Budgeting for growth
May 2025
In our last blog post, we talked a little about emerging trends and about how global economic uncertainty can lead to bad marketing decisions. This has led to some interesting conversations, so we thought we’d deep dive into how to allocate marketing budgets in a way that delivers both immediate impact and long-term growth – even in an unpredictable economic environment.
There’s no doubt that the global context remains uncertain, with global market pressures, fluctuating commodity prices and shifting consumer expectations all playing a role in shaping the year ahead. In times like these, marketing budgets often become a battleground – where every dollar spent is scrutinised and short-term pressures threaten to crowd out longer-term strategic investments.
If there’s one thing history has shown us, it’s that businesses that continue to invest in their brand during uncertain times emerge stronger. Cutting marketing spend may provide short-term relief, but it almost always comes at the expense of long-term equity, making it harder to grow and putting you on the back foot when market conditions improve. The challenge, then, isn’t about whether to invest, it’s about where and how to invest.
The key to success lies in strategic investment. So let’s look at how to balance brand-building with performance marketing, ensure measurable ROI and make room for innovation – all while maintaining financial discipline.
The 60/40 rule
One of the most important principles guiding marketing investment is the balance between brand-building and performance marketing. The latest research supports what seasoned marketers have long understood: the optimal split is roughly 60% brand investment, 40% performance marketing. Yet, with sales often measured in short term quarterly targets, we often see companies swinging too far toward immediate lead generation, neglecting the role that brand strength plays in long-term demand creation.
Brand-building efforts – through content marketing, PR, sponsorships and storytelling – create mental availability and preference that drive future sales. These investments may not provide instant returns, but they lay the foundation for sustained market share growth. Performance marketing, on the other hand, delivers more immediate results, optimising conversions and driving measurable engagement. Striking the right balance ensures that businesses see both short-term returns and long-term resilience.
Investing in marketing infrastructure
A significant yet often overlooked component of marketing budgets is investment in marketing infrastructure. With digital transformation at the forefront of agrimarketing, businesses must allocate funds for the right marketing technology (martech), software licenses and ongoing platform optimisations. CRM systems, automation tools, analytics platforms and content management systems are no longer optional extras – they are essential components of a scalable, efficient marketing operation.
Justifying these costs can be challenging, particularly when budgets are under pressure. The key is to frame martech investment as a revenue enabler, not an expense. A well-integrated tech stack increases efficiency, enhances customer targeting and enables better measurement of marketing effectiveness – all of which lead to stronger ROI. Typically, we’re seeing businesses allocate roughly 10-16% of their marketing budgets to infrastructure, ensuring they have the right tools to execute campaigns effectively while maintaining agility in a competitive market. If you’re investing considerably less than that, you’re probably falling behind the pack.
Websites, in particular, demand ongoing investment. Too often, businesses treat their website as a one-off project, neglecting the reality that a static, outdated website quickly degrades in value. Regular updates, content refreshes, performance optimisations and security enhancements are needed to keep websites functioning as high-performing marketing assets. Allocating budget for continuous website improvement – whether through SEO enhancements, better user experience (UX) design or content improvements – ensures that a your digital presence remains strong and competitive.
The case for innovation
While budget constraints may tempt businesses to stick to the familiar, the most successful agrimarketers carve out and protect at all costs, space for innovation. This means investing a portion of budgets to test emerging channels and technologies. AI-driven marketing automation, influencer partnerships and e-commerce initiatives are among the top areas we’re seeing receive increased focus.
A ‘test-and-learn’ approach allows businesses to experiment with new strategies while mitigating risk. Allocating even as little as 5-15% of the marketing budget to innovation ensures that businesses stay ahead of the curve without overcommitting to unproven tactics. It’s a small price to pay to give yourself the opportunity to uncover a game-changing growth driver.
Measuring what matters
With financial scrutiny at an all-time high, agribusinesses are placing greater emphasis on marketing effectiveness and accountability. The days of relying on vanity metrics are over. Instead, the focus has shifted toward customer lifetime value (CLV), cost per acquisition (CPA) and return on marketing investment (ROMI). Marketers must demonstrate not just activity, but impact – ensuring that every dollar spent contributes to business objectives in a measurable way.
Advanced analytics, CRM integrations and marketing attribution models are becoming essential tools for tracking performance. Businesses that have a clear framework for evaluating success will find it easier to justify marketing investments and secure buy-in from leadership teams. Data-driven decision-making isn’t just a best practice – it’s becoming a non-negotiable.
Beyond short-term ROI, agribusinesses must also consider long-term brand equity measurement. While performance marketing delivers immediate returns, strong brands are built over time, and their impact on revenue isn’t always immediately visible. This is where brand tracking studies play a crucial role – measuring key brand associations, awareness levels and shifts in customer perception over time. However, to be truly valuable, brand tracking must go beyond superficial metrics; it should be designed to identify the attributes that genuinely influence purchase decisions and correlate with long-term market share growth. AgTrack and similar platforms are offering a cost-effective way of getting this brand measurement insight in place.
Whichever tool you use, allocating budget for ongoing brand measurement ensures that you’re not just tracking engagement but are actively understanding how your brand is positioned in the market. By combining short-term performance data with long-term brand tracking insights, agrimarketers can create a more holistic measurement framework that justifies brand investment even in uncertain times.
The bottom line
The instinct to tighten budgets in uncertain times is perfectly understandable, but businesses that take a purely defensive stance risk losing ground to their competitors. It’s an age old conversation, but instead of viewing marketing as an expense, the best growth-oriented agribusinesses treat it as an investment – one that, when managed strategically, can drive both short-term results and long-term resilience.
But it’s all a balance – allocating budgets in a way that supports brand-building while driving immediate performance, making room for innovation while ensuring financial discipline and measuring results with precision while maintaining a long-term perspective.
The agribusiness landscape is evolving, but one thing remains constant: businesses that invest in their brand today will be the ones leading the market tomorrow.
Deal with a company that lives and breathes this sector, and that can bring greater depth and scale to your marketing efforts.
Let's talk