting brand, short term ROAS might drop, but as we've seen, that's ok because high ROAS generally means it's taking credit for purchases that would have happened anyway CMO: now we're talking PE Investor: wait, I'm on a roll, let me cook. and when we consider our wholesale channel, putting more of our spend into bottom funnel will not have as much impact on driving those businesses as our broad reach, brand-first content. this may even drive a higher contribution margin percentage across the overall business, without as large a drop in contribution margin dollars as we might otherwise see if we keep relying on discount offers and urgency to get meh customers CMO: yaaaas chef PE Investor: this may limit the shrinkage in our new customer cohorts, which always bites us in the a** when we need that repeat revenue later. it forces us into suboptimal tactics like over-emailing and discounts to pull forward LTV and cover short term revenue shortfalls. it protects our contribution $ LTV, which is our real goal. So in sum, doing the opposite of what I thought might actually make the most sense CMO: you cooked up quite a feast PE Investor: thank you. I channeled my inner Gordon Ramsay

Incrementality testing is crucial for evaluating the effectiveness of marketing campaigns because it helps marketers determine the true impact of their efforts. Without this testing, it's difficult to know whether observed changes in user behavior or sales were actually caused by the marketing campaign or if they would have occurred naturally. By measuring incrementality, marketers can attribute changes in key metrics directly to their campaign actions and optimize future strategies based on concrete data. In this blog written by the data scientist team from Expedia Group, a detailed guide is shared on how to measure marketing campaign incrementality through geo-testing. Geo-testing allows marketers to split regions into control and treatment groups to observe the true impact of a campaign. The guide breaks the process down into three main stages: - The first stage is pre-testing, where the team determines the appropriate geographical granularity—whether to use states, Designated Market Areas (DMAs), or zip codes. They then strategically select a subset of available regions and assign them to control and treatment groups. It's crucial to validate these selections using statistical tests to ensure that the regions are comparable and the split is sound. - The second stage is the test itself, where the marketing intervention is applied to the treatment group. During this phase, the team must closely monitor business performance, collect data, and address any issues that may arise.  - The third stage is post-test analysis. Rather than immediately measuring the campaign's lift, the team recommends waiting for a "cooldown" period to capture any delayed effects. This waiting period also allows for control and treatment groups to converge again, confirming that the campaign's impact has ended and ensuring the model hasn’t decayed. This structure helps calculate Incremental Return on Advertising spending, answering questions like “How do we measure the sales directly driven by our marketing efforts?” and “Where should we allocate future marketing spend?” The blog serves as a valuable reference for those looking for more technical insights, including software tools used in this process. #datascience #marketing #measurement #incrementality #analysis #experimentation – – –  Check out the "Snacks Weekly on Data Science" podcast and subscribe, where I explain in more detail the concepts discussed in this and future posts:    -- Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gKgaMvbh   -- Apple Podcast: https://lnkd.in/gj6aPBBY    -- Youtube: https://lnkd.in/gcwPeBmR https://lnkd.in/gWKzX8X2 

Maybe not the full “coffee is for closers” sales mindset, but we should think of every internal marketing presentation as a sales presentation. What does that mean? Have a clear objective - What idea do we need to convey? What attitude or perception do we need to shift? What’s the value story we need to deliver? No successful salesperson shows up for a meeting without a clear direction and objective for the conversation. We need that same level of clarity going into internal presentations.  Know the audience - Who are we talking to? What do they care about? Maybe more importantly, what don’t they care about? Shaping our presentation to the needs and interests of an audience is sales 101. We need that same audience focus.   Tap into emotions - What audience fears, anxieties, and ambitions should shape our story? The best salespeople work to understand their audience's hopes, dreams, and concerns and how that frames their thinking. For the moment, we’re still presenting to humans.    Always have a close - Every presentation should have an “ask.” Maybe it's a decision that needs to be made, a budget approved, or a hiring decision. Whatever it is, don’t just fizzle at the end; be sure to explicitly ask for the decision.  You’ve probably heard the quote, “Nothing Happens Until Somebody Sells Something.” Let’s go sell something. #sales #marketing #marketingeffectiveness #CMO

Think Like a CFO. Show the Math Behind Your Pitch. Derisk Investments. Two recent conversations remind me to keep beating the risk drum.   𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀. After bootstrapping their concept, they're seeking funding.   "Our total market is HUGE. We're going to ask for $12M," said the founder.   Let's stop right there.   The fallacy of a huge Total Available Market is a common misconception.   So is the thinking that a great idea can go from zero to hero without proving unit economics first.   𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀. We discussed becoming T-shaped and developing financial acumen. • The "growth at all costs" era is dead. • Every dollar gets scrutinized. • Boards demand unit economics. • CFOs have final say on budgets.   𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻?   Neither group spoke CFO. The founders led with market size, not market capture. The marketers discussed campaigns, not the impact on cash flow.   𝗕𝗼𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁: CFOs don't care about your TAM. They care about your path to profitability. ------------------------------------------------------- "Marketers think CFOs want fireworks. CFOs actually want fireproofing." ------------------------------------------------------- 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗖𝗙𝗢𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗲:   𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀: → Unit economics that work at scale → Customer acquisition cost vs lifetime value → Clear path from $0 to break-even to profit → Scenario planning: best/base/worst case → Kill criteria if metrics don't hit targets.   𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀: → Marketing effectiveness models → Customer acquisition cost by motion and campaigns → Pipeline contribution and sales cycle impact, including time lag → Budget allocation based on performance data → Risk mitigation strategies for underperforming campaigns.   𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵: • Your beautiful pitch deck means nothing if the math doesn't work.    • Your creative campaign is worthless if you can't prove the path to a business outcome.    • CFOs live in a downside-first world. They ask: "What's the worst that could happen?" Not: "What's the best we could achieve?"   𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘄: • Interest rates aren't zero anymore. Capital isn't free. Every investment competes with risk-free returns.    • The companies that get funded speak CFO fluently while maintaining founder vision.   The future belongs to those who think like CFOs while dreaming like visionaries. Show the math behind the magic. Derisk the investment. Make the downside manageable. That's how you win in 2025.   What's your experience? Are you speaking CFO or still selling sizzle? #GMT #risk #CMO #leadership  

It is every CEO's responsibility who leads a marketing organization to teach their team the ❤️ language of finance. Leading adQuadrant, I’ve seen firsthand how teams that understand financial metrics move from being “vendors” to strategic partners. For example, when our analysts started presenting campaign results not just in: - CAC - ROAS - nCPA/CPA but instead: - iROAS (incremental ROAS) - High Value Actions - SKU-level Profit - Contribution Margin ... client retention jumped. We stopped reporting data, and instead spoke a language executives cared about, which built trust and opened doors to bigger, longer-term collaborations. As an example, our team pushed back on a CFO’s request to cut TikTok spend by proving that campaigns targeting Gen Z, while higher CPA short-term, drove customers to higher-margin private-label products. By analyzing cohort data, they showed these buyers had 22% higher repeat purchase rates and 15% larger basket sizes vs. other channels, ultimately yielding greater contribution margin and bottom-line profit. That explanation didn't just reverse the CFO's decision, it aligned our team with the CFO’s priorities, turning friction into partnership. The lesson? Financial literacy isn’t about stifling creativity. It’s about empowering marketers to defend their ideas, optimize in real-time, and prove their impact in terms the entire business respects. Start small: host cross-functional workshops (we have even done lunch and learns on this topic), dissect P&Ls together, or role-play pitching campaigns through a CFO’s lens. The faster your team connects their work to the bottom line, the more indispensable they become to the business they are serving.

If I were the CMO of a pre-seed SaaS startup with just a $10k/month marketing budget, here's the exact playbook I'd use to make my first $1M in revenue: I've seen founders with $10K budgets outperform competitors with $100K budgets by following this rule. Don't spread it across six channels. Dominate one. Pick your story - either acquisition OR engagement. Not both. Route 1: User acquisition focused - Spend 100% on one proven channel (let's say Google Ads) - Goal: Get to 500+ new users per week consistently - Story for investors: "We've cracked user acquisition. Now fund us to focus on retention and monetization." Route 2: Engagement-focused - Build an alpha/beta group of 50-100 power users - Spend everything on making them obsessed with your product - Story for investors: "We have incredible retention and engagement. Now fund us to scale user acquisition." Your biggest competitor isn't the other startup - it's your own lack of focus.