The Budget Framework That Got Me a 20% Increase

Sorry I missed last week – I was on holiday and practising what I preach about taking proper breaks from work! Normal service resumed... until next week, when I go away again.

I was having a proper tidy-up of our blog archive a couple a weeks ago (yes, that's what passes for excitement around here), and I came across a post from June 2013 that made me smile.

It was about marketing budget "shapes" – and even eleven years later, it's still one of the posts that gets shared most often by our clients when they're trying to explain their marketing strategy to their boards.

The reason? It's one of those rare pieces of marketing wisdom that's genuinely timeless.

The Three Shapes That Changed Everything

The post described three budget allocation patterns that match how people actually buy:

• The Crescent – for businesses needing high volumes of relatively low-value sales. Think product businesses or transactional services. Most of your budget goes on keeping the taps running and nurturing repeat purchases.
• The Sail – for medium-value sales where you need to get over that first purchase hurdle. Consultancies and business services often fit here. You invest heavily in proving your credentials upfront.
• The Ski Slope – for low-volume, high-value sales, especially complex B2B deals. The bulk of your budget supports the long evaluation process.

This framework became a core part of the Watertight Marketing methodology (Chapter 10 in the book, if you want to dive deeper). It was so fundamental that when we updated the book for the 2020 second edition, this section remained completely unchanged.

But here's the origin story I don't think I've ever shared: I originally conceived this framework back in 2004 when I was a marketing director and my budget was being challenged by the board. Instead of just defending line items, I presented the budget using these shapes to show how our spending matched our customers' buying behaviour.

The result? I got a 20% budget increase.

Simple concept. Profound impact.

Why This Still Matters (More Than Ever)

What struck me re-reading this post wasn't how much the digital landscape has changed since 2013 – because blimey, has it ever. It was how the fundamental principle remains rock-solid.

Back in 2013, many businesses were throwing marketing money around without any real strategy. They'd spend the same amount on awareness as they did on conversion, regardless of whether they were selling £5 impulse buys or £50K enterprise solutions.

The Budget Shape framework gave them a way to align their spending with their customers' actual buying behaviour.

Fast-forward to 2025, and this thinking is more critical than ever.

The Modern Marketing Budget Mess

Here's what's changed since 2013: we now have approximately 847 different ways to spend marketing money. (That might be a slight exaggeration, but not by much.)

LinkedIn ads, TikTok campaigns, influencer partnerships, marketing automation platforms, AI content tools, podcast sponsorships, webinar platforms, account-based marketing software... the list goes on.

The result? Most businesses now suffer from what I call "channel scatter" – spreading their budget across so many different tactics that nothing gets enough investment to actually work.

They've got sophisticated attribution software and detailed analytics dashboards, but they've lost sight of the simple question: "Where should we be putting most of our money based on how our customers actually make decisions?"

The Evergreen Wisdom That Still Works

The Budget Shape framework cuts through all that complexity with three fundamental questions:

1. What's the value and complexity of the decision your customers are making?
2. Where do they need the most support in their buying journey?
3. What would happen if you put 60% of your budget there?

That's it. No fancy attribution models required.

A business selling online courses (relatively low complexity, medium value) should have a very different budget shape than one selling industrial equipment (high complexity, high value).

The online course business needs to keep the awareness taps running and focus on conversion optimisation. The industrial equipment business needs to invest heavily in building credibility and supporting long evaluation cycles.

Basic stuff. But most businesses still get it wrong.

Your Budget Shape Reality Check

Here's a challenge that's as relevant now as it was in 2013:

• Draw your current marketing budget as a shape. Not your planned budget or your aspirational budget – your actual spending over the last six months.
• Then ask yourself: does this shape match how your customers actually make buying decisions?
• If you're selling high-value, complex solutions but spending most of your budget on awareness advertising, you've probably got a shape mismatch.
• If you're selling impulse purchases but putting 70% of your budget into long-form content and webinar series, same problem.

The beauty of this framework is its simplicity. You don't need sophisticated analytics to know whether your budget shape makes sense. You just need to understand your customers.

What Would I Add to That 2013 Post?

Looking back, there's only one thing I'd emphasise more: the courage to say no.

In 2013, the challenge was convincing businesses to be strategic about their budget allocation. Now, the challenge is giving them permission to ignore 90% of the marketing tactics they're being sold.

The Budget Shape framework isn't just about where to spend your money – it's about where not to spend it.

• If you're a Ski Slope business, you can confidently say no to that TikTok advertising opportunity, regardless of how compelling the pitch sounds.
• If you're a Crescent business, you can skip the expensive thought leadership campaign and focus on conversion optimisation.

The framework gives you strategic confidence to make fewer, better bets.

This Week's Strategic Question

What shape is your marketing budget right now? And more importantly: what shape should it be?

If there's a mismatch, you've probably just found the most important strategic decision you'll make this quarter.

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What shape is your marketing budget? Share your thoughts in the comments – I love hearing how these frameworks land in the real world.