One of the best things about a career in digital marketing is the range of clients you’re exposed to. Taking on a new client means getting up to speed with an unfamiliar industry, understanding business specific challenges and adjusting approach based on the available budget. In this week’s post, we’ll discuss different annual budgets and the challenges and opportunities that come with each.
£10,000 - £100,000 Annual Budget
In the earlier stages of a marketer’s career, a significant percentage of time will be spent on accounts with annual budgets up to £100,000. Working on these accounts is a great way to learn the fundamentals and marketers will often be working directly with senior decision makers in the business to drive the company forward.
One of the most exciting parts of working on accounts like these is the unlimited upwards potential. Most industries have a spend ceiling well in excess of £100,000, so there’s scale to continually grow an account and expand the digital strategy as results improve over time. Within this spend bracket, there’s a large number of businesses who are just beginning their digital marketing journey which presents an amazing opportunity to build from basic beginnings to a complex, mature digital strategy.
While the growth potential of this bracket is a major positive, the main challenge here comes in the form of prioritisation. With so many potential avenues to explore, marketers need to quickly identify the areas of opportunity with the best possible chance of success and focus on those to ensure that spend is being directed to the right areas. When a £1000 test equals 1% of the annual budget, the margin for error is much smaller!
Competition is also a major challenge here, particularly when a smaller business is competing against larger and more established brands. High competition levels can quickly eat up available spend so smart marketers will take this into account and adjust their approach to focus spend on niche areas with reduced competition to stretch budget further.
£100,000 - £1,000,000 Annual Budget
With more experience, marketers begin to be exposed to accounts within the second tier of annual spend. Peak monthly budgets of £50k - £100k are common here and the businesses spending this amount are often established brands in their industry. Higher spend levels increase the complexity of the account and while these can be managed by a single person, often there will be a small team working together to ensure both long term strategy and short term tactics are running smoothly.
This spend tier presents an exciting opportunity for a digital marketer as at this stage the account should be well built with consistent, strong performance. Having the fundamentals already in place means more time can be spent on experiments and testing that may not have been possible at a lower annual budget. While any proposed test should be well planned out with defined indicators of success, the increased available spend means there is a higher tolerance for risk than might have been previously possible at a lower spend level.
However, with this opportunity comes specific challenges, particularly in the form of further growth. The quick wins to move from Tier One to Tier Two have already been implemented, so marketers need to be more creative when identifying opportunities and proposing tests to push the account even further. At this spend level, businesses are often competing against the leading names in their industry who have strong brand recognition and high annual budgets so having the willingness and the ability to move quickly and decisively is crucial for success.
£1,000,000 - £5,000,000 Annual Budget
At this spend level, businesses tend to be industry leaders with a well established national presence. On both the marketing and the business side, there will be a team of people collaborating across a variety of channels to ensure a consistent, high performing marketing presence.
For many experienced digital marketers, this bracket is the sweet spot. An account is likely to be well built out with several years of data to draw learnings from, the brand is established to the point where distinct strategies can be created for new and existing customers while the higher budget level gives room for ambitious, well structured tests that may be too risky when spend is tighter.
Despite the opportunities, this bracket isn’t without challenges. Running activity for a well established brand can lead to complacency and it’s easy to fall into a habit of continuing to run what’s worked in the past rather than continually testing. When you’re competing against the other major brands in your space, continually optimising and trying fresh ideas is crucial to maintaining a competitive edge.
£5,000,000+ Annual Budget
At this level, brands are household names with continental or even global targeting. All the quick wins have been exhausted and account optimisation here is focused on long term, strategic gains with all digital activity closely aligned with global marketing objectives. Single day spends of £100,000+ aren’t uncommon during peak periods and there’s ample budget for any tests with a strong business case.
Accounts at this level often have multiple, distinct goals. Maintaining visibility as an industry leader is a primary concern with overall Impression Share a constant focus alongside the specific conversion goals for the account. ROI is closely monitored, backed by years of historical data from the account and detailed internal data from the business itself.
With such a high annual spend, working on a global account is an exciting opportunity for any digital marketer and an excellent career opportunity. However, accounts of this scale often come with a level of internal politics and processes you won’t see on smaller, more agile accounts. As these tend to be global brands, any activity often needs to implemented simultaneously across all global markets rather than at a local level. This can increase the turnaround time for any optimisation or tests, but you’ll also see a larger uplift once the change has been introduced.
Marketers will also need to adjust their thinking here, with a mindset of delayed gratification rather than looking for instant wins. Optimisation on smaller accounts can lead to significant uplift on a timeframe of a few months or even weeks, but for accounts of this size any uplift is likely to be incremental and it’s generally through YoY comparison that the impact of your work starts to become evident.
Whatever the budget, every account represents a learning opportunity for an ambitious marketer and an opportunity to help drive a business forward. Whether you’re spending £10,000 a month or £10,000 a day, best practices still apply and rewards will come with time.
To learn more about scaling accounts and how to effectively drive results, get in touch.