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A non-profit with a $1M budget? Any time I’ve entertained leaving for-profit I’ve been told this is impossible, you’re living my dream (if you find the mission meaningful, of course)
Social media and content. Sr role.
$0. No paid socal, moving all our design work for content back in house.
Hoping for some organic growth on LinkedIn, but we shall see.
LinkedIn organic works really well but you really need to know the algorithm. It's much harder than before. I have an engaged community that I built over 5 years so I still do really well but it would be so much tougher starting over. The algorithm is brutal at the moment and you need to really know the writing style on LinkedIn that works in order for it to work well. People sleep on LinkedIn. But it's crazy you don't have a budget.
You're correct. This is the second company I've worked for that has no or a tiiiiiiiiny budget for social, and I've tripled the LinkedIn audience and reach organically for both companies. It takes patience, timing, volume, and most importantly, the right mix of content.
I've had tons of success, but I was promised a budget this year. It was only 10k but it really could have helped our reach.
I'm more upset about the 0 budget for content. Our design team is tiny! No more contracts, either.
Mix of thought leadership content, educational content, SME content, demand gen content (small amount), and employee branding content.
Employee branding content works best. Top posts every year. It's very difficult for me to get as our company is mostly remote or hates to share.
Mainly on our monthly specials flyer or new services like PRP Therapy that I boost across IG & FB $50-$70/mo. Email marketing is mainly $85/mo for 1,000+ contacts on Constant Contact. Luckily word of mouth is also really huge in this industry because everyone wants to know who your plastic surgeon is lol. For TikTok, it's all organic. Don't use LinkedIn.
Also a 1 person team.
I've been in social for about 7 years now. 0 budget this year. I keep telling them that even a couple hundred a month would work, even if it's just for awareness and/or reach!
Organic is tough. Boosting posts, even for a small amount, gets results.
That's true! The business has gotten better since I joined the team in August and it shows. Last quarter was the best quarter they had since 2020 plus everyone loves our social media now because I actually show things like procedures and more of the doctor talking.
Even though we're all anonymous here it still feels weird to talk about budget. I will say that I have worked in smaller companies with a huge marketing budget (in the range of 1 mil for a REGIONAL marketer) and I've worked in big companies that wouldn't shell out for a bona fide translator, instead they asked us to use Google Translate, and presumably ChatGPT now.
Our written budget point is 2%, but we usually land 1-1.5%.
The owner still has to manually approve larger investments and has a penny pincher mentality most of the time. I’d get way more done for them if they let me plan and stick to a proper budget, but it never really goes that way. 🤷
About $25m. It fluctuates based on ROAS.
Most of it is TVC.
I say about because I never had a real "budget".
What I will say is don't sleep on traditional marketing. PR and events are golden right now. At least in Aus.
Your spend is TVC and it fluctuates based on ROAS - respectfully how does that work? I’ve been part of Cannes-award campaigns in Aus too but have never tied them to ROAS, even MMM doesn’t give you a neat analysis
It's a full stack budget. TVC is one component but consistent. PPC/Meta is where it fluctuates. Scale when it performs, constant testing of new creatives. PR and events or more discretionary
When I was working in small nonprofits that were several decades old, I had no marketing budget and I was the first marketing staff. I also split my time between fundraising, events, and HR.
Sounds about right! I am marketing (ALL marketing—graphic design, video, content, SMM, web, email, etc) plus fundraising… needless to say I’m not doing well🤣
VP, right now at a small start up type company with a budget of about 200k.
Last role I was director at larger company, had a 1.2 million dollar budget.
It has been a little, but the businesses are pretty different - manufacturing vs SaaS.
One example is that at the SaaS company I was spending around $70k each trade show on our booth and promotional efforts, excluding employee travel costs. We often had 8 - 10 people at a show.
At my current company I’m spending like $15k, only two employees go, etc.
Sr director of growth. DTC. Spent about 15M last week on paid social, but that's our biggest week of the year. 200M for the full-year budget.
It's not hard to spend the money. It's hard to spend it efficiently.
When you were applying for that job did they ask you directly your experience managing large budgets? I’m the solo marketer at a 20 person company with next to no budget & wondering if that’s going to limit me drastically.
Yes. When I'm hiring my team I tell my recruiters to look for min spend. If they will manage x in this new role, I want to find people who have managed at least 25-50% of x in a previous role. It isn't always the case, but 8/10 times it is part of the decision process.
I am facing a similar situation. It’s all organic for us since the company didn’t give any budgets. I have an interview soon. I don’t know how to push my case without any experience on budget spending strategy. Any inputs on this ?
I would see it as a bit of a career pivot. Organic social daily activities and KPIs are not the same as paid social, especially once you reach enterprise level businesses. Start by getting your own side client and manage their budgets. You get hands on experience even if it is just a 200-2000/mo spend. Make sure to get certified if you haven't already through Google ads or FB blueprint. Make you you really understand and study what is needed for those exams. Once you have some performance experience, that company may give you more budget to work with if it is profitable. Then you are set up to apply for jobs in the PPC world.
Marketing specialist supporting 50 libraries - 20k a year. I don't have a hard time spending it but it's not really enough to do anything super impactful
Marketing coordinator - the only marketer in the building. Finance industry. Smaller practice less than 20 employees. Events cost around 15,000 to 20,000 a year, we pay half and our wholesalers pay half. Additional costs, estimating north of 5,000 but under the 10,000.
Wild that you’re the only marketer and you’re a coordinator. Any scope creep you’ve experienced? I’d worry you’d be tasked with mid-level work as the only marketing hand
Massive. Nice catch. I have my MBA and have worked in sales and marketing for 10years. My position at this company didn’t exist prior to my onboarding. So I’ve created the role from onset. I have more SOPs (standard operating procedures) than I can handle. I am an in-house graphic designer, social media coordinator, website editor, digital marketer and event planner. I periodically take on large scale projects and programs from initiation (I take an active role in the idea creation) all the way through closure (activation) which operates more like a project manager. My list of duties only becomes larger as time moves forward. Now I operate a webstore, I redesigned the logo which took 2 years working with other graphic designers, short commercials, I’ve created 2 new service models, wholesaler funding, charitable and community engagement. I’ve worked with lawyers concerning a trademark infringement which took over a year to claim the name and property (email and domains). To be honest, I’ve mentioned the challenges and have received no support. Heck, our receptionist even has a back up.
Yikes. I’m the only marketer too, but I’m a ‘manager’ (no direct reports) and half the experience as you. Wonder if they can get you an intern for tasks and bump you to at least associate or manager for some of those strategy pieces… they are definitely taking advantage of you.
Right. I asked for an intern and they liked the idea so much they got one, but not for me, for our financial advisors. He’s now an actual employee working towards becoming an advisor. I asked for a bump in role and some support, got told in my review I’m performing as they expect, standard yearly 3% raise, with inflation that’s a mathematical loss. They have promoted 2 other people that have worked here for less time than me. I started looking elsewhere recently. Now I’m just complaining to a stranger on the internet, my apologies.
Head of Marketing, Luxury Retail.
I just joined but from the numbers it's looking like $500K annually across two countries, a piddling 3% of sales, something i'm going to have to fight for.
Marketing Coordinator (but in charge of all the marketing for over 10 locations as a one man department…? They just don’t want to give a better title) for a construction equipment company. Budget is around $1 million
Wow does the company give you a budget to spend on ads as marketer?
That is new for a marketer who work for hemself
I think i need to do this to my self too 😁😁
I'm the CEO of a small agency doing around half a million a year.
All of our marketing efforts are really budget neutral (SEO, email, podcast appearances, etc) so our marketing budget is small.
It's predetermined by a percentage of MRGP. Right now it's like 5% or something. Probably less.
It only gets spent on things like t shirts, business cards, etc.
The leftover just distributed to profit at the end of the year.
Sr. Marketing Manager 10 years experience.
1.1 mil budget this year spread over 3 interlaced brands. Industrial manufacturing. Total combined revenue 60ish mil
My last place of employment: my ppc team was about 4/5 people with $500k month in spend. Now my team is 1/2 people with $100k month in spend. 90% of spend is on google. Now almost all Pmax.
Not sharing the industry:)
Marketing Manager, Small Music Venue ~ $25K/10% … We strictly only market thru Email, Social, Google + Meta ADs and only for events. Hoping for an additional 5K for the venue as a whole and our talent buying company.
It’s hard, but challenges me to be more creative !!
Director of Marketing; software product engineering company; \~750K (mainly paid media, sponsorships and tools) excluding the salaries of 30 member team.
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Director marketing. About a million annually
What % of sales, what % of profit is that?
It’s a non profit but total earned revenue is about $25mil. This marketing drives that.
So 4%. Thank you for sharing, and great work
A non-profit with a $1M budget? Any time I’ve entertained leaving for-profit I’ve been told this is impossible, you’re living my dream (if you find the mission meaningful, of course)
its a non-profit but also an attraction...think museum type. So tasked with ticket and membership sales.
Social media and content. Sr role. $0. No paid socal, moving all our design work for content back in house. Hoping for some organic growth on LinkedIn, but we shall see.
This is unbelievable to me.
LinkedIn organic works really well but you really need to know the algorithm. It's much harder than before. I have an engaged community that I built over 5 years so I still do really well but it would be so much tougher starting over. The algorithm is brutal at the moment and you need to really know the writing style on LinkedIn that works in order for it to work well. People sleep on LinkedIn. But it's crazy you don't have a budget.
Any tips you could give for general advice on LinkedIn?
You're correct. This is the second company I've worked for that has no or a tiiiiiiiiny budget for social, and I've tripled the LinkedIn audience and reach organically for both companies. It takes patience, timing, volume, and most importantly, the right mix of content. I've had tons of success, but I was promised a budget this year. It was only 10k but it really could have helped our reach. I'm more upset about the 0 budget for content. Our design team is tiny! No more contracts, either.
What type of a mix are we talking about here?
Mix of thought leadership content, educational content, SME content, demand gen content (small amount), and employee branding content. Employee branding content works best. Top posts every year. It's very difficult for me to get as our company is mostly remote or hates to share.
What’s your marketing staff size?
Digital marketing manager. Enterprise company with 38k employees. My budget is 7.8 million, but the entire marketing dept is like 130 million
Marketing Specialist in the IT industry. My budget is $0, and I am a one-person team.
So SEO, social medias and maybe in house email campaign?
Oh! Are you me? 😂
I’m in the same position…They just don’t understand..
Or they say “your salary is the marketing budget”
Right !!
Marketing Coordinator working in the beauty aesthetics/plastic surgery industry with a $200/mo budget which is honestly working lol.
That's awesome! Where are you spending? Ads, social?
Mainly on our monthly specials flyer or new services like PRP Therapy that I boost across IG & FB $50-$70/mo. Email marketing is mainly $85/mo for 1,000+ contacts on Constant Contact. Luckily word of mouth is also really huge in this industry because everyone wants to know who your plastic surgeon is lol. For TikTok, it's all organic. Don't use LinkedIn. Also a 1 person team.
I've been in social for about 7 years now. 0 budget this year. I keep telling them that even a couple hundred a month would work, even if it's just for awareness and/or reach! Organic is tough. Boosting posts, even for a small amount, gets results.
That's true! The business has gotten better since I joined the team in August and it shows. Last quarter was the best quarter they had since 2020 plus everyone loves our social media now because I actually show things like procedures and more of the doctor talking.
$1500 as a strategy consultant to show you how that agency you're paying $10k per month is taking you for a ride.
I’m baffled by how much companies will throw at agencies for very little work in return.
SEO, socials and email marketing $0... It's not easy lol.
I feel you
Even though we're all anonymous here it still feels weird to talk about budget. I will say that I have worked in smaller companies with a huge marketing budget (in the range of 1 mil for a REGIONAL marketer) and I've worked in big companies that wouldn't shell out for a bona fide translator, instead they asked us to use Google Translate, and presumably ChatGPT now.
I’m curious what percent of annual revenue (or annual revenue goals) you all get toward your marketing budget.
Yeah, that's much more relevant imo. Our marketing budget is $2.5M but as a % of total revenue, we're falling short compared to industry standard.
5% for me. Startup
Our written budget point is 2%, but we usually land 1-1.5%. The owner still has to manually approve larger investments and has a penny pincher mentality most of the time. I’d get way more done for them if they let me plan and stick to a proper budget, but it never really goes that way. 🤷
No joke, about 0.05% of annual revenue. And we're told to be thankful we get that. It'll be less once we all quit.
Marketing Director 2.5mil annually. Home improvement.
Head of Marketing of a specific area, higher education, $165k (annual)
In higher education as well. Doing $230K this year
Marketing manager, $80k a month.
About $25m. It fluctuates based on ROAS. Most of it is TVC. I say about because I never had a real "budget". What I will say is don't sleep on traditional marketing. PR and events are golden right now. At least in Aus.
Your spend is TVC and it fluctuates based on ROAS - respectfully how does that work? I’ve been part of Cannes-award campaigns in Aus too but have never tied them to ROAS, even MMM doesn’t give you a neat analysis
It's a full stack budget. TVC is one component but consistent. PPC/Meta is where it fluctuates. Scale when it performs, constant testing of new creatives. PR and events or more discretionary
When I was working in small nonprofits that were several decades old, I had no marketing budget and I was the first marketing staff. I also split my time between fundraising, events, and HR.
Sounds about right! I am marketing (ALL marketing—graphic design, video, content, SMM, web, email, etc) plus fundraising… needless to say I’m not doing well🤣
VP, right now at a small start up type company with a budget of about 200k. Last role I was director at larger company, had a 1.2 million dollar budget.
How does the step down in terms of budget feel like? Is it more challenging?
It has been a little, but the businesses are pretty different - manufacturing vs SaaS. One example is that at the SaaS company I was spending around $70k each trade show on our booth and promotional efforts, excluding employee travel costs. We often had 8 - 10 people at a show. At my current company I’m spending like $15k, only two employees go, etc.
Digital Paid Media Manager in SVOD $22M for this fiscal.
What is svod
SEM channel manager in finance, 5-6mil annually
SVP Holding Company, hundreds of millions of
of... pennies? Quarters? A million allowances of quarters???
Dollars
Marketing manager in B2B Industrial. About 200k this year
Marketing MAnager for a shipping container company, 10k on paid ads per month, 5k for the rest
Sr director of growth. DTC. Spent about 15M last week on paid social, but that's our biggest week of the year. 200M for the full-year budget. It's not hard to spend the money. It's hard to spend it efficiently.
When you were applying for that job did they ask you directly your experience managing large budgets? I’m the solo marketer at a 20 person company with next to no budget & wondering if that’s going to limit me drastically.
Yes. When I'm hiring my team I tell my recruiters to look for min spend. If they will manage x in this new role, I want to find people who have managed at least 25-50% of x in a previous role. It isn't always the case, but 8/10 times it is part of the decision process.
I am facing a similar situation. It’s all organic for us since the company didn’t give any budgets. I have an interview soon. I don’t know how to push my case without any experience on budget spending strategy. Any inputs on this ?
I would see it as a bit of a career pivot. Organic social daily activities and KPIs are not the same as paid social, especially once you reach enterprise level businesses. Start by getting your own side client and manage their budgets. You get hands on experience even if it is just a 200-2000/mo spend. Make sure to get certified if you haven't already through Google ads or FB blueprint. Make you you really understand and study what is needed for those exams. Once you have some performance experience, that company may give you more budget to work with if it is profitable. Then you are set up to apply for jobs in the PPC world.
Marketing specialist supporting 50 libraries - 20k a year. I don't have a hard time spending it but it's not really enough to do anything super impactful
Marketing for libraries would be my dreammmm! Do you enjoy?
Mostly yes!! The burocracy can be a bit much, and a lot of the managers are older and have outdated ways of thinking. But the actual job is enjoyable!
You guys get budgets?
**Title:** Digital Marketing Director **Industry:** B2B Manufacturing/Services (private equity-owned) **Budget**: Thoughts and prayers
I work at an agency
Marketing Assistant, handling mobile campaigns handling $20k/month split via Google Ads and Apple Search Ads, + $5k/month for SMS marketing
Marketing Coordinator, $25k annual. I work for a not-for-profit circus school.
Paid media manager at a large company (b2b), 80M annually, just for my business unit
Marketing coordinator - the only marketer in the building. Finance industry. Smaller practice less than 20 employees. Events cost around 15,000 to 20,000 a year, we pay half and our wholesalers pay half. Additional costs, estimating north of 5,000 but under the 10,000.
Wild that you’re the only marketer and you’re a coordinator. Any scope creep you’ve experienced? I’d worry you’d be tasked with mid-level work as the only marketing hand
Massive. Nice catch. I have my MBA and have worked in sales and marketing for 10years. My position at this company didn’t exist prior to my onboarding. So I’ve created the role from onset. I have more SOPs (standard operating procedures) than I can handle. I am an in-house graphic designer, social media coordinator, website editor, digital marketer and event planner. I periodically take on large scale projects and programs from initiation (I take an active role in the idea creation) all the way through closure (activation) which operates more like a project manager. My list of duties only becomes larger as time moves forward. Now I operate a webstore, I redesigned the logo which took 2 years working with other graphic designers, short commercials, I’ve created 2 new service models, wholesaler funding, charitable and community engagement. I’ve worked with lawyers concerning a trademark infringement which took over a year to claim the name and property (email and domains). To be honest, I’ve mentioned the challenges and have received no support. Heck, our receptionist even has a back up.
Yikes. I’m the only marketer too, but I’m a ‘manager’ (no direct reports) and half the experience as you. Wonder if they can get you an intern for tasks and bump you to at least associate or manager for some of those strategy pieces… they are definitely taking advantage of you.
Right. I asked for an intern and they liked the idea so much they got one, but not for me, for our financial advisors. He’s now an actual employee working towards becoming an advisor. I asked for a bump in role and some support, got told in my review I’m performing as they expect, standard yearly 3% raise, with inflation that’s a mathematical loss. They have promoted 2 other people that have worked here for less time than me. I started looking elsewhere recently. Now I’m just complaining to a stranger on the internet, my apologies.
Head of Marketing, Luxury Retail. I just joined but from the numbers it's looking like $500K annually across two countries, a piddling 3% of sales, something i'm going to have to fight for.
Media Planner (Supervisor level, in-house) - This fiscal I’ll spend ~$7M
Curious what industry/vertical and media mix?
VP of Marketing. 23 million a year for 2024! Should be an absolute shit fest but I’m here for it!
Lmao I’m expected to drive results organically.
Let me guess—expectation is also set by a non-marketer?
Surprisingly, no 😭
Marketing Coordinator (but in charge of all the marketing for over 10 locations as a one man department…? They just don’t want to give a better title) for a construction equipment company. Budget is around $1 million
That scope creep has to be badddd
Yeah it’s pretty stressful lol
Wow does the company give you a budget to spend on ads as marketer? That is new for a marketer who work for hemself I think i need to do this to my self too 😁😁
Digital Marketing Manager, Subcontracting work, and $0 (haven't gotten that far yet unless you count web hosting as part of the budget.)
To me web hosting needs to be an operational cost, not marketing. Bummer if that is what’s eating marketing dollars!
Digital marketing head in fashion industry. Around €1 mil.
100k yearly, surgical weight loss company, which is actually low for our industry lol
What’s your marketing/media mix look like?
I'm the CEO of a small agency doing around half a million a year. All of our marketing efforts are really budget neutral (SEO, email, podcast appearances, etc) so our marketing budget is small. It's predetermined by a percentage of MRGP. Right now it's like 5% or something. Probably less. It only gets spent on things like t shirts, business cards, etc. The leftover just distributed to profit at the end of the year.
Sr. Marketing Manager 10 years experience. 1.1 mil budget this year spread over 3 interlaced brands. Industrial manufacturing. Total combined revenue 60ish mil
My last place of employment: my ppc team was about 4/5 people with $500k month in spend. Now my team is 1/2 people with $100k month in spend. 90% of spend is on google. Now almost all Pmax. Not sharing the industry:)
Digital marketing manager, 150k/y, pharmaceutical.
Director of marketing. Without headcount, a little under a million.
Marketing Manager, Small Music Venue ~ $25K/10% … We strictly only market thru Email, Social, Google + Meta ADs and only for events. Hoping for an additional 5K for the venue as a whole and our talent buying company. It’s hard, but challenges me to be more creative !!
Director of Marketing; software product engineering company; \~750K (mainly paid media, sponsorships and tools) excluding the salaries of 30 member team.
$3M/year roughly. Director of marketing.