How to strategically manage your marketing spend with 8 integrated simple marketing budget templates

Setting strategic and channel direction, working toward commercial objectives and KPIs, and monitoring your success is great. But if you're not tracking your ROI per channel it's hard to understand how much money you've had to spend to see a return. That's why you need a practical, accessible marketing budget.

How much budget is allocated to marketing?

Did you know, as of Spring 2024, marketing accounts for 10.2% of overall budgets, and 10.1% of company revenues? In small businesses, with fewer than 50 employees, this rises to 16.9% of the budget for 22.7% of the revenue. Whereas those with over 10,000 employees allocate just 9.6% to marketing, to achieve 6.5% of revenue. The latest CMO survey found that yearly growth in marketing spending is predicted to rise 4.7% in 2024. Within this growing budget, digital marketing spending…

The RACE Framework and PASTA model are complementary models for your marketing communications plan, one is strategic and one is operational, get started today to win more customers

Commercial as well as non-profit organizations, routinely confront these typical questions about a marketing communications plan: Do we need social media? How do we introduce our new website? What can we do to publicize our eCommerce Store? How do we introduce our new product? How will our market share rise? These are five commonly asked questions that require marketing and communications expertise. In this article, we will address 2 complementary models for your marketing communications plan - the RACE Framework and PASTA model. Whether it be a strategic plan, a business plan, a marketing plan, or a communications strategy, marketing communication planning requires systematic, step-by-step development that takes into account elements of all the other types of plans. This article describes the PASTA method, a new…

Mistakes happen but there are many that can be avoided when it comes to digital marketing plans. Being aware of common mistakes helps you improve digital marketing

Even the top marketing gurus can implement bad marketing strategies if they don’t pay attention to the nitty-gritty, unspoken rules. While they may look good on paper, even the smallest mishap can completely derail favorable results. In this blog, we will cover 5 areas where you can improve digital marketing performance. Pay attention to these errors so you can best educate your teams and adapt your strategies to avoid dicey marketing situations. Although you might think you’ve heard it all when it comes to managing marketers, it always pays to look for the weak spots in your goals and plans. Without further ado, let’s dive into 5 examples where you can improve digital marketing...

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1. Your strategies cross the line between informing and spamming

Although we…

5 Options for charging fees and paying for agency resource

There are a wide range of marketing agency costing and budgeting options for marketers to consider when outsourcing their marketing activities. The fees model used will vary by both type of agency and client engagement as you seek to agree what is a practical, mutually beneficial remuneration mix. Whichever model(s) you use, an agency or consultancy should ensure that all elements of activity are captured and you minimise working ‘for free’ e.g ‘giving away thinking’ in order to secure production work. I say costing model(s) since it’s common practice for an agency to have a preferred approach, but to vary it on a case-­by-­case basis depending on clients requirements and expectations. How much you should charge clients for specific elements of work that you undertake will be based on a range of factors e.g. your fixed overheads (office rent, management salaries etc),…

Eliminate bloated bottom lines by adopting a zero-based budgeting approach

The ability to develop an efficient and effective budgeting and forecasting process requires extensive experience and on-the-job training that can take years before your boss finally - if ever - says, “You don’t need me anymore.” Accurate forecasting (even close to being in the ballpark) is the hallmark of the great marketers I have worked with. Sadly, I can count them on one hand. In addition to a wide-ranging combination of consumer, channel, process, and delivery knowledge, they were also comfortable and capable in the numbers department. Although we’ve introduced different forecasting techniques to brief marketers on how to use a more data-driven approach, the concept of zero-based budgeting is becoming a popular technique. As campaigns running all around us right now prove, anyone, can invest/spend/blow (take your pick) money that flows from the magic money tree that…

Google and Facebook plan to offer SMBs ad credits to support them during the coronavirus pandemic. This is what you need to know to secure your share

On Friday the 27th of March, Google announced that they will be offering ad credits for small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) who routinely advertise with them. Google have pledged $340 million in Google ads credit, to help companies “stay in touch with their customers during this difficult time” (Google Ads Help). More details have now been made available and this ad credit can be used at any point until the end of 2020, across any Google Ads platform. On Monday the 20th April, Google provided updated information on their ad credit programme, particularly in regard to eligibility criteria. Those eligible for this programme are small and medium-sized businesses globally, who have spent with a Google Ads account in ten out of twelve months of 2019, and…

Nine out of ten marketers expect to increase digital marketing budgets in 2020, but how do you make sure your budget is effective?

Digital marketing has proven itself to be one of the most effective types of marketing. Email, social media, content marketing, search engine optimization - all of these tactics are essential to business success in 2020. It’s probably why as many as 95% of organizations have increased their digital marketing budget in recent years – and why nine out of ten marketers expect that their budgets will grow in 2020 as well. [si_blog_banner_cta] That said, digital marketing is very complex and involves numerous strategies, all extremely important. As consumers increasingly expect omnichannel experiences and want to be able to reach brands on all their preferred channels, marketers have the big challenge of stretching out that budget for countless channels and strategies. So how do you create a budget that…

A five-step plan to marketing productivity

One of the recurring observations I’ve found in all the different roles and organizations in which I’ve worked is the inconsistency of marketing planning. In some companies, planning was conducted on an ad hoc basis, whilst in others, there was no discernable plan at all! As an idealistic marketing graduate coming into the workforce this came as a surprise: how can marketers operate effectively in the absence of a joined-up, integrated plan? [si_guide_block id="5697" title="Download our Individual Member Resource – Digital marketing planning spreadsheet" description="This Microsoft Excel spreadsheet has been created to help you create a clearer acquisition plan to improve leads and sales."/] Many years on and I’ve come to understand that the reality is that marketing planning is difficult and not everyone knows how to do it properly. They may also lack the time and space to put something together. In larger organizations, the complexity…

Even if you’re flushed with success at the moment, you could still benefit from refining your current processes using one of many tools and software available to you

Is your business at risk of being left behind in this increasingly competitive digital age? Are you failing to meet the heightened expectations of the modern consumer? Even if you’re flushed with success at the moment, you could still benefit from refining your current processes using one of many tools and software available to you. In this blog post, I’ve compiled summaries of some of the best upgrades you can make this year. Used correctly, they’ll equip you to better deal with the day-to-day running of a business, help you satisfy existing customers, secure new leads and cut costs. This post isn’t solely aimed at anachronistic businesses who need to make wholesale changes to enter the 21st century. With the speed of technological evolution more…

Chart of the Day: UK adspend is at a record £22.2 billion for 2017, the eighth year of consecutive growth

Adspend for 2017 was a record high following 8 years of continued growth in advertising spend. This according to the latest advertising spend figures for the full year 2017 which are analyzed by The Advertising Association and Warc. It paints a fantastic picture for marketing and advertising, showing increases which have continued for many years and shows that despite any political situation, slumps or increases in consumer demand, advertising is still producing returns, as marketers are still spending and still depend heavily on their advertising campaigns. Internet advertising saw positive increases but it was mobile advertising that produced the biggest by far - a massive increase in mobile ad spending of over 37%. Regional newspapers saw decreases, as did magazines and a small decrease for TV. This could explain why recently UK TV network …