How to Create a Marketing Budget That Can Be Justified

Marketing has become more data-driven and measurable than ever. But many teams still struggle to prove their business impact and secure budget as a result. 

Unlike other departments that rely on historicals or headcount models, marketing budgets can depend on forecasts and shifting strategic priorities. 

Marketers need to rely on more than their creative instincts to build a defensible budget. They need data to back up their plans, tools to model different scenarios, and a clear framework for collaborating with Finance. With the right approach, you can create budgets that hold up under Finance’s scrutiny and position their teams for growth.

What is a marketing budget?

A marketing budget is the set amount of money a business allocates to the marketing department to promote its products or services.

Marketing budgets are designed to be comprehensive and cover all marketing channels, technologies, and internal and external resources, not just advertising or digital marketing. Typically, budgets are created and set annually or quarterly.

How to develop a bulletproof marketing budget

So, how can marketers build a budget that aligns with business priorities and gets the green light from Finance? Here are seven steps to follow when developing a marketing budget>

Step 1: Identify your goals

Every successful budget starts with understanding what you’re trying to achieve. 

• Are you focused on driving pipeline? 
• Expanding into new markets? 
• Boosting brand awareness?

Your goals should be backed by both qualitative and quantitative metrics. Once your marketing goals are in place, your budget becomes a framework to help you reach them. 

Step 2: Leverage past data performance

Historical data from channels and past campaigns can help you create your marketing budget. Much of this early budgeting work is based on projections and marketing forecasting. By leveraging prior campaigns, marketers can estimate the costs of campaigns in their new plan. Typically, the amount allocated is based on profitability, sales projections, and revenue brought in from marketing efforts.

Step 3: Develop your marketing plan

Your budget is only as strong as the plan behind it. When your plan is structured, data-backed, and aligned to business goals, it will be easier to defend and easier to execute. 

Rather than a list of tactics, a marketing plan makes a case for how your team will drive measurable outcomes. Yours can include: 

• Market research and analysis
• Situational analysis
• Company goals and KPIs
• Marketing goals and KPIs
• Target audiences and key messages
• Product positioning and messaging
• Sales and partner channel strategy
• Product and services launches
• Marketing campaigns and channels
• Marketing activity timelines
• Marketing team structure/growth/responsibilities
• Technology strategy
• Marketing budget allocation
• Testing

For a more detailed guide on how to build a marketing plan fit for your business, check out our operational marketing plan ebook.

Step 4: Create a marketing budget breakdown

Don’t wait for finance to hand you a number. Come to the discussion with a detailed budget backed by strategy and data. 

Use your marketing plan to estimate spend allocation across campaigns, channels, and tactics. Be specific. Show how each investment ties to a goal. This helps Finance understand not just how much you’re spending, but why you’re spending it. 

Step 5: Factor in all costs

When creating a marketing budget, you’ll want to ensure that you factor in all the potential costs involved for your upcoming plan. This can include:

• Outsourced services: Agencies and freelancers hired for ongoing content marketing, design, web development, digital marketing, public relations, social media, and SEO support
• Ad spend: Paid advertising on Google, Bing, YouTube, or other search engines, social media ads, and print ad campaigns
• Events: All expenses for conferences, trade shows, in-store, and even virtual events
• Research: Surveys, focus groups, and other market research.
• Tools and software: Technology that helps you automate your marketing efforts (like Planful).

Step 6: Calculate total spend

With your goals and plan in place, it’s time to calculate what it will take to execute.  Use historical performance data to create projections for revenue and ROI. What did similar campaigns cost, and what did they deliver? 

From there, map your spend to each campaign and channel, and roll it all up to create your total budget ask. Be realistic, but be bold. This is your opportunity to show how Marketing will drive business results when properly funded. 

Step 7: Prepare to measure ROI

Once your marketing budget is created and approved, your focus shifts to measuring ROI. To close the gap between proposed action and quantifiable impact, marketers need a consistent framework for tracking performance across channels and campaigns.

Align with Sales and Finance on key marketing metrics—such as cost per opportunity, pipeline, and conversion—and ensure you have systems in place to capture them. 

Helpful tips when creating your marketing budget 

As you create a marketing budget proposal, remember that it’s not just about what you want to do, but how clearly you can justify the investment. As you develop your budget, keep these tips in mind.

Use last year’s budget as a starting point

Use last year’s budget as a baseline. Then, make adjustments as you see fit. You can base your budget on performance, updates of your plan compared to last year, the current climate of your industry, and the economy in general.

Base your budget on a percentage of sales 

One tried-and-true approach is to base your budget on a percentage of projected sales. This method helps connect your spend directly to business outcomes and gives Finance a familiar framework for evaluating your proposal.

Provide different budget scenarios 

Rather than submitting a single, fixed budget, come prepared with multiple options. Presenting minimum, target, and stretch budgets shows leadership that you’ve planned for different outcomes and can flex based on business conditions.

The marketing budget approval process

Following the process above gives you the best chance of getting your budget approved. But getting approval isn’t just about the numbers. It’s about bringing the right people into the process at the right time. 

Aligning with key stakeholders

Getting buy-in from decision-makers is a pivotal step in the marketing budget process. While the job titles of these employees can vary slightly depending on how your business team is structured, these are the decision-makers likely involved in the approval process. 

• Executive leaders who will work with Finance to determine how the overall company budget is allocated, which includes marketing spend.
• Finance and accounting will work with Marketing to determine budgets for marketing plans and campaigns, with input and approval from executive leaders.
• Marketing leadership will set goals, oversee planning, and present the budget to stakeholders. /li>
• Market channel or campaign managers will weigh in on budgets created for their specific areas of expertise.

Early and ongoing alignment with these stakeholders will help turn approvals into a more collaborative process.

Defending your budget proposal

If management doesn’t agree with the budget you created, don’t panic. 

Shift your mindset from that of a marketing professional “asking for money” to that of a leader making the case for a critical business function. Your executive audience wants to know about the outcomes and results of your marketing efforts. Speak their language.

If you can break down marketing’s performance, justify how your goals have translated into results for the overall business, and connect your team’s activities to the outcomes, your executive team should start to understand why your proposal is justified.

Reiterate the business goals

Bring the conversation back to your target business objectives. Reiterate how your marketing goals directly support company-wide priorities. 

Justify with past performance

Highlight how your current marketing plan is based on the performance of past plans, campaigns, and activities. That signals that you’re proposing a budget by iterating on what worked and what didn’t, not just random numbers.

Emphasize the impact of sales

One of the clearest ways to justify your spend is to connect it to pipeline and revenue. If you can show how marketing influences sales—whether through lead generation, deal acceleration, or brand trust—you’ll strengthen your position significantly.

Build a budget that moves the business forward

Now you’re ready to create a marketing budget that gets approved and delivers results. 

Start with clearly defined goals tied to business impact. Build campaigns that connect your messaging, audiences, and channels to those goals. And use your budget to allocate resources where they’ll drive the greatest return.

At Planful, we help marketers take control of their planning and budgeting processes, from setting strategic goals to allocating spend and tracking performance.

Before you go, remember these 3 things…

• Start with clear, measurable goals. Your marketing budget should be tied directly to objectives that demonstrate business value, like sales growth, customer acquisition, or ROI.
• Use historical data to build your case. Leverage past campaign performance and sales metrics to forecast future marketing outcomes and justify your proposed budget.
• Prepare to defend your budget with confidence. Align marketing goals with company priorities, show projected ROI, and use data to make a strong case to finance and executive stakeholders.

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See how your marketing budget can work harder

Use our interactive demo to discover how Planful empowers marketers to justify spend, align budgets to goals, and optimize for impact—without spreadsheet sprawl.

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FAQs

How do I justify my marketing budget to finance or executive leaders?

Connect spend directly to measurable business goals like revenue, pipeline growth, or customer acquisition. Use past performance data and projections to demonstrate ROI, and frame your proposal in financial terms your CFO or CEO will understand.

What percentage of revenue should be allocated to marketing? 

Many organizations allocate between 5-10% of total revenue to marketing, though this varies by industry, stage, and growth goals. Startups or companies in competitive markets may spend up to 40% of revenue on marketing. 

What should be included in a marketing budget breakdown?

A complete marketing budget should include ad spend, software and tools, agency or freelance support, events, research, and internal team costs. Planful’s marketing budget management tools help teams allocate spend strategically, align with goals, and clearly report ROI.