Making a Six-Figure Regional Marketing Budget Accountable

The Challenge

The New Zealand team had spent about $100,000 in six months against an annual budget of about $200,000. Investment covered paid search, social content, video, rewards, print, promotional items and website work. The gap was not activity. It was a common method for deciding which spend deserved more investment and which needed a different job.

What I Did

I led a channel and measurement review that shifted the discussion away from fixed budget percentages and broad awareness claims. I mapped the evidence required for each channel: cost per lead, MQL-to-SQL progression, deals created from web submissions, landing-page engagement, keyword performance and customer-journey drop-off. I also challenged display activity to prove its value through dedicated landing pages and consistent reporting periods.

How I Did It

• 01: Separated awareness, demand capture and conversion roles before comparing channels.
• 02: Used HubSpot original source and lifecycle stages to follow paid leads beyond the form fill.
• 03: Used Google Analytics to connect social and display traffic to specific product journeys.
• 04: Recommended controlled experimentation, then evidence-based reallocation rather than permanent channel quotas.

The Result

The review created a practical accountability model for the next budget cycle. The team left with defined questions for agencies, corrected reporting requirements and a customer-journey workstream that could show where prospects entered, where they stalled and which spend influenced a commercial outcome. The result was a better basis for future allocation, even before new campaigns were launched.

Why It Matters

I help marketing teams turn a collection of invoices and platform metrics into a portfolio of testable commercial investments.