The holidays are over, and you’ve had a chance to recover from all the parties and family time. Now that you’re back in the office, it’s time to get serious about how you’re going to manage your marketing budget in 2023. Whether you’re a small business owner or a large corporation, there’s never been more pressure on budgets than now. The good news is there are strategies we can all use to manage our money better so we can focus on the work that matters most: helping our customers and businesses succeed! 

How to Better Manage Your Marketing Budget 

Marketing budgeting is an ongoing process. 

While you may start with a finite amount to spend on marketing for the year, this figure should be revisited as your business needs change and grow. There are two primary factors to consider when determining how much money you’ll need: 

• How much money do I have available? (your budget)
• What are my goals? (how much can I afford to spend)

When it comes down to it, understanding what resources are available and having clarity on your goals will allow you to better manage your marketing budget. 

Determine Your Total Marketing Budget 

Before you begin to plan your marketing strategy and budget, it’s important to determine how much money you must spend. While some companies may be flush with cash, others face tighter budget constraints. Regardless of how much money is available for marketing, there are ways to make the most of what you have. 

To determine how much money you can allocate toward marketing: 

Use existing financial information (if available). If your company has already conducted its annual budgets or has other recent budgets in the office, this information can provide insight into where funding might come from in the future.  

Create a List of Platforms You’ll Use for Marketing 

Keeping a list of the platforms you plan to use for marketing is essential. For instance, if you have a Facebook page, then make sure it is on your list. If you plan to run paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram, be sure those are included. In addition to social media platforms, you can also include email newsletters and other digital marketing strategies. 

You may want to create a spreadsheet or other type of document where all these platforms are listed so that when it comes time for budgeting purposes in the future (as well as when evaluating how well each platform is performing), it will be easy for everyone involved in managing your social media presence—or any other digital strategy—to see what needs attention most urgently at any given time. 

Estimate the Cost and Potential ROI for Each Platform 

Understanding how much money you have to spend on different aspects of your strategy is critical. For example, if you don’t know how much it will cost to buy an ad on Facebook or YouTube, you won’t be able to make informed decisions about where best to allocate your budget across these platforms. 

Understand How Your Competitors Are Spending Their Marketing Budget 

Understanding what other companies are doing is key when deciding how much money you want to spend on each marketing platform as part of your overall strategy. You can use tools like SEMrush and SpyFu to learn about the top keywords that competitors use in their ads and landing pages and which platforms they’re advertising on most frequently. This way, when setting up your campaigns across these platforms based on competitor data, you’ll know what works best and why so that you can make data-driven decisions moving forward. 

Evaluate Your Current Strategy to See What’s Already Working 

The next step to setting a solid budget for marketing this year is to look at the results of your previous spending strategy. What does your data tell you about what worked and what didn’t? 

You can find this information by reviewing your social media analytics, email open rates, and website traffic reports.  

• Did you have high engagement across all channels at one point in time? Check which posts got the most likes or shares on Facebook or replies on Twitter.
• Do some of your social media followers seem more engaged than others? Look at the number of comments compared with likes or shares on each post.
• Are people visiting certain pages more often than others? If so, you should figure out why.

Allocate Your Budget 

The best way to figure out how much you should spend on each platform is by determining their value and then dividing that by their total cost. For example, if Facebook ads drive 90% of your sales and only cost $10 per month, it makes sense to spend most of your budget there. However, if you have some channels that are working well but generating fewer leads than others, it may make sense to focus more on those channels so they can perform better. 

• Figure out how much money you have available for digital marketing campaigns
• Prioritize the platforms where you’ll get the biggest bang for your buck

Agency Partner Interactive 

While budgeting expenses for the year can be challenging for small businesses to enterprise corporations, knowing where to put your investment is crucial to realizing a full ROI. Agency Partner Interactive is a full-service digital marketing and web development agency that has worked with budgets of all sizes. Our meticulous, results-driven process ensures you’re kept in the loop every step to get the biggest bang for your buck. Your business success becomes ours. Schedule your free consultation and start the new year right with an award-winning digital marketing agency!