| name | 61-budget-planning-global |
| description | Use when a marketing BUDGET has to be planned or managed in USD — allocation by bucket, channel, and month, test versus scale split, scale-up and stop-loss thresholds, reserve, a plan-versus-actual tracker, and a review cadence. Trigger on 'budget planning', 'marketing budget', 'split the budget across channels', 'stop loss threshold', 'quarterly budget', 'we keep overspending and nobody notices'. Also use when a number has been approved and nobody has divided it up. Not for — the revenue-backward math that produces the number, see `10-reverse-kpi-global`; paid media allocation only, see `54-media-plan-global`; paying an external vendor, see `67-agency-vendor-brief-global`. |
| metadata | {"version":"1.0.1","category":"strategy"} |
| license | MIT |
| triggers | ["budget planning","marketing budget","budget allocation","how much should we spend on ads","campaign budget","stop loss threshold","quarterly budget","media budget split"] |
| output | File .md — budget plan: overview, allocation by bucket / channel / campaign / month, test vs scale split, adjustment rules and stop-loss thresholds, tracker, review cadence |
| related | ["product-marketing-context-global","10-reverse-kpi-global","00-marketing-plan-global","54-media-plan-global","55-scaling-ads-global","21-ads-audit-global","07-marketing-report-global"] |
Budget Planning (Global)
A budget is not a fixed number — it is a decision tool: where you place bets and when you pull back. The leader must know total spend, ROI per channel, what to increase, and what to cut. Run 10-reverse-kpi-global first to derive the minimum budget from the revenue target before allocating anything.
Information gathering
Read .agents/product-marketing-context-global.md, the marketing plan, and the previous period's report if available. If missing, ask up to 4 questions:
- Total budget and planning period? How much, for a month, a quarter, or a year (USD)?
- Revenue target for the period? Needed to compute marketing as a percent of revenue and the minimum viable budget.
- Active channels and last period's ROI? Meta / TikTok / Google / email + SMS / affiliates / agency — which has the best ROAS or CPA?
- Any large campaign needing a reserve? Launch, Black Friday / Cyber Monday, or another seasonal peak.
Principles
- Budget follows performance. Do not stay rigid to the opening plan. Channels that work get more; channels that do not get cut.
- Always hold 10-15% in reserve. Never allocate everything on day one. The reserve covers unexpected opportunities and incidents.
- Every dollar has a measurable KPI. "Branding you cannot measure" is not an acceptable line item.
- Do not spread evenly. Concentrate on the best-performing channel. New channels get a minimum test allocation (10-15%) first.
- Plan backwards from revenue, not from channels. The budget is the output of a revenue equation, not an arbitrary number.
- Do not divide the annual budget evenly across quarters. Median Meta CPM in Q4 runs roughly 26% above Q1 (
references/benchmarks-global.md), so identical monthly spend buys materially less reach in Q4. Either front-load acquisition into cheap Q1 months or explicitly reserve a larger Q4 allocation for the same volume.
Workflow
1. Choose the budget-setting method
| Method | How it works | Strength | Weakness |
|---|
| Percent of revenue | Budget = X% of expected revenue | Simple | Ignores growth stage |
| Backwards from targets (recommended) | Set revenue > derive CAC/CPL > derive spend |
