Check Historical Data

Analyze last year's marketing budget versus actual spend and historic growth rates to understand what worked and what didn't.

Get last year performance and budgets

Last year's performance is your starting point for planning. Focus first on understanding the key growth and spending patterns. Review your budget versus actual spend data, both total and by category. Pay special attention to your budget growth rate year over year and how it correlates with the company's revenue growth. Check also your key conversion growth to see if spending translated into results.

Two key metrics to understand your budget scale:

  • Total marketing budget as % of revenue
  • % of revenue from new customers
Calculate your blended CPA as total marketing budget divided by number of new customers. This shows you how much you spend on average to acquire one customer.
Review spending patterns across quarters to identify seasonal trends that affect your budget allocation.

Check last year planning process

Understanding last year's process will help you plan better this time. Check how many budget versions you had to prepare and what types (conservative vs aggressive). Review the feedback cycles - how many correction rounds happened and what took most time. This will help you plan your timeline better.

Look for patterns in stakeholder feedback - areas that got most questions last year will likely need extra attention this time.