Asked what the budget returned? This research paper shows where it leaks
A free research paper in 5 chapters, a 25-minute read. Split the budget question into five sources and name the one that is yours
It teaches a method you run on records you already keep. Every figure names its source. It arrives by email.
- Five parts, not one total, when leadership asks what marketing returned
- The largest of five leak sources, named in your own funnel
- One name beside each fix, before leadership asks
So what did the marketing budget get us?
A total shows what you spent. It cannot show where the money went, so you end up defending it
The question arrives before your answer does
It comes in a budget review or the week after a missed quarter. Your CEO asks what the marketing budget produced. You have the spend, the lead count and a hunch. The room waits for an answer, and you leave asked to come back with more
A better attribution report is not the answer
A report can show where a result came from. That is useful. It cannot say whose problem the gap is, or what to change first. So the same gap can turn up in next quarter's report, described in more detail
Two tools, two different pipeline numbers
Your marketing report says one pipeline figure. The CRM says another. When finance asks which is right, you cannot trace either back to the spend that produced it. So finance hears a claim, not a line in the budget they can check
A leak nobody owns comes back every review
The results show a problem, but no one person is named to fix it. So a channel gets cut to save money, or last quarter's campaign runs again unchanged. At the next review, the same leak is on the table, and the same question with it
Five chapters to name the leak that's yours
A 25-minute read. Every step works from records your team already keeps, like CRM stage counts
You have a report open and no answer. A total shows how busy the funnel was. It cannot show what the money brought back
Waste is not one number. It has five sources: funnel leakage, strategy and design, execution, attribution, and nobody with time to improve the funnel. Each needs its own fix
Use records you already keep, such as CRM stage counts and your last funnel review. Rank the five sources. Hold each piece to one test: could finance check it?
A better attribution report says where a result came from. It cannot say who fixes the gap. You give each of the five sources one named owner
The paper's illustrative example runs one budget meeting two ways. Open with the leak and its owner, and the CEO asks about that source, not the total
When leadership asks what the budget returned
You have a report open and no answer. A total shows how busy the funnel was. It cannot show what the money brought back
Written for whoever answers for the marketing budget
It is written from a B2B software marketing head's seat. Anyone in marketing, growth or sales can read it
Marketing heads at small-team B2B software companies
Your CEO or finance director has asked what the marketing budget produced. You have a total, a report and a hunch. The paper is written for your seat, your small team and your funnel
Growth and sales leads who share the number
You get asked how much pipeline the spend produced, even when you did not set the budget. The paper helps you name which part of it leaks, and who should own the fix
Agency and consultancy owners
You are welcome to read it. The examples follow a marketing head at a B2B software company. Some parts will sit closer to that work than to running client accounts
Students, job seekers and freelancers
You can still get the paper with your email. It is written for marketing leads at B2B companies who answer for a budget. Some parts may feel distant from your own work
CMOs and CFOs name the same gap
Three figures behind the question finance asks: what did the marketing budget get us?
The 62% and 58% come from Marketing Dive's 2026 research, reported by Kyle David Group. The 30% comes from Digital Bloom, citing DemandScience. All three are secondary sources, dated to Q3 2026, and none is a South African figure.
The Budget Leakage Paper uses them to show why the question lands hard. It states no measured share of budget wasted. Instead, it splits waste into five sources, so you can name the one that is yours.
Get the paper before the next budget review, not after
We email you The Budget Leakage Paper when you send the form. It's a 25-minute read
Open the review with the largest leak in your own funnel. Then say who owns the fix and what you will check first.