Plan your 2027 marketing budget
A revenue percentage is the fast way to size a marketing budget. It is also the least informative. This planner works backward from the growth you are targeting, shows the gap between what that growth costs and what you spend today, and tells you whether your foundations can carry the number.
- Built for founders and leaders in financial services.
- Takes about two minutes.
- Every figure is either sourced to a named industry study or labelled as my own planning assumption, so you can see which is which.
Start with where you are building from. The math changes depending on the answer, and so does the benchmark worth measuring against.
Your numbers
Two more things
If you do not have a quote yet, put in your best estimate. The result will show you what that project does to the rest of the year.
Enter a dollar amount.
The foundations check
Five questions about what is already in place. A no is a normal answer and many companies have at least two. The answers change what the budget number means, so answer them the way things are, not the way you want them to be.
Here is what the math says, and what it depends on.
The number told you the size of the gap. The full plan shows what to do about it.
- The allocation: where every dollar goes, line by line
- The math behind your number, restated so you can defend it
- What your rebuild does to the rest of the year
- The next step I would take in your position
Enter your first name.
Enter a working email address.
Enter your company name.
That did not send. Try again, or email me directly at mandy@illuminationcmo.com.
Where to put it
What this range covers, and the one call you need to make
The range covers the people, media, content, tools, and testing. Product costs and sales compensation sit in other budgets in most companies.
The item worth deciding now is a website rebuild or a rebrand. That is a capital project. If leadership funds it as one, the growth range holds on its own. If leadership does not, marketing carries it, and the money comes out of the acquisition budget. Make that call before the year starts.