Revenue target → funnel math → defensible number
Most marketing budgets start with last year’s number plus or minus a bit, then get defended backward. This model runs the other direction: it starts at the revenue target, works the funnel backward to the lead volume it demands, prices the timing against your sales cycle, and sizes the spend against five models before you take a number to a board. Built on my proprietary Observe / Analyze / Execute framework.
A marketing budget should be worked forward from the revenue target, not defended backward from last year's number. This model starts at the ARR target and computes the pipeline, opportunities, SQLs, MQLs and raw lead volume that target actually requires, then sizes the programmatic budget against five benchmark models side by side and flags which one to anchor on for your stage. Headcount and BDR costs sit on top of the programmatic budget rather than inside it, and Open Funds are locked at 20 percent of programmatic so there is capacity to respond to what the market does mid-year. A budget planned to 100 percent allocation has no room to correct. The output exports to an Excel workbook. Free, no signup.
The budget is the deliverable at the end of Analyze. It only holds up if Observe came first, which is why this model asks for your conversion rates and cycle length before it will produce a number.
Listen before acting. Every stakeholder, customer conversation, platform, and number, mapped before anything changes.
Benchmarks, the funnel worked backward from the ARR target, every function rated, the budget scoped against the number.
Dashboards, operating cadence, the plan of record. The budget becomes a plan people run, not a spreadsheet people cite.
No code yet?
The Budget Scoping Model is available to clients and by request. Tell me the stage you’re at and the number you’re working toward, and I’ll send access.
Questions
A programmatic marketing budget sized from your revenue target, the full funnel-to-pipeline view behind it, per-territory event spend, a costed headcount and BDR plan, and a branded Excel workbook with live formulas that recalculates when you change an input.
Because a budget defended backward from last year can’t answer the only question that matters in a board meeting: what does this number buy, and what happens to pipeline if you cut it. Starting at the target means every dollar traces to a lead volume and a close date.
Then one blended sales cycle is already misleading you. Path B models each segment separately, its own deal size, conversion rates, cycle length, and pipeline deadline, and rolls them up, so you can see which segment has the least slack and fund it first.
Your choice, and it’s a toggle. Programmatic spend excludes headcount by benchmark convention so the number stays comparable; switching headcount and BDR on layers fully-loaded US base and bonus costs on top and shows both subtotals.
No. Everything is computed in your browser, and the workbook is generated locally on download. Nothing is transmitted or saved.
Everything is computed in your browser. Nothing is stored or sent anywhere.
Set the revenue target, let the funnel produce the lead volume it requires, price the timing against your sales cycle, size the budget against five models, then build the allocation line by line. Everything recomputes live and exports as a branded Excel workbook.