Plan Line Items

How to plan the marketing budget in detail? Review existing items and add new ones based on your marketing strategy for this year.

Review Existing Expenses First

Start with importing the previous year's budget. Decide which expenses to keep, reduce, or scale.

Consider price increases, especially for software tools. Most SaaS companies raise prices annually by 10-20%. Add this to your calculations.

Convert monthly subscriptions to annual plans. Not only will this reduce your internal administrative work, but also many tools offer significant discounts for yearly packages, specifically during Black Friday sales in November.

Add new line items

Focus first on new channels and experiments you want to test. Map out marketing initiatives and campaigns before deciding on additional headcount or contractor needs.

Always plan your initiatives and their business impact first, then add the resources needed to execute them - not the other way around.

Plan your headcount category

Create a separate category for headcount costs. Split your workforce budget between full-time employees and contractors. During budget approval and analysis, you'll need to know what percentage of your total budget goes to FTEs (hardest to reduce) versus contractors (quickest to cut if needed).

Each marketing role must align with a clear business goal: acquisition, conversion, or retention. In a growth-driven company, most of your team should focus on acquisition activities.

Too many roles labeled as "operational" or "brand" can indicate poor alignment with business growth targets.