Budget Plan — Marketing Department Annual Budget, Northwind Tools

Department: Marketing Budget owner: Dana Okeke, Head of Marketing Period: Financial year 2026 (January-December) Currency: USD Prepared: 8 December 2025 Last reviewed: 15 January 2026

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1. Assumptions

• Revenue contribution: Marketing is a cost centre here; the lead-generation target supports a company sales goal of $6.0M but the department itself does not book revenue, so this budget is expense-only.
• Headcount: 5 people for the full year (2 managers, 2 specialists, 1 coordinator); no new hires planned.
• Major cost drivers: Paid-media spend scales with the lead target; event costs are fixed by the booked calendar.
• Contingency: 5 percent buffer added to discretionary (non-people) spend.
• Known one-offs: Flagship trade show in Q2; brand-refresh agency project in Q1.

2. Annual expense plan by category

Category	Line item	Type	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Year total
People	Salaries, benefits, payroll taxes (5 staff)	F	$156,000	$156,000	$156,000	$156,000	$624,000
Paid media	Search, social, and display advertising	V	$40,000	$55,000	$45,000	$60,000	$200,000
Events	Trade shows, webinars, sponsorships	V	$12,000	$58,000	$10,000	$20,000	$100,000
Content & creative	Agency, freelance, design, video	V	$34,000	$20,000	$18,000	$18,000	$90,000
Software	Marketing automation, CRM seats, analytics	F	$15,000	$15,000	$15,000	$15,000	$60,000
Contingency	Buffer for surprises	-	$5,000	$7,000	$5,000	$7,000	$24,000
Total expenses			$262,000	$311,000	$249,000	$276,000	$1,098,000

3. Bottom line and shape of the year

The department's full-year budget is $1,098,000, of which people are 57 percent and discretionary programme spend the remaining 43 percent. Spending is intentionally lumpy: Q1 carries the brand-refresh agency work, and Q2 spikes for the flagship trade show. Quarterly totals are deliberately uneven rather than a flat quarter of roughly $274,000, because forcing even quarters would misstate when the money is actually committed.

Metric	Year total
Total department expenses	$1,098,000
People share	$624,000 (57%)
Discretionary programme share	$474,000 (43%)
Largest single programme line	Paid media ($200,000)

4. Variance tracking — first quarter actuals

After Q1 close, the team compared actuals to the quarterly budget. Below budget on costs is favourable.

Line	Q1 budget	Q1 actual	Variance ($)	Variance (%)	Notes / cause
People	$156,000	$156,000	$0	0%	On plan
Paid media	$40,000	$47,000	+$7,000	+18%	Pulled forward spend to test a new channel
Events	$12,000	$9,000	-$3,000	-25%	One webinar slipped to Q2
Content & creative	$34,000	$38,000	+$4,000	+12%	Brand refresh ran over the agency estimate
Software	$15,000	$15,000	$0	0%	On plan
Total Q1 expenses	$262,000	$268,000	+$6,000	+2.3%	Slightly over; covered by contingency

The 18 percent paid-media overspend prompted a decision rather than alarm: the new channel returned enough qualified leads to justify keeping it, so the team re-forecast Q2 paid media upward and trimmed the Q4 buffer to stay within the annual total.