The first and foremost point we consider before developing new plans and strategies is the budget we can allocate for them. The capacity and willingness to spend plays a vital role in the expectations and outcomes of a plan. 

For some brands having a larger market share, budgeting may not be as complex as it is for small brands and businesses. An effective budget plan and its implementation can help you cut costs where possible. Further in the blog, you shall learn more about budgeting, its importance, dependency, and development. 

What are the Key Elements of Budgeting? 

Elements are the basic units for everything, such as stars, planets, and even life itself. This shows their importance in the universe. Similarly, understanding of key elements of Budgeting is necessary to establish a clear and productive budget. If your budget is unclear, it can lead to unproductive or unnecessary activities being conducted while implementing a plan. 

The Elements of Budgeting include: 

• Media Cost 

• Creative Production 

• Agency Fees 

• Digital Tool 

Media Cost  

Media Cost is considered to be an immense part of the Budget. Once the plans and strategies are formed, you search for the correct media to start implementation. Careful choice of media is necessary as it can hamper your growth if not chosen conscientiously. 

Considering the strategy and being mindful of the budget, you can make your decision for various channels to be involved in your brand promotion. If your target is to increase sales, you can budget in PPC. Pay-per-click (PPC) is considered better than any other channel. In this model of digital advertising, you need to pay whenever a customer clicks on your ad, ultimately landing on the website or software. This pattern of advertising can be seen in our day-to-day life as well.  

As the craze for social media and online suggestions is rapidly increasing in youth now, the PPC is one of the most successful models of increasing sales as it connects you directly to your potential customers, building your brand reputation. 

For instance, if your ad is placed on Instagram and any user clicks on the , he/she will reach directly to your website or the application, and you need to pay for the same as soon as your ad is clicked. 

Creative Production 

Creative Production is considered the second most expensive part of a budget. Once you have chosen the media for your brand promotion and customer engagement, you need creative assets or content for all those media. The type of content you create must be as per the type of media that you have selected.  

If you are choosing to display your ad on multiple media, try to keep each one different as the same content across all might be monotonous for the viewers or customers. 

The Creative assets of a company may include its: 

• Social Media Images 

• Websites 

• Videos 

• Advertising Banners 

• Email Formats 

• User feedback Forms 

Some of these assets are for the long term, like the websites you create, while the advertising banners may be for a short time. 

Now, the question may be, what would be the expenses incurred to acquire these assets? So, the expenses may include: 

• The fees for the manager 

• The fees for designer 

• Video production expenses 

• Paid tools (If used to create assets) 

The above-mentioned expenses, like Fees for the Manager, are recurring, while the Production cost of a video is a one-time expense. 

Agency Fees 

Agency fees are to be paid only when you seek support from a third party. These agencies generally have the experts and professionals who manage your media and creative assets. If you choose to work with an agency, you outsource your activities related to digital advertising and marketing to expand your market share and acquire new customers. 

You may need to pay fees to the agency for: 

Market research: They do the necessary market research and find the correct target market for your brand as per the qualities of your product and services. 

Planning campaigns: The agencies plan campaigns for your brand to engage and excite customers. 

Implementing Digital Advertising Strategies: Once you formulate the strategies, these agencies help you in their effective implementation. 

Creation of creative assets: Agencies help you to create and acquire various creative assets like designing posts for your social media pages and content or your websites. They also help in your brand’s digital advertisements and PPC. 

Advising the customers: Agencies generally have a huge customer base that seeks advice from them regarding various products and services. In this case, the agencies advise the customers to prefer your products and services. 

The fees paid to the agency depend upon their policies, which differ from one organization to another. Some of the agencies charge per hour while others charge monthly. 

Digital Tools 

All the creative assets of a brand cannot be acquired manually. Sometimes, we need online tools to create those resources, like using some tools for the creation or editing of the post that you design for your Instagram page or any tool to recheck if there are any grammatical errors in the content you have written for your website. The tools for basic checks can be found free of cost, but if you need advanced features, you need to pay for these digital tools.  

These tools may help you in:  

• Market Analysis: These are tools that are used for market research like customer demand and preferences. They help you to analyze if you need to make any alterations to your products and services. 

• Social Media Management: These tools are used to manage your social media and help you to engage potential customers for your brand. The influence of social media is increasing among the customers at a very fast pace and is very useful for you. 

• Graphic Designing: These tools help you to create the posts, reels, or advertisements for your brand. If your content is created attractively, it shall help you reach a greater audience and customers. 

• Email Marketing: These tools are used to draft effective mails through which you can spread awareness about your existing as well as new products and services. It is helpful in constant connection and communication with the customers. 

• How to Develop a Budget Plan: These are the tools that help you to calculate and analyze the investments required for a budget plan based on your market research. 

What are the factors influencing your Budgeting Plan? 

When you prepare a budget plan, there are several factors that influence it. These factors influence the investments you shall make and the media in which these funds are to be utilized. These factors help you to prioritize the tasks and activities. 

The factors that influence your budget plan includes: 

People 

The number of people you have on your team and the skills that they possess play an important role in how your budget plan should be. It’s not always necessary to increase the number of people. Sometimes, having a smaller team with all the required skills and motivation can also be helpful for you. 

Technology 

Moving at a pace with the rapid upgradations in technology helps you form better budget plans for your brand. Through technology, you can stay connected to your team and customers directly and indirectly. 

Training 

You must always keep note of the skill sets that your employees possess, and if they need to be trained or learn the skills at a higher level, you must provide them with adequate training. Better and regular training can help you manage your personnel better, leading to growth and stability. 

Developing a budget plan needs attention to be paid to each of its aspects and is not as easy as it seems to be. It needs constant monitoring and research. 

What Things to consider in Your budget plan? 

While preparing a budget plan, there are things you need to consider and be mindful of to make your budget more acceptable. Consideration of these factors after thorough market research can help achieve better results.  

The considerations include: 

• Objectives of the Strategy: You must consider the objectives of the strategy while preparing a budget plan. The plans must link to the objectives because they are responsible for the achievement of the objectives. 

• Who is your target audience: To know your target audience or customers is very important. If you know your target audience, you can formulate the strategies accordingly. Knowing the target audience can also help you reach them more effectively. 

• Are your investments enough for the implementation of your strategies: You should make sure that you are not under investing in your marketing as this would decrease the efficiency of your brand. 

• What is your current market share: Knowing your current market share helps you to allocate the resources and expand in the right direction. 

• Have you done enough market research: Try and make sure that you have done enough market research in your industry and market to invest in the right medium and assets. 

• What are the creative assets you need to acquire as per selected media: You should know the creative assets you need to create or acquire as per the media you are selecting. 

Zomato V/S Swiggy  

Generally, it is believed that ‘The more the budget you allocate, the more efficient are the outcomes you get from it’. But is the statement true for all situations? Let’s find out. 

As per the data, Zomato has a budget of Rs 421 crores. On the other hand, the budget for Swiggy is Rs 1115.3 crores. Still, the market share is vast for Zomato as compared to Swiggy. 

This shows that even if a brand allots less budget or it’s Digital Marketing, effective implementation may still lead to better results and customer engagement.  

The latest strategy of Zomato, to send engaging notifications to its users, has been a great achievement for them. This has been a great strategy for them to expand their market as well as increase sales. 

What is the need for building a Budgeting Plan? 

Budgeting a plan helps you plan all your investments. It prevents the unnecessary flow of funds in the organization as once you plan the things a create a detailed draft, the funding shall be as per the requirement of the plans. If you are planning to get the help of an agency, you should have detailed information about all the upcoming campaigns. You must keep a close check on how your social media accounts are handled and whether it is working effectively for your brand.  

If your customer base is expanding after the implementation of your plans, it indicates that your plans are succeeding. On the contrary, if this does not happen, you need to revise the actions and objectives to know if there are some changes to be made in your strategy formulation or in its implementation. 

Conclusion 

Reaching this far, we have learned about budgeting and how important role it plays in the Digital Marketing of the brand. Budgeting is denoted as the Protagonist here because you are all aware of the fact that you are living in a world where money is capable of providing numerous opportunities to expand your customer base. It lets you do in-depth research about the market. This research and these opportunities help you to gain growth and stability in the Global market and build your brand reputation.  

Effective budget plans focus not only on the short-term goals but also the vision of the organization as it plays the role of Missions that an organization sets to achieve its overall vision. As in the case of Zomato, even with comparatively less budget, the effective strategies have helped the organization stay ahead of its competitors.