Marketing budget automation is key to maximizing marketing value

• A gap exists between perceived budget efficiency and actual operational performance in marketing organizations

• Manual budget management capabilities lack the agility needed to maximize marketing ROI

• Marketing Ops solutions solve collaboration and visibility issues caused by multiple/outdated tools

ATLANTA, Georgia, July 14, 2021 — brand creator, the innovation leader in marketing operations and marketing resource management solutions, today announced the results of an independent research study conducted by Forrester Consulting on how marketing organizations can optimize their budgets. marketing. Forrester research has revealed a significant gap between perceived budget efficiency and actual operational performance in today’s marketing organizations. The study reveals that marketers need greater agility through automation to meet customer expectations and business demands.

What does “good enough” mean for marketing budgets?

Research found that most marketers [74% and over] believe their organizations respond effectively to internal and external factors that require budgetary and resource adjustments.

However, only 30% of survey respondents said they could adjust or reallocate spending based on campaign performance within a week. The turnaround time is similar for adjustments based on customer needs, competitive landscape, and market conditions. Ideally, organizations should make these budget changes in near real time, but only 11% of respondents say they can make the necessary updates within a day.

It can take months or even longer to redirect investments, preventing marketers from delivering full value to the business.

Budget management is an important part of the job of most marketing managers. But few have mastered it, with 7 in 10 marketers saying they spend more time managing the budget than they’d like – time that could be better spent achieving key marketing goals.

Respondents cited manual processes, collaboration issues, and lack of visibility as the top reasons they spend too much time managing the budget.

One of the biggest problems is that most marketers still use spreadsheets to manually manage their budgets.

A second challenge is the number of tools used, with only 14% of respondents using a single tool solution for budgeting. Using multiple tools can limit visibility and slow down budget optimization processes, especially if spreadsheets are the primary tools involved.

Marketing Ops boosts budget management automation

The right budget management capabilities can give marketers the agility they need to maximize ROI. Marketing Ops solutions can improve collaboration and enable visibility into all marketing investments and performance results – across teams, the business, and partners.

To succeed, marketers must automate budgeting processes and workflows based on real-time access to critical data. Marketing organizations that achieve budget agility effectively align their operations with business goals and prove the value of marketing investments. This is essential for marketers to articulate and justify the need for increased marketing budgets.

According to Mirko Holzer, CEO of BrandMaker, “Agility is a marketing superpower that goes beyond quick thinking for the next marketing campaign. We believe Forrester’s research proves that marketers need greater agility in their operations to keep pace with self-driving customer expectations and day-to-day business demands. They have to reallocate budget to the most critical investments in real time, but today most settle for months or longer. With the right marketing operations solution, marketers can optimize performance and ensure they are fast and agile enough to thrive in today’s digital economy.

See the full report here.

Watch the webinar on demand here.

Research Methodology

A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of BrandMaker, in May 2021, surveyed 159 corporate marketing financial management decision makers in the United States.

About BrandMaker

BrandMaker is the leading SaaS provider of efficient and scalable marketing operations management solutions. BrandMaker provides the visibility, control and agility that enterprise marketers need to optimize their marketing operations. BrandMaker tames the complexity of multinational marketing campaigns, budgets and team workflows, enabling companies to work across borders, cultures and silos for greater efficiency and value. Independent research firms recognize BrandMaker as a leader in marketing operations. More than 300 leading companies, including Deutsche Bank, BestBuy and Daimler, trust its solutions to increase the collaboration, efficiency and performance of their marketing planning and execution. For more information, please visit www.brandmaker.com