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Tools / Bucket 7

Planning and budgeting

Turning strategy into decisions with money attached. Tradeoffs, business cases, and speaking finance language.

Tools and platforms

/Spreadsheets (Excel, Google Sheets)

Still the most used planning tool in marketing. Budget models, forecasts, scenario planning, and reporting. If you cannot build a model in a spreadsheet, the tool does not matter.

/Platform forecasting tools

Meta, Google, and TikTok all offer reach and conversion forecasts based on budget inputs. Useful as a starting point but always overly optimistic. Treat as a rough guide, not a plan.

/Claude / ChatGPT for scenario modelling

Ask AI to build financial models, run what-if scenarios, and stress-test assumptions. Good at the mechanics. The judgment on which scenario to pursue is yours.

What AI does vs what you do

AI handles
  • Forecasting from historical data
  • Budget pacing and spend tracking
  • Allocation suggestions across channels
  • Scenario modelling (what if we shift 20% to search?)
  • Automated reporting and variance flagging
You decide
  • Decide which tradeoff is worth making
  • Judge whether a forecast is trustworthy
  • Build the business case in language finance understands
  • Say no to good ideas in favour of better ones
  • Present with honesty about what you cannot prove

Skills to develop

/Finance language (CAC, LTV, payback period, contribution margin)
/Channel tradeoff analysis
/Business case construction
/Risk appetite judgment
/Presenting to non-marketers (business framing, not campaign metrics)
/Resource allocation under uncertainty

Budget follows strategy, not the other way around. AI can tell you what each channel historically returns. It cannot decide which bet is worth taking.

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