You know that riddle that goes around the tubes now and then? “The poor have it. The rich need it. And if you eat it, you’ll die?”

I’m pretty sure the actual answer is: A marketing budget.

It’s the one thing that unites us all — B2B or B2C, in-house or agency, enterprise team lead or solopreneur — we all have to answer to the almighty marketing budget.

If you don’t have your budget, or if it’s time for a refresh, Caroline’s got the breakdown, complete with benchmark data by industry, expert feedback, and some helpful budget templates you can swipe for freesies. Because nobody puts budget templates on the budget.

(P.S. This is the last chance to take our audience survey! You get to choose if I cry tears of joy or sadness.)

In today's email: 

• Marketing Budget: How Much Should Your Team Spend in 2025? [By Industry]
• Tam, SAM, and SOM: What the what?!
• How to create a stakeholder map for your next project

|   Inside Scoop

This week, my colleague Caroline Forsey breaks down the what, why, and how much of marketing budgets.

As a marketer, I’ve learned firsthand that developing a marketing budget is a critical component of any marketing strategy. Unfortunately, figuring out exactly how much your team should spend can be no small challenge.

It’s important to first determine how much funding is available for all of your marketing efforts.

There are different approaches to answering this question, but if you’re not sure where to start, benchmarking against industry averages can be helpful.

A recent survey of chief marketing officers found that an average 7.7% of company revenue was allocated to marketing in 2024 — so, making sure your marketing budget falls around that range is likely a good idea.

Then, once you’ve determined how much funding you have access to, you can start to figure out how much to spend on different parts of your marketing strategy. This can start with a fairly high-level view. Inside, you’ll find sample B2C and B2B budgets that outline how much of a total marketing budget should go toward several broad categories.

I’ll also share the basics of what a marketing budget is, why you need one, and everything else you need to create a marketing budget with confidence. So, let’s get started!