Our expert guide to getting the best ROI from your B2B marketing budget

Explore all the details you need to know to accurately allocate your company’s budget for its marketing efforts

With almost 75% of B2B marketers reporting an increase in budget in 2023, the importance of marketing to a business’s success is becoming clear to higher-ups in charge of allocating annual spending across a variety of industries. [1]

Keep reading to learn more about B2B marketing budgets, including their importance, how to allocate them, and much more.

Why is it important to have a marketing budget?

Regardless of the size of your business or specific B2B industry, you need marketing initiatives to help build relationships, nurture leads, and assist your sales team in driving revenue.

With the key role that marketing plays in the success of B2B companies, it is essential to create a detailed budget to ensure your marketing team or agency partner has the financial resources needed to execute their strategy.

In addition to ensuring your marketing team has the proper financial resources, budgeting can also help:

Prioritize specific initiatives
Calculate return on investment (ROI) for projects
Prove value of marketing initiatives to supervisors/investors
Allocate funds for tools and team members needed to successfully execute annual strategy

What should I include in a marketing budget?

When constructing a marketing budget, start by cross referencing your upcoming marketing initiatives with the budget your team was provided last year. Determine how much each initiative will cost, whether under or over last year’s budget, to present to your supervisors for approval. Once reviewed, you can adjust accordingly based on the amount your company has allocated for its annual marketing spend.

The expenses you include in your marketing budget will differ depending on your company’s specific goals for the year. If you need some ideas or an example, the most recent CMO survey found that the following were expenses included in a company’s marketing budget:

Social media marketing
Marketing analytics
Marketing technologies
Marketing research
Sales support tools [2]

Additionally, the survey found that within digital spending, 44% of marketing budgets were allocated for paid media (SEO, SEM, display, paid socials, etc.), 34% for owned media (content marketing, email marketing, website development, etc.), and 11% for earned media (reviews, user-generated content, unpaid social media, etc.). [2] The percentage that your company allocates will be unique to your business, but surveys like these can be helpful benchmarks for comparing your spending to industry averages.

How much should a company allocate for a marketing budget?

As your company sets out to allocate its B2B marketing budget, you should consider industry benchmarks, while also keeping in mind that every business is unique.

A recent survey found that marketing will take up just over 13% of a company’s total budget in 2023—a nearly 4% increase from the past two years. [2] Although this can be helpful to examine, that number may not be realistic for your business.

For example, established businesses can often afford to spend more on innovative marketing efforts, while start-ups have to spend less until they get their feet off the ground. Additionally, companies in high-growth industries can often gamble more on marketing than low-growth ones.

When establishing your budget, ask the following questions to set your team up for success:

What percentage of the overall budget will be allocated to marketing?
How can your marketing budget be compared as a percentage of overall revenue?
What is the average marketing budget for your industry?

In the market for a B2B agency to cater to your marketing needs?

As a leading Orlando B2B marketing agency, our team at Different Perspective will take the time to create a results-driven marketing strategy unique to your business goals and budget.

Our B2B clients range from unique local businesses to established national companies across many industries including real estate, technology, healthcare, and aviation. Regardless of the industry, we take the time to create a tailored strategy that’s right for each client’s business that will help tell their story, connect with their target audience, and tap into new opportunities.

Ready to enlist the support of our B2B marketing agency?
Contact us today to schedule a meeting with our strategists.

Sources:

1: Wpromote | 2022 State of B2B Digital Marketing

2: The CMO Survey | Marketing in a Post-COVID Era: Highlights and Insights Report (September 2022)

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