Marketing Budget 2026: Your 90-day guide to getting it done

Note: This guide draws on extensive research from our comprehensive B2B Marketer’s Guide to 2026 (88 plays) and B2C Marketer’s Guide to 2026 (105 plays). Download either guide for deeper tactical playbooks across every channel – from SEO and PPC to email automation and social commerce.

If you’re only just starting your 2026 budget planning now, you’re not behind – you’re actually in a surprisingly strong position.

The countdown to April 1st has officially begun, and yes, kudos to those who began the planning process six months ago, but here’s the thing. The world moves too fast nowadays for twelve-month forecasts to hold up. So, starting from scratch, or revisiting it with a fresh set of eyes – by planning now, you’ve got something far more valuable than theoretical projections – you’ve got fresh data from the Q4 chaos you just survived. You’re not guessing based on summer forecasts that may have since become redundant from the latest algorithm changes or any economic shifts. You’re planning based on what’s actually happening right now.

And that reality is complicated. As we head into the 2026 financial year, 83% of marketing leaders are expecting budget increases. Sounds great, right? Except those increases come with strings attached – thick ones. Your board is watching every pound like never before. The “growth at all costs” era, where experimental spending and vanity metrics flew under the radar, is done. They don’t just want clicks anymore. They expect efficiency, accountability, and above all, revenue.

So whether you’re a CMO of a global team, a Head of Marketing managing a growing business, or a solo founder juggling pretty much everything, the next 90 days is the time to build a budget that actually works, that lives beyond the spreadsheet and becomes a real engine for growth.

Let’s get stuck in.

Understand what you’re up against

Before you touch a single number in that spreadsheet, you need to know what landscape you’re operating in. There are three huge shifts that are defining 2026, and they should influence where every pound of your budget goes.

1. The “Tale of Two Britains” (why your customers aren’t a single market anymore)

You can’t budget for a unified UK market anymore because, frankly, it doesn’t exist. We’re seeing two completely different economic realities running in parallel, and your budget needs to reflect both.

• The Cautious Majority: This is most people, including 71% of Gen Z. They’re feeling the squeeze, and it’s changed how they shop entirely. Brand loyalty? Gone. This group will abandon your checkout for even a chance of a 5% discount code elsewhere, without giving it a second thought. Challenger brands and volume retailers should focus on their performance marketing, pricing, and messaging to ensure they are demonstrating clear value.
• The Confident Affluent: These individuals (about 68% of them) are, or at least feel, financially stable despite everything we see going on in the economy right now. They’re shopping habits are focused on your product/service quality, sustainability, and whether what your brand actually stands for aligns with their own ethics. They are looking for true trust signals. If you operate within the luxury or heritage markets, position your investment into premium content, brand-building work, and experiences that can truly connect with your audience.

What does this mean for your budget? Simply put, you can’t spread yourself too thin trying to speak to everyone, and if you do or get caught somewhere between the two, then you will fail. Pick your lane, fund it properly, and commit.

2. Regulatory pressure (Compliance just became expensive)

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA) brings with it real financial risk to your business. With fines reaching up to 10% of global turnover for getting it wrong, regulatory compliance has developed from a tick-box exercise to a proper budget line item.

• Enterprise teams: Budget for external audits and potentially some compliance software. It’s not a sexy way to spend, but it’s actually really important.
• SME’s or start-ups: You can’t rely on “drip pricing” (any hidden fees) to boost your margins anymore. Budget for developers (or time for any in-house experts) to make your checkout transparent from the start, or you’ll risk the consequences.

Oh, and any vague sustainability claims you’ve been running? They also need sorting. Every environmental statement now needs proper, verifiable data backing it up. This shifts your budget from clever copywriting to supply chain transparency, third-party audits, and proof that actually stands up to any scrutiny.

3. The Human + Machine Balance (AI Is here, but it’s not the whole answer)

AI has moved from shiny novelty to operational necessity faster than any of us expected. But now the market is already flooded with generic, AI-generated content – blog posts, emails, social updates that all sound the same and say nothing memorable, and this has caused what the experts are calling the “trough of disillusionment.”

Trust is now the premium currency of 2026.

• Here’s the budget challenge: You need to fund the “Human + Machine” model. AI can be used to handle 80% of the tasks that you find are either repetitive or data-intensive. You can then invest in your “human expertise” to deliver the remaining 20%, which includes: strategic thinking, creative spark, and authentic voice. The things that basically elevate your brand above all that algorithmic/generic noise.

The cost savings from AI automation shouldn’t go straight to the bottom line. Reinvest them in better human talent and skills.

How to structure your budget

We’ve all done it; carved up the budget by channel, allocated set amounts to SEO, PPC, email, social, and called it done.

For smaller teams, this creates a frantic checklist mentality where you feel obligated to feed every channel, regardless of whether it’s working. For larger teams, it breeds silos where channel managers fight to protect their territory every year, even when the results don’t justify it.

There’s a better way for 2026 – the Invest, Experiment, Divest framework. This structures your spending by strategic intent rather than tactical obligation. Every pound has a clear job to do. And the board will love that.

The “Invest” Bucket (60-70% of budget)

This is your foundation and contains the non-negotiables that keep the business running.

• For enterprise teams: This protects market share. It funds the infrastructure (your CRM, marketing automation, analytics platforms) and the agency retainers that keep operations steady.
• For agile and SME teams: This keeps the lights on and drives the core revenue that pays salaries. It funds your essential tech stack – the tools you’d be lost without.

Note – “Invest” doesn’t mean “maintenance mode.” It means resilience. In 2026, this bucket needs to fund:

• Your core tech infrastructure: Especially your CRM, which acts as the central nervous system of your revenue operation.
• Your first-party data strategy: With third-party cookies disappearing, if you’re not investing in owning your own customer data, then you’re paying to rent it from someone else instead.
• Your in-house strategic team: The people (team) who provide strategic thinking, data analysis, and authentic creative direction. As AI handles execution, the premium on human strategy rises.

The “Experiment” Bucket (20-30% of budget)

Think of this as your research and development fund. This capital should be used to test high-growth, high-potential channels that could become your competitive advantage.

• For enterprise teams: This prevents you from becoming a dinosaur. It lets you test emerging technologies or expensive new platforms without disrupting core operations.
• For agile and SME teams: This is your agility fund. It lets you pivot quickly to where attention is shifting, testing TikTok Shop or micro-influencer campaigns without “going all in”.

This might mean:

• Retail Media Networks (RMNs): Placing ads right at the digital point of purchase. Sites such as Amazon, Tesco and Boots are prime examples of this and offer great closed-loop attribution.
• Connected TV: Challenge the fractured screen attention. Connected TV, also more commonly known by streaming platforms like Netflix and ITVX,  allows you to reach younger audiences who’ve abandoned traditional broadcast TV. Keep in mind, they’re probably scrolling TikTok during their latest series binge.
• New AI workflow tools: Test “agentic AI” that can handle complex, multi-step marketing tasks. This is still somewhat an advanced play, but the tech is developing so quickly that this really is becoming a closer reality, day by day.

The mindset here is critical. Failure is an acceptable outcome, as long as you learn something and have the data to back it.

The “Divest” Bucket (10% of budget)

This is the most painful, but necessary part. This bucket is where you recoup previous spend, so that you can reallocate it more effectively in the year ahead.

Every year, 10% of your budget should be recovered from underperforming areas to fund innovation. We’ve all been there, you’re paying for something because you’ve always paid for it, not because it’s actually working.

• For enterprise teams: This often requires political bravery. Cutting legacy agencies or tools that have “always been there” but no longer deliver. Auditing your ad spend for fraud and viewability issues.
• For agile and SME teams: This is about survival. You can’t afford to take dead weight moving forward.

Start here:

• Highlight zombie subscriptions: Those software licenses that were seen as previously essential two years ago but now haven’t been logged into for months.
• Audit your ad spend: Are you running ads still because you always have, even though you can’t prove they’re actually working?
• Stop paying for your ego: If you’re boosting posts just to get likes, but that doesn’t result in any sales, then it’s time you called it a day.

Your 90-Day Sprint to April

Most of us are budget planning now, not from six months ago. And that’s fine. We don’t have the luxury of a long audit process, so we’re condensing it into a high-impact, quarter-long sprint.

If you’re reading this article in January, you’ve got the perfect amount of time. If you’re picking this up in March… welcome! Grab a coffee. You’re going to need it, but we can absolutely still make this work.

Month 1: January – Take a breath and look at what you’ve actually got

Begin with an assessment of where you really stand – and be honest.

• Make sure you’re working with healthy data: Your CRM must be your single source of truth. Check it’s not flooded with duplicates and old data that is unreliable and frankly useless to you. Also, ensure you’re clear on how you’re capturing your first-party data and doing so compliantly.

If you spot any gaps in compliance (DMCCA issues, GDPR holes), flag them now before they become legal headaches further down the line. And which could cost the business more than your annual marketing budget.

• Look at your ad performance: Start tracking metrics like MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio) – total marketing spend vs total revenue generated. This tells you the real story and not just what the ad platforms want you to think.

Figure out if your ads actually caused a sale (incrementality), or if that customer was buying anyway and the ad just took the credit.

Why do this now? Because when budget revisions start in February, you’ll need this data to defend your proposals against any cuts.

Month 2: February – The pitch, buffer and negotiation dance

When you submit your budget, this is inevitably when the negotiations begin – think of it as “budget ping-pong”.

You’ve spent weeks building a budget, present it confidently, and then in a 15-minute meeting, you watch it get slashed. It’s rare for any marketer to submit a budget and get it signed off untouched. So don’t be disheartened.

Finance Directors and Founders often ask for 10-15% cuts, simply as due diligence or caution.

• Build a buffer for negotiation: If you need £500,000 to hit your targets, then submit a budget for £550,000. That 10% buffer you’ve created then provides two purposes:
  • When you’re inevitably asked to cut costs, you can remove the buffer without damaging your core strategy. You look cooperative, Finance feels they’ve done their job, and everyone moves forward.
  • If by some miracle your budget gets approved without cuts, don’t spend that buffer immediately. Ring-fence it as your emergency fund for the year; vital for covering unexpected cost increases, reacting to competitor moves, or handling sudden price hikes from platforms.
• Bring three scenarios: Don’t walk in with just one plan. Have “Conservative”, “Target”, and “Aggressive” versions ready. If the board isn’t comfortable with your Aggressive numbers, then you can immediately pivot to Target without needing two weeks to rework everything.
• Align with Sales: Speak their language by agreeing on a single metric (typically Customer Lifetime Value), so that you’re all working toward the same goal.
• Present “Pilots”: When pitching your “Experiment” bucket, call them “Pilots.” This small language shift frames the spend as a controlled test rather than a risky bet, which helps get buy-in, especially from Finance.

Month 3: March – Fix your plumbing before you turn on the tap

By early March, negotiations should be wrapping up, and it’s your opportunity to get ahead and start moving into execution mode.

• Lock in with your suppliers: They’ll have their own Q1 targets too, so you may even be able to squeeze out a bit of discount or extra contract value from them before your new fiscal year begins.
• Sort out your team structure: Is your current resource ready and able to deliver the new plan? Do you need to hire a data analyst or swap a generalist agency out for a specialist? Getting that infrastructure right now means you’re not fixing leaks come 1st April; instead, you can fully open the taps and execute. Note – You will have already considered this within your budget – but now’s the time you can start preparing for that change.

Where to actually spend your money?

One of the biggest questions we hear is: “Where exactly do I put the budget?” The answer to that really depends on your business model.

For B2C brands (Retail & direct-to-consumer)

Your 2026 budget needs to address the attention fragmentation. It’s so common that your audience is viewing more than one screen at a time, and in a world where cheap reach on Facebook and expecting conversions is long gone, you can’t afford to be passive about how you target your audience effectively. Here’s some food for thought:

• Retention: It costs 5x more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. By shifting your budget towards personalised email and SMS flows (predicted churn sequences and win-back campaigns), as well as loyalty programs, you can demonstrate that you really know your customer, whilst also providing you with the opportunity to update them on your latest news or relevant offer. In the first instance, though, try to give them true value, rather than pestering them with a sneaky sale push – they’ll see right through it otherwise. Tools like Klaviyo or Omnisend are just two examples here to look into that are great at helping you with this.
• The new media mix: TV reach for 16-24 year-olds has collapsed. Your budget needs to follow the eyeballs – 56% of marketers are increasing spend on Connected TV platforms. Also invest properly in short-form video (TikTok, Reels, Shorts), which consistently delivers the highest ROI. But note, the aesthetic has shifted from polished to authentic (so you don’t need to break the bank producing them).
• User-generated content: We’re drowning in AI-sameness, so to stand out, you just need to be yourself. This may sound too simple, but actually, that’s all your audience is looking for. You. Unfiltered, 100% organic and authentic. They want to see and build trust with you. Budget for tools that can help curate genuine customer content, like Yotpo and Okendo. Another key play is changing your one-off influencer contracts to long-term creator partnerships where they become your authentic brand ambassadors.

For B2B organisations (SaaS & services)

Your budget needs to reflect the complex, multi-stakeholder buying journey that’s now become the norm. The average B2B purchase now involves, on average, 13 different stakeholders.

• Revenue Operations (RevOps): That historic battle, or silo, between sales and marketing creates a level of inefficiency within business budgets. By investing in a unified CRM, that both teams trust, you can break the barriers between marketing “Leads” and sales “Accounts”. 
• Buyer enablement tools: B2B buyers are 83% through their journey before they even talk to sales. They are looking for information; they don’t want a pitch. Move your budget from “lead capture” forms to “demand creation” content. Tools like Highspot or Allego are good options that allow your sales team to create personalised microsites for their target’s buying committee.
• Intent data: Budget for predictive intent data, with the help of tools like 6sense or Bombora. These identify accounts/propsects who are actively researching your solution before they reach out. Use this information to then tailor the right message to them at the right time.

For hybrid or local businesses

If you’re a multi-location or a service provider that relies on local leads, then your spending looks different.

• Local SEO: Focus your attention on raising your “near me” visibility by investing in your Google Business Profiles and perhaps looking into systems that can generate local reviews at scale and consistently.
• Hyper-local community: Where you’ve currently been spending on a broad social media campaign, instead consider how you could target your most likely and closest customer base: sponsor community events, create ads targeted to specific postcodes, and develop partnerships with local businesses.

The big channel shifts everyone needs to know

Regardless of your sector, three channel shifts will affect everyone in 2026.

1. SEO: From traffic chasing to owning the search results page

The goal has shifted from just driving traffic to owning visibility across the entire search results page, including AI-generated overviews.

Budget for:

• Technical SEO as foundation: A slow site is an invisible site. This isn’t optional anymore.
• Expert-led content: Interview your subject matter experts and create content that your competition or AI cannot replicate. Google is rewarding authentic and reliable expertise and experience more than ever before.

2. PPC: Feeding the AI beast (properly)

Pay-per-click has evolved from manual bid tweaking to AI orchestration. With 84% of UK advertisers using Performance Max campaigns, your budget focus should shift to feeding these AI systems with high-quality creative assets and first-party data signals.

Also diversify – allocate budget to Microsoft Ads and LinkedIn (for B2B) to reduce dependence on Google’s volatility.

3. Digital PR: Your authority engine

Digital PR isn’t just about link building anymore. It should be your primary channel for generating domain authority and brand trust.

Budget for:

• Expert commentary: Position your internal experts to provide insights to journalists
• Data-led stories: Proprietary research or surveys that journalists actually want to cover

Defending your budget to the board

When you walk into that boardroom to get sign-off, you need to speak the language of finance. You can’t ask for money for “branding”; you need to ask for investment in “future cash flows.”

Use MER instead of ROAS

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is often a misleading metric because it ignores fixed costs and doesn’t show whether you actually caused the sale or not. Instead, measure: 

Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER): Total Revenue / Total Marketing Spend. 

This gives you a true representation of how effective your marketing efforts have been.

Prove incrementality

The CFO will inevitably ask: “Would we have gotten those sales anyway?”

You need a budget to answer this scientifically. Budget for lift studies where you stop advertising to a control group to measure the true incremental impact of your campaigns. This proves your value with data, not opinions.

Frame risk, not just opportunity

Fear of loss is a powerful motivator for boards. Frame requests in terms of what happens if you don’t invest:

“If we don’t invest in proper data infrastructure, we lose visibility on 30% of our conversions, making all our ad spend 30% less efficient.”

Final thoughts

For 2026, your budget should be built on a resilient, adaptable system that can handle whatever gets thrown at you.

If you invest in solid data foundations and compliance, experiment with new channels, and cut anything that isn’t working, then you stand a really good chance at a great year ahead. Follow the Invest, Experiment, Divest framework, building in those negotiation buffers to your budget, and make sure to prioritise your first-party data. In doing so, you’ll position marketing as a genuine growth driver, rather than a cost centre.

Yes, 2026 will throw curveballs – but just like you, we can’t predict those either. Markets will shift, algorithms will change, and budgets might get squeezed mid-year. But if you’ve built a budget that can flex, you’re going to be fine.

Better than fine, actually.

You’ve got this.

Take your strategy further

This budget guide is just the beginning. For the complete tactical playbooks behind every strategic pillar discussed above, explore our full 2026 resources:

Download the B2B Marketer’s Guide to 2026 → 88 plays covering Revenue Operations (RevOps), buyer enablement, intent data, digital sales rooms, agentic AI, and channel-specific strategies for SEO, Digital PR, PPC, and beyond.

Download the B2C Marketer’s Guide to 2026 → 105 plays tackling the “Tale of Two Britains,” first-party data mastery, connected TV and retail media networks, social commerce, subscription optimisation, and compliance with the DMCCA.

Both of these guides include maturity frameworks (Tier 1, 2, and 3 plays), commentary from our in-house channel specialists, and actionable steps that you can implement immediately. We have even given our top tips on which to really focus on first.

If you’d like a no-obligation conversation with us about your 2026 planning, reach out whenever you’re ready: info@embryo.com.

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