Marketing Budget Allocation

80 % of marketing budgets are still doing cartwheels in the wrong part of the funnel. Here’s a quick sanity check I use when clients ask why their “awareness” ads don’t move revenue.👇 1. Start where the money is (literally). If you’re not retargeting → CRM contacts, open opportunities, and past proposals first, you’re burning cash. Warm dollars convert 3–5× faster than any cold campaign, yet they get the leftovers. 2. “High‑intent” is code for “ready to buy.” Exact‑match search queries and branded terms deserve their own budget and landing page. No fluff, no blogs—just proof, pricing, and a form. Paid search has to be a foundational layer for most orgs. After warm near-bound prospects and before you think about ice cold targeting..paid search is where you go. 3. Middle‑funnel is your trust factory. Website lurkers, LinkedIn page visitors, newsletter readers—feed them testimonials, analyst quotes, ungated checklists. The goal: move them one click deeper, not straight to a wedding proposal. 4. Cold prospecting ≠ spray & pray. ABM lists with technographic or intent data beat look‑alike audiences every day of the week. Speak to the pain you know they have. Then cap your spend until retargeting pools are healthy. 5. Measurement > mythology. Weekly: pacing and cost per lead. Monthly: SQLs and win‑rate lift. Quarterly: cost‑to‑revenue by funnel stage. Most of the rest is dashboard glitter. TL;DR Shift budget down the funnel first, earn the right to scale up, and track every dollar like a bloodhound. Your CFO—and pipeline—will thank you. What’s the one funnel tweak that moved the needle most for you this year? Drop it below ⬇️ Website LinkedIn Ads Agency: https://lnkd.in/guEafPKk B2B Strategies and Guides: https://lnkd.in/gB-WQ82f Impactable YouTube Channel: https://lnkd.in/emYVDn_T

“It feels like a perfect economic storm,” shared an anguished CMO from a $300mil tech company, adding, “Our buyers are hesitant because of the overall economic uncertainty, new entrants are disrupting our category, we just expanded our product line, and no one knows what will happen to the government funding that benefited our industry,” they detailed. Nodding empathetically, I realized it was time to update my recession playbook with a GenAI-first mindset. Polish Your Positioning: Ensure your brand is perceived as a "must-have" rather than a "nice-to-have." This involves clearly communicating the unique value and necessity of your product or service. [Use Deep Research to help explore options. And test synthetic research from companies like Evidenza or Subconscious.ai for speedy insights at 50% of traditional research $s]. Sell Your “Speed to Value”: When CFOs become CFNOs, the only “yes” you’ll hear is for those products or services that can deliver a fast return on investment. [Run recorded customer calls through a customized GPT to isolate speed-to-value quotes and context. Identify customers who get value faster and can quickly double down on that segment.] Call Your Customers: They may be in the same or worse economic turmoil. If they are, make a customer for life by offering better terms on your current contract in exchange for a longer deal and a high-quality testimonial. [Run a Deep Research assessment of their industry seeking insights into how they could outperform competitors in a recession]. Elevate Your Executives: Individuals get 10x the organic reach on LinkedIn than companies yet few brands scale executive thought leadership. [Create a Project on ChatGpt or Claude that includes brand guidelines, past writing by each exec and other parameters. Then, ask the exec to dictate 20-25 minutes of their latest thinking and let your top editor run with it. The goal should be 2-3 thoughtful weekly posts from these execs. Bonus points, if they record vertical videos, a medium LinkedIn is heavily favoring. Breaking news: LinkedIn now allows you to promote individual posts.] Balance Your Budget: You know your CFO is coming for funds. Get ahead of this. Draft two plans, one at the current budget and one with a 20% cut. Go back through company data from the early days of the pandemic and show the lagging impact of those budget cuts. [Run projections on the impact of budget cuts on pipeline via LLMs. And show how your GenAI tests should yield massive savings in the coming years]. Value Your Visitors: With the dual whammy of declining organic site traffic and fewer buyers in the marketplace, every qualified site visitor must be treated like royalty. This means rethinking your landing page experiences and enabling answers, not navigation. [We are currently testing two LLM-driven tools, Webless.ai on RenegadeMarketing.com and Salespeak.ai on CMOHuddles.com. We'll share results at CMO Super Huddle] What's in your recession playbook?

Maximizing Results with a Low Ad Budget: A Strategic Approach Think you need a big budget to achieve meaningful results with your ads? Not necessarily. Here’s how to make the most of a modest budget through strategic planning and careful analysis: 1. Set Clear Objectives: • Start by defining your target Cost Per Lead (CPL). This gives you a clear goal to work towards and helps guide your strategy. 2. Reverse Engineer Your Strategy: • Work backwards from your desired CPL to determine the budget and resources needed. This reverse engineering ensures you stay focused on achieving your goals within budget constraints. 3. Understand Your CPM (Cost Per 1,000 Impressions): • Analyze your average CPM to gain insights into where your money is going. This data is crucial for optimizing your campaigns and ensuring you’re getting the most bang for your buck. 4. Strategic Targeting: • Focus your ad spend on the most relevant audience segments. It’s more effective to target a smaller, more engaged audience than to spread your budget too thin. 5. Test and Optimize: • Even with a low budget, regular A/B testing can help you identify what works best. Use these insights to continuously refine your approach and improve performance. 6. Optimize for Efficiency: • Ensure that every dollar is spent wisely by creating ads that are designed to capture attention and convert effectively. Remember, success in advertising isn’t about how much you spend—it’s about how strategically you spend it. With the right approach, even a limited budget can deliver strong results. Let’s connect if you want to explore strategies to maximize your ad spend and achieve your marketing goals! #DigitalMarketing #AdStrategy #LowBudgetAds #MarketingROI #LeadGeneration #CPL #coachingniche #coaches

Most startups waste 40% of their marketing budget. (Proxima, Part of Bain) After auditing hundreds of start ups, I consistently find the same pattern - money being thrown at new channels before optimising what is already in motion. Here's how the best founders make their marketing budgets work harder: 1. Fix what you have before buying what you don't Common pitfalls: • Chasing shiny new channels • Adding more campaigns when current ones underperform • Focusing only on acquisition, ignoring retention What works: → Audit existing campaigns daily/weekly → Look for conversion leaks in your funnel → Test improvements to what you already own first 2. Reallocate ruthlessly Easy traps: • Setting budgets monthly or quarterly • Spreading spend evenly across channels • Slow decision-making on budget shifts What works: → Move money to winners immediately  → Kill underperforming channels completely → Create a "test and learn" budget separate from core channels 3. Simplify your message Typical challenges: • Clever, complex messaging • Different value props across channels • Feature-focused communication What works: → One clear message that solves one clear problem → Consistent value proposition everywhere → Benefits-first language that speaks to pain points The most successful startups I work with don't have bigger budgets. They just refuse to waste a single pound on marketing that isn't working. What's your best tip for stretching a startup marketing budget? Share below 👇 ♻️ Found this helpful? Repost to share with your network. ⚡ Want more content like this? Hit follow Maya Moufarek.

Would you prefer to acquire more customers at your target average cost, even though some might be unprofitable? Or would you prefer fewer customers, but with guaranteed profitability on each one? This is a crucial decision when it comes to shaping your advertising strategy on platforms like Meta. If you opt for more customers at your target cost average, then cost caps may be the right strategy for you. By setting a cost cap, you can average out the cost of acquiring customers over time. Some customers will be profitable, while others might not be, but overall, you’ll hit your target cost per acquisition (CPA). This approach works well when you’re aiming for volume and are willing to tolerate some level of inefficiency in customer acquisition. On the other hand, if your focus is on repeatable unit economics, where each customer must be profitable, then bid caps in Meta might be the better approach. By implementing a bid cap, you ensure that you’ll never pay more than a specific amount to acquire a customer. This strategy is ideal for businesses that need to maintain strict profitability and can't afford the risk of unprofitable customers. So, how do you determine your bid cap? It depends on a few key factors: Average Order Value (AOV) – the average value of each sale. Margin % – your profit margin on each sale. Lifetime Value (LTV) – if you’re in a subscription-based model or if you have high customer repeat purchase rates, then applying an LTV factor can help you determine a more precise bid cap. Ultimately, understanding these variables will allow you to optimise your strategy to either scale with a bit of risk or guarantee profitability on each customer. It's all about finding the right balance for your business goals.

If I were a marketing manager with a <$2,000 budget, here’s what I would prioritise. Priority 1: Optimise the website weekly - Optimise every day. Double down on what’s working and fix what’s not. - Dedicate 3-4 hours weekly for website review. - Examine top-converting pages. - Ensure above-the-fold content builds trust (reviews, brand logos, key benefits, CTA) - Are all CTAs clear and action-oriented? - Check site health using Ahrefs/Semrush and fix critical issues. - Use MS Clarity to understand and reduce bounce rates. - Improve speed with Google PageSpeed insights. Priority 2: Optimise content for SEO -  If you don’t have a big budget for paid media, this is your best bet. - Identify low-hanging-fruits with Ahrefs (pages ranking 4–20). - Use Surfer SEO or SERP analysis for content refinement. - Analyse competitors and build a solid plan to beat them - Not just for content, but also UX, design, messaging, and CTAs. - Optimise 3–4 articles per week. - Publish a weekly expert blog/resources (get input from your team). - Keep an eye on ranking drops for top keywords. Priority 3: Review CRM, attribution & revenue - Ensure forms are working and leads are being captured. - Attribute leads to the correct source. - Review the user journey, first touch, last touch, and everything in between. - Don’t just track lead volume, focus on high-quality MQLs. - Assign a $$ value to each lead and track which pages drive the most revenue. - Tie everything back to revenue, this should be your ultimate KPI. - If you notice an unknown/direct source, call them or delegate it to sales (don’t leave it unknown). - Ensure sales teams are following up and closing deals on time. - Get feedback from sales on lead quality, add an “MQL feedback” field in your CRM. - Keep notes and define action items to improve the site, user journey, and key pages for next week. Priority 4: Get more reviews/testimonials - This is tough for marketers since they don’t always have direct client contact. - Make it a weekly goal (aim for >1 weekly). - Work with the fulfilment and sales teams to prioritise this. - More Google reviews improve local SEO. - More reviews = better SEO, more trust, and higher rankings. - More trust = better conversion rates. Priority 5: Brand awareness and retargeting on Meta - Run small-budget ($500-1k) paid ads and retargeting on Meta. - Focus on brand awareness to drive cheaper clicks. - Retarget with offers, extra value, guarantees, or incentives. - Keep creatives simple, use raw, candid images, product shots, and UGC. - Candid videos, screen shares, and real-talk videos work better than over polished graphics. - Prioritise clear messaging and keep pushing. - Stay front-of-mind, results may take time, but consistency pays off. I couldn't fit everything here due to LinkedIn's limit. Check the comments for more. And let me know if there's anything you'd add!

A 3.44x ROAS might sound "good enough" to some people. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗸𝗮𝘆? We worked with an e-commerce brand stuck at 3.44x. They were getting sales, sure… 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗲𝘇𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗿. Most brands panic here: “Let’s spend $10K on new photoshoots!” “Let’s hire influencers!” “Let’s redesign the website!” Stop. 𝗕𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝗳𝗶𝘅 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲. Here’s what we at Omni Digital did instead (and how we took them from 3.44x to 11.87x ROAS): ✅ 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟭: 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲. Sort through all your creatives — photos, videos, everything. Find the ones that are working okay (these are your hidden goldmines). ✅ 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟮: 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗽-𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀. Where do viewers lose interest? Where do they get confused? Attention is a currency — spend it wisely. During our audit process, we noticed that their website checkout process was confusing. Hence we worked with the client to fix that. ✅ 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟯: 𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗲, 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱. In this case, we reordered existing videos to show the product in the first 3 seconds. Then we added a strong voiceover to build trust and grab attention. We also worked with content creators for content that grabs the attention to improve the creatives. ✅ 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟰: 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲. Measure the results before you dump more budget. Double down only on what actually works. 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁 after working with Omni Digital? ROAS shot up from 3.44x to 11.87x. Cost per purchase dropped to just $15.88. Here’s exactly what it looked like: - Before: 3.44x ROAS, $57.97 per purchase. - After tweaks: 11.87x ROAS, $15.88 per purchase. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵? You don’t need “more” — you need “better.” Good enough is not enough.

Stepping into FY25, the old budgeting approach needs a serious upgrade. Last year, people would spend hours juggling numbers and predicting every market twist—until they learnt that today’s digital world demands agility. For FY25, the focus is clear: invest in channels that deliver measurable impact and remain agile enough to pivot when trends shift. Here are a few key lessons I’ve gathered: ~ Align with Business Goals: Before drafting your budget, revisit your business objectives and decide which channels will help you reach them most effectively. ~ Test, Measure, Scale: Start small, experiment with new channels, and use real-time analytics to measure ROI. If a channel proves successful, scale up—if not, pivot without hesitation. ~ Embrace Agility: In a rapidly changing landscape, your budget must be flexible. Build in a buffer for opportunistic spending on emerging trends, technologies, or sudden market shifts. ~ Invest in Digital Transformation: Allocating funds for AI, automation, and creative tools isn’t an expense—it’s an investment in staying competitive. ~ Focus on ROI: It’s not the budget size but the results that matter. Prioritize high-impact initiatives and continually refine your strategies based on what drives engagement and conversions. This journey of budgeting isn’t just about numbers; it’s about crafting a strategy that fuels creativity, drives measurable growth, and builds long-term brand equity. #MarketingBudget #FY25 #MarketingStrategy #AI #ROI #Budgeting #BusinessGrowth #NewFinancialYear

Retention is 5–10× cheaper than acquisition. Yet we pay €65k+ CSMs to run QBRs for accounts that would renew anyway. Here’s the math (and the reallocation plan): 1️⃣ The math on high-touch CS A “standard” QBR is a mini-project. – Average CSM salary: €65k+ – Time per QBR: 3–5 hours (incl. prep + follow-up) – QBRs per quarter: 20–30 accounts – Total time: 60–150 hours per quarter That’s 1.5–4 work weeks of CSM capacity. Often spent proving value to customers who already feel it. 2️⃣ What that cost creates downstream Capacity is a zero-sum game. If you spend it on certainty, you can’t spend it on risk. But the “safe” accounts get polished… and the accounts that need intervention get missed: – At-risk customers show up late (no early signals) – Mid-tier customers get reactive coverage – Expansion sits untouched (no time to hunt) – CSMs run 200+ accounts human-touch cadence All that creates lots of activity but limited impact on NRR. 3️⃣ What to do instead Split coverage by segment.  Systemize the predictable.  Save humans for pivotal moments. 🟢 Green / stable accounts → system-led – Behavior triggers (usage drop, adoption stalls, support spikes) – Automated health checks + low-touch engagement 🟠 Risk + growth + complexity → CSM-led – Exec alignment when sponsors change – Expansion conversations when outcomes + usage support it – Complex onboarding / multi-stakeholder rollouts Retention is your highest-ROI lever. It only pays off when CSM time is allocated to risk, growth, and complexity. What’s your current rule for who gets a QBR and who gets a digital touch?