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Marketing Budget Planning: Allocate Spend and Measure ROI
New
6 students

Marketing Budget Planning: Allocate Spend and Measure ROI

Compare spending options, examine return assumptions and build a budget recommendation with clear trade-offs.
Created byDr. Law Payne
Last updated 11/2026
English

What you'll learn

  • Compare channel requests against common marketing objectives.
  • Identify the assumptions behind expected marginal returns.
  • Assess scenarios when budget or delivery capacity is constrained.
  • Write a budget recommendation with a plan for what to test.

Course content

2 sections • 10 lectures • 1h 49m total length
  • The Decision and the First Useful Result10:58

    Reproduce Ridgeway’s starting allocation and distinguish attributed from incremental return. Use the downloadable worksheet to apply the lesson to the case.

  • Objectives in Practice11:43

    Set the outcome, time horizon, and constraints for the next budget decision. Use the downloadable worksheet to apply the lesson to the case.

  • Channels and the Evidence Behind It10:56

    Compare the evidence behind reported returns from three channels. Use the downloadable worksheet to apply the lesson to the case.

  • Marginal Returns Without Hidden Assumptions10:30

    Calculate marginal returns and test what could change the next allocation. Use the downloadable worksheet to apply the lesson to the case.

  • The Foundation Case and Your First Deliverable10:59

    Build a bounded budget decision around response, contribution, and fulfillment capacity. Use the downloadable worksheet to apply the lesson to the case.

Requirements

  • No specialist qualification or paid software is required. Bring a suitable work example or use the course case exercises.

Description

This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.


Every channel has a case for more money. The requests add up to more than you have. What will you fund, what will you defer, and how will you explain the trade-off?


I’m Dr. Law Payne. My master’s degree in Business shapes how I approach these decisions. I designed this course for marketing managers, founders, agency professionals and budget owners who want to make a practical recommendation they can explain to a team.


Across ten lectures in two sections, you’ll learn to compare channel costs, marginal returns and the evidence behind spending requests. In the foundations section, you’ll work through the evidence behind the first decision. The applied section gives you a second case with a different constraint, so you can see where the same reasoning holds and where the decision needs to change.


I designed the case exercises to give you a decision to make before you see the worked reasoning. In the final workshop, you’ll put the work together into a budget recommendation with scenarios, assumptions and a plan for what to test Write down which evidence supports your recommendation, where your assumptions might be wrong, and what you would check before acting.


Bring one decision you’re responsible for at work. Start with the first lecture, then use the case and workshop to practise explaining your recommendation in plain language. Enroll if you want a way to take the next decision from an open discussion to a concrete plan you can share with your team.

Who this course is for:

  • Marketing managers, founders, agency professionals and budget owners