Creating a new marketing budget can be a daunting yet very important task as a marketing leader. Marketing budgets should not be put together based on prior year’s performance, or based on tactics marketers are looking to deploy. A marketing budget should be based on the company’s overall goals and objectives and tie into a marketing strategy to achieve those goals.

Here are 5 tips to keep in mind to create a marketing budget for success

#1 Flexibility

Keep the marketing budget flexible and adaptable. Marketing changes daily, what worked today might not work tomorrow – you need to have the flexibility to move dollars around.

#2 Marketing Technologies

Ensure the right marketing technologies are in place to be able to measure and capture data at every point possible in the marketing plan. There is no point in allocating budget to marketing activities if you cannot track their performance.

#3 Know Your Customers

Understand customers and their buyers journey before allocating budget to marketing activities. Do not waste budget on marketing initiatives that do not directly impact the core customer group. If your target audience is not on Instagram then don’t allocate money to Instagram ads.

#4 Incorporate Outsourcing Expenses

Incorporate outsourcing as part of the budget. Do not waste budget on trying to do marketing activities that you are not an expert in. If you are not a Google Adwords expert then do not allocate budget to Adwords without including a line item for outsourcing. You risk wasting a lot of money on unsuccessful campaigns if they are not executed properly.

#5 Focus on High Performing Activities

Shift budgets to high performing marketing channels and activities from low performing ones. This goes back to #1, adapt and be flexible with your budget so that you can maximize your marketing ROI.