What the Marketing Budget Allocator does
This marketing budget allocator splits a total budget across channels and months using the rules marketers actually plan with: fixed commitments, a target volume at a known cost per acquisition, and percentages of whatever is left. It then spreads each channel over the months by your seasonality weights, checks that the plan adds up to the budget to the cent, and estimates results from the cost per result you give it.
The output is a channel-by-month plan you can download as CSV or print - a starting media plan, not a recommendation of which channels to use.
How to use it
- Enter the total budget, the first month and how many months the plan covers.
- Optionally add one seasonality weight per month. A weight of 2 gives that month twice the spend of a month weighted 1; leave the box empty for an even spread.
- List the channels, one per line, with a rule after the colon: a fixed amount such as
Events: 6000, a target such asLinkedIn ads: 120 x 85(120 results at 85 each), or a share such asPaid search: 60%. - Add
@ 42to a line to say what one result costs in that channel, which turns spend into an expected number of results, andflatfor costs that do not follow the season, such as a platform subscription. - Check the unallocated figure and any warnings, then download the plan as CSV or print it.
Reading the results
Fixed and target-based channels are funded first, because they are commitments. Percentage channels share the remainder in proportion to their percentages, so 60%, 25% and 15% divide the remainder completely, while 40% alone leaves 60% of it unallocated.
Months are split to whole cents by the largest-remainder method, so every row and column adds up exactly to the totals shown.
Expected results are spend divided by your cost per result. They assume that cost stays flat as spend changes, which usually overstates the results of large increases.
Worked example: a B2B software company's six-month plan
A 60,000 budget runs from October to March. A trade show costs 12,000 whatever the month, and the team wants 120 LinkedIn leads at about 85 each, which needs 10,200. That commits 22,200 and leaves 37,800.
The remainder is split 60% paid search, 25% content syndication and 15% retargeting: 22,680, 9,450 and 5,670. At 70 per lead, paid search should bring about 22,680 / 70 = 324 leads.
Seasonality weights of 1, 1.1, 0.7, 1, 1.1 and 1.1 add up to 6. Paid search therefore gets 22,680 x 1 / 6 = 3,780 in October and 22,680 x 0.7 / 6 = 2,646 in the quieter December, while the flat trade-show line is 2,000 every month.
Formulas and scoring rules
- Remainder
remainder = total - fixed amounts - (target volume x CPA for target channels)- Percentage channels
channel = remainder x pct / 100If the percentages add up to more than 100, they are scaled to share the remainder exactly.- Monthly split
month i = channel total x weight i / sum of weightsSplit to whole cents by largest remainder, so parts always sum to the total.- Expected results
results = channel spend / cost per result
Choosing seasonality weights
Weights are easiest to set from your own history: take last year's sales or leads by month and divide each month by the average. A December that sold 1.8 times an average month gets a weight of 1.8. If you have no history, start even and adjust around the dates you already know - product launches, holidays and trade shows.
Spending in proportion to demand is a common starting point, not a rule. Some teams deliberately spend ahead of a peak so that prospects are already familiar with the brand when they are ready to buy.
Limitations: what the result does not prove
- It divides your budget by your rules; it does not know which channels will work for your business or what they will cost.
- Expected results use a constant cost per result. Real costs rise as you buy more of the same audience, and fall or rise with the season.
- It plans spend, not cash flow: invoices for events, agencies and annual contracts may fall in different months from the activity.
- Taxes on media, agency commissions and currency conversion are not added unless you include them in the channel amounts.
Privacy: where your data goes
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Standards and sources
Frequently asked questions
How should I split a marketing budget between channels?
Fund commitments first - events, contracts, retainers - then channels where you know what a result costs and how many you need. Share the rest by percentage, leaning towards channels with the lowest proven cost per result, and keep a small test allowance for new channels. This tool applies exactly that order.
What is a cost-per-acquisition rule in a budget plan?
It sets a channel's budget from a goal instead of a share: the number of leads, sign-ups or sales you want multiplied by what each one costs. 120 leads at 85 each is 10,200. It keeps the plan tied to outcomes, and shows quickly when a goal is unaffordable.
What does the unallocated amount mean?
It is the part of the budget no rule claims, which happens when the percentage channels add up to less than 100% of the remainder. Keep it as a contingency or raise the percentages. A negative figure means fixed and target channels already need more than the total budget.
How do seasonality weights differ from percentages?
Weights are relative: 1, 1 and 2 means the third month gets twice as much as each of the others, so 25%, 25% and 50%. They do not need to add up to anything, which makes it easy to write 1.5 for a busy month without recalculating the others.
Why keep some costs flat across months?
Some costs do not follow demand: software subscriptions, retainers and fixed monthly fees are the same every month. Marking them flat stops the seasonality weights from moving money into and out of them, which would give a plan you cannot actually buy.
Can I use this as a media plan template?
Yes. Download the CSV, which has one row per channel with a column per month, the rule used and the expected results, and open it in a spreadsheet. It is a sound starting structure; add flight dates, targeting and creative details there as the plan firms up.
Last reviewed by the A2Z.Tools team against the sources listed above.
