How to build (and pitch) a marketing budget

Let's be real: asking for money is awkward.

Asking for hundreds of thousands of dollars when you've been at a company for exactly two months? That's a special kind of terrifying.

But if you want to hit ambitious goals, you need resources. Real ones. A formal budget that lets you make strategic decisions without fighting sales for scraps.

So, I did what any rational first-time head of marketing would do: built a deck, opened with a Rocky montage, and pitched Vector's founders, Josh and Nick, on a $300k quarterly budget.

In the Season 2 premiere of This Meeting Could've Been a Podcast, Josh and I break down the entire process—from building the strategy to presenting the numbers to getting (most of) what I asked for.

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What you'll learn:

• Why marketing costs actual money (shocking, we know)
• How to build your first marketing budget when you have zero historical data
• The psychology of presenting big numbers—and why the story matters more than the spreadsheet
• What CEOs are actually thinking when you ask for budget (hint: if they're not a little nervous, you're not asking for enough)
• How to turn a budget cut into a win (because sometimes less is actually smarter)
  

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TOP THREE TAKEAWAYS

Takeaway 1: Let strategy guide your budget—not the other way around

The biggest mistake you can make when building a budget? Starting with numbers instead of strategy.

I didn't sit down and think, "What sounds reasonable to ask for?" I went back to the strategy first. What were we actually trying to accomplish? What would it take to get there?

I already knew our three big rocks: content, paid media, and events. That's where 80% of the budget would go. The other 20%? Infrastructure—the tools, web dev, and contractors to keep everything running.

Once you know what you're doing, figuring out how much it costs becomes way easier. I reached out to industry friends, asked what realistic numbers looked like, and built a budget grounded in actual data.

Strategy first. Numbers second. Always.

Takeaway 2: A budget pitch is no different than any other pitch—tell a story

If I were pitching an ad campaign, a video series, or literally any marketing idea to Josh, I'd build a story around it. Why we need it. Why now. What it's going to do for the business.

But for some reason, because this was numbers in a spreadsheet, it didn't occur to me that I should be telling a story. Rookie mistake.

So I built a deck. I didn't lead with the budget—I led with the why.

I opened with a Rocky montage (because I know Josh and Nick). I reminded them of my 30-60-90 plan—Sponge, Scaffolding, Ninja Kick—and told them the story.

By the time I showed them the numbers, they were already bought in.

Don't just drop a spreadsheet on your CEO's desk. Get them excited. Build the narrative. Make them see the vision before you show them the price tag.

Takeaway 3: There's no "no" in marketing—only continue, try, or stop

After I presented my budget to Josh, he took it to his advisor for a reality check. Turns out, he gave him a framing that completely changed how they evaluated my ask.

There's no "no" in marketing.

Marketing is creative. It's experimental. Things that worked last quarter might not work this quarter. Things that flopped last time might crush it now. You're always testing, iterating, adapting.

So instead of asking "Should we do this or not?", the better question is: do we continue, try, or stop?

Josh and Nick didn't strike a single line item from my budget. Instead, they looked at paid media and said, "Let's start smaller here and scale as we prove it works."

My full budget didn't get approved. And I'm weirdly grateful.

My budget went from $300k to $175k. The big cut? Paid media dropped from $50k/month to $15k.

And honestly? They were right. We didn't have the infrastructure to spend $50k/month on paid media. Starting smaller let us test, learn, and prove the channel works before we scaled.

So—ask for everything you need. But be open to reframing the bottom line. And CEO’s, sometimes "not yet" is smarter than "yes" or "no."

Oh, and one last thing: don't forget to add travel to your budget. I did. They're docking it from my paycheck, and I’m living that chic Motel 6 life.

Catch the full episode (and subscribe to This Meeting Could've Been a Podcast!) on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform.