Finding the Right Balance for Your Marketing Budget

Most businesses know they need to keep an eye on the future while safeguarding what already works, yet the actual process of splitting a marketing budget often feels like a guessing game. Some organisations cling too tightly to tried-and-tested methods, rarely leaving breathing space for new ideas. Others gamble on every emerging platform, only to find they have spread themselves too thin. The 70-20-10 approach to budgeting helps you avoid these extremes by providing a clear framework for allocating funds, talent, and strategic focus. Seventy percent goes to channels and tactics that already deliver consistent returns, twenty percent to opportunities with strong potential, and ten percent to truly innovative ideas that carry higher risk but may also yield transformative rewards.

Building a Foundation with 70%

Your core marketing channels are the heartbeat of your business. They generate predictable leads or sales, reflect your most successful positioning, and sustain overall momentum. You already know they work because you have data to prove it, and you have processes that keep them running smoothly. This 70% chunk of the budget is about strengthening what is reliable. Paid search ads, social media campaigns, email sequences, or search engine optimisation might all sit here, so long as they have a track record of measurable returns.

However, safe does not mean static. There is a difference between complacency and steady improvement. Within this 70%, teams should keep refining strategies for audience targeting, messaging, and customer journey orchestration. Even if you have mastered the fundamentals of, say, pay-per-click advertising, consistent monitoring of conversion data allows you to spot areas where a new ad variant or landing page tweak can push your numbers higher. By assigning your most capable marketers to these activities, you enhance the very engines that sustain the business. We’re looking to continually sharpen what already works, turning good into great, and great into best-in-class.

Directing the majority of your budget toward proven tactics also supports internal confidence. Teams see real results and understand that their efforts are crucial to the company’s immediate success. Rather than being distracted by the newest technological platform, they can deepen expertise in campaigns and tools that have already generated revenue. This sense of stability is particularly important for organisations under pressure to hit quarterly targets or justify marketing expenditure to stakeholders. At the same time, reserving exactly 70% for these activities forces you to avoid tunnel vision.

Exploring New Opportunities with 20%

Even established brands must look beyond familiar ground to stay competitive. Markets shift, consumer habits evolve, and disruptive startups often appear with fresh takes on old challenges. Dedicate 20% of your marketing budget to exploring avenues that appear promising but have not yet proved themselves within your organisation. This includes emerging social platforms, new advertising formats, or adjacent customer segments that you have never fully tested.

In many cases, the first step in using this 20% is market or competitor research. Perhaps another company in your industry has gained traction by hosting virtual events, while you have stayed focused on face-to-face exhibitions. Observing how they have succeeded can help you construct a focused trial of your own. By ring-fencing a portion of funds for experiments, you can adapt without risking your core revenue streams.

It often makes sense to use external support for these ventures. Your best marketers are already committed to the 70% activities, so drawing them away could weaken your bedrock. Instead, hiring freelancers, bringing on an agency, or setting up an internal group dedicated to experimentation can be more effective. If you see early momentum, you can boost your investment and move that initiative closer to your 70%. If results fall short, the failure does not undermine your whole marketing strategy. Each experiment offers a chance to learn more about your audience, your channels, and your own operational capacity.

Reserving 10% for Bold Innovation

Truly game-changing ideas often seem risky at first glance. The final 10% of your budget protects space for these big swings. Instead of hesitating until you see a proven formula for something daring, you commit to venturing into new territory. Whether that involves adopting a cutting-edge interactive tool, launching a brave content campaign that runs counter to industry norms, or testing a pricing model that nobody else has attempted, this is where you allow room for bold moves without endangering the rest of your marketing.

It is crucial that your core marketers, the people responsible for delivering steady results, are not saddled with these high-risk experiments. Radical initiatives benefit from a mindset that is comfortable with failure and ready to pivot rapidly. An internal “innovation lab” or a temporary team of cross-functional specialists can make a huge difference here. External consultants can also be valuable if you lack the specific expertise or capacity to execute groundbreaking campaigns in-house.

Although many of these projects may not immediately bear fruit, that is part of the rationale. If every single one of your ideas worked straight away, you would not be stretching your imagination far enough. There is always a chance that a single 10% investment can create a major competitive advantage, spark a shift in your brand’s image, or open up an entirely new market. You only need one breakthrough to outperform a series of minor, incremental gains that might eventually lose steam.

Protecting Focus and Fostering Growth

Dividing your budget into 70-20-10 ensures that different parts of the organisation have clear remits. The individuals optimising your core channels concentrate on tasks that drive day-to-day or quarter-by-quarter results. Another group explores emerging tactics, working systematically to see if a platform or marketing method can become a new success story. Finally, a separate set of people, funded by that final 10%, can concentrate on bold experimentation without the constraint of proven metrics or tightly defined objectives. This division not only preserves focus, but also encourages a culture where innovation is valued and expected.

It is all too easy for marketing teams to fixate on consistency and forget the importance of adaptation. A structured 70-20-10 system reduces the risk that you will be caught off-guard by changes in your competitive landscape or consumer preferences. Because you are dedicating resources to fresh initiatives and radical ideas, you are less likely to wake up one day to find your strongest channel has lost its relevance. By the same token, you avoid the chaos that comes from trying too many experiments at once, because the bulk of your budget remains anchored in what already works.

Adapting the Framework for Sustained Success

The 70-20-10 concept offers a clear starting point, yet every company has its own market conditions, revenue goals, and organisational structure. Think of 70-20-10 as a strategic playbook (not a hard and fast rule) that can evolve with your business. If your baseline channels begin to underperform, you might adjust the proportions, or if one of your emerging experiments starts delivering stronger returns than expected, you could increase your investment. The real power of this method lies in its ability to anchor your decision-making in deliberate choices, preventing guesswork or panic-driven shifts in your marketing approach.

Implementing a robust measurement system is essential for all three tiers. In your core activities, you should have well-established metrics for cost per lead, cost per acquisition, or other relevant benchmarks. For your 20% endeavours, clear KPIs help you determine when an idea is ready to scale or needs to be retired. Even your 10% moonshots deserve some form of feedback mechanism, though it may need to be more flexible and qualitative given the experimental nature of that work.

Ultimately, the aim is to keep your marketing nimble, strategic, and sustainable. You shield your essential revenue drivers while continually testing fresh concepts that could become your next success story. You also create space for genuine innovations that have the power to reshape how your brand is perceived. This balanced, layered approach can lead to deeper insights into your audience, a broader repertoire of effective channels, and a culture that knows how to move quickly without losing sight of the fundamentals. It is a mindset that encourages both resilience and boldness, ensuring that your marketing can meet the demands of the present while staying prepared for the opportunities of the future.

By embracing the 70-20-10 framework and applying it thoughtfully, you equip your business with a roadmap for immediate stability and long-term evolution. What begins as a budget guideline soon becomes a strategic lens, helping you spot untapped potential, manage risks with confidence, and systematically pursue new ways to grow. This is how marketing moves from a series of disconnected initiatives to a coherent, purposeful engine of commercial progress.