What I Learned From Managing $100M In Marketing Budget At 33

$100M. In the middle of a Global pandemic.

Alexia has an incredible work ethic and a huge capacity. She is diligent, thorough and perhaps the most organized person I have worked with! When Alexia says she will get something done, you know it will happen. 

Having worked for very small startups, I hope this is useful for those who want to have a better understanding of what large global operations look like to unlock millions in revenue.

The Execution

It gets to a point in Marketing where you become "desentized" to numbers. Every once in a while you will look at a menu in a restaurant, or a piece of clothing, or book a trip - and realize the absurd amount of money you are managing. Or driving for a Business. And on Monday, you will be looking at your spreadsheet, dashboards, reports... and forget about it again. 

But something you don't forget about with a career in Performance Marketing is efficiency. Having worked with very small budgets in 10 people startups, a larger amount means more complexity but not less accuracy. Every dollar counts, regardless of the total amount.

But the operation that powers the cost efficient Growth engine of a Business that sells in 40+ countries generating billions a year, is on a different level. The amount of people, the knowledge, multiple business models under one roof, audiences, markets, etc.

That operation needs to function like clockwork.

1. Build a Data-Driven Operational Backbone 

• Implementing Advanced Attribution

Moving beyond last-click models. Custom. AI. Implementing Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) and developing Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA) to understand the true impact of full-funnel investments (especially upper-funnel) on long-term ROI. Understanding lift, incrementality testing and statistical significance. This will be key for the Business to decide where to allocate the budget across departments based on the strategy you want to deploy to align with Business Goals.

• Automating Reporting

Creating reports that aggregate data from all platforms for real-time (or close to) tracking. Connect it to Commercial data and Finance. Build the dashboards, automate them, implement predictive modeling.

• Challenging and Integrating Data

Feeding omnichannel encrypted data back into ad platforms to enable better targeting beyond ad platform metrics based bidding and increase revenue with enriched information. Deeply understand Privacy compliance, be hands-on.

Know your numbers. Daily checks. Sometimes asking the right questions to external vendors, your team or Horizontal teams can uncover immediate Growth opportunities.

2. Strategic Budget Allocation & Testing

• Adopting an Omnichannel Approach

Diversifying beyond one platform. Repurpose content tailored for each specific platform's strengths. Use dynamic creative enhanced with AI while ensuring exceptionally strict guidelines around Brand safety. Understand language nuances in translation. 

Creating a space to listen to the markets as they are closer to their audience than you ever will. Even if you have lived and worked there and speak the language - you may not know industry related details that the territories are best placed to answer. But having worked with a significant amount of markets before, calling out when a market is or is not unique in how we deploy Marketing or decide Campaigns, is also important.

However, in order to shift towards a Global strategy to enable cost savings, you will need to deeply understand cultural nuances, be empathetic and address their concerns in a highly collaborative manner. You have been there, you know where they are coming from, you understand the market targets and this is how you will deliver against Global Goals as a unit that knows how to scale Growth together. 

• Allocating for Testing

Dedicating 10% of the total budget specifically for testing new creatives, audiences, and platforms. Make it clear across all Plans.

Enabling a space for knowledge sharing to identify opportunities that multiple markets can run and push revenue at scale. Understand statistical significance.

• Growth vs. Profitability

Understanding Acquisition and Retention's role in how they can ladder up to accomplish Business Goals. You need to know how to expand, but also downsize - and how to test for each. If you need to cut budgets, what is the best approach to sustain Revenue as much as possible?

• Forecasting Accuracy

Every budget request, every invoice, every dollar needs to be documented and tracked. Aim for 3% deviation from target. Accuracy will make or break your investor pool. Your budget is defined beyond the department's performance - wider Business performance, external and macro factors and unexpected events will impact it and you need to account for them in your annual distribution.

This may require a sophisticated set up that allows you to answer any and all questions across all levels - from a territory that asks what will be the investment for X campaign, X month for their market to the CEO who wants to see a high level view of Global impact on Commercial results YoY. It takes time to put it together, but being able to answer questions in 5min after setting it up even accounting for currency fluctuations, is 100% worth it. Dedicate resources to its automation and incorporate predictive capabilities. 

• Defining Clear Boundaries

From the Operating Plan to the Strategy to the Media Plan - there needs to be alignment. RASCI, R&R, Communication SOPs, clear Goals, what will be funded from the department's budget or not. This is especially important if the department is one of the top 3 priorities to achieve Business Goals. Every other Goal that sits under other departments will look for funding within the top 3 priorities. It's important to identify the 20% of opportunities that will deliver 80% of the Growth within strategic initiatives that are not part of the priorities and consider them for funding.

3. Rigorous Creative and Audience Management

• Understanding the Customer

Being hands-on. Get on customer calls, read comments, observe NPS, ask Customer Service, get on the Store floor. Do it regularly, even if it's just 1h a month. Marketers, we cannot be out of touch with those purchasing the products we sell. One creative type across the full-funnel won't cut it - as customers if our doubts aren't cleared across the journey, we won't buy. May it an incredible easy informed decision.

• Audience Targeting

Testing constantly and consistently. Research your competitors. Get those insights. 

• Your SWOT into Messaging

Understanding your offering in detail and how it impacts your potential customers. What are the questions they have as they move through the journey? And you answer them directly?

4. Optimizing for Profitability and Efficiency 

• Short term vs. Long term Business Impact

From Media budget only, to department P&L, to Business P&L. Your advice, the performance of a Marketer is as good as the visibility they are given into Business results. But you need what each stakeholder's department priorities are and speak to them when presenting data-driven outcomes vs Business Goals. Getting on LTV as soon as it is possible. 

• Vendor and Operational Consolidation

Streamline media buying by consolidating vendors to improve pricing and service levels. This is applicable beyond Marketing. If multiple departments, multiple markets, are using the same vendors - consolidate and negotiate as a much larger account. The level of support you will get as an enterprise account will completely shift you capability to scale.

However, consolidation will not always be seen as a positive decision and understanding how to communicate the benefits is key.

• Optimizing for Conversion Rate

Constantly refining your targeting. Develop an "every dollar counts" mindset - at $1M or $100M in budget, it doesn't matter. Flag inefficiencies and proposed solutions that can be deployed, in detail, prioritized, attach an approximate revenue number to it.

5. Structure and Governance

It's all about systems that prioritize agily: 

• Document SOPs

Create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for every aspect of campaign management, including creative testing, bidding, budget thresholds, approval process. Every aspect. It needs to be crystal clear to every single one of the 200+ stakeholders that gets involved in the Planning Process to launch 100+ campaigns a year. Present it. Ask for feedback. 

Yes, not every person in that 200 will agree with every elements, but you are looking for themes. Deploy. Test. Refine or refresh the SOPs regularly to ensure agility and ROI are not impacted, update your stakeholders, deploy changes. Consistently remind them of them to enable faster adoption, which can take 6 months for large Global Business.

• Performance Reviews

Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly and Annual review of performance against Goals. WoW, MoM, YoY. In specific instances you might need daily standups. Standarize reporting. If you can't judge performance, ask for more visibility, but know what you are looking for so you don't waste resources (unless you are testing for capabilities development before establishing a structure). 

Know your numbers so well that you develop an eye for numbers that identify inaccuracies or discrepancies. If the team doesn't have it, train it. Everyone needs to access and be able to report on source data. Not just a visualization tool. Same goes for prioritization - everyone needs to know how to protect their time to focus on exceeding targets.

• Establishing Clear Goals

And in some areas you will need to provide guidance on how to execute these Goals. This is why you should always stay at least 20% hands-on. In some cases you will not have all the information by the start of the fiscal. Sometimes you won't even have a budget confirmed until later on. Develop the team to be able to do this on their own, regardless of level, and deploy interim Goals until they are set in stone.

Expect the Unexpected

So much of leading at this level has to do with adaptability. Always carving a % to time, budget... to surprises. But the pandemic was a completely unforeseen circumstance.

No Playbook, no template, no guidelines. And you can feel overwhelmed, or freeze... or own it. And lead through it. Here are some of the elements I ensured to cover to face any circumstance:

• eNPS has always been important to me. It is now a top priority.

• Integrating asynchronous work across every possible aspect of our operations, not just the typical for Global teams.

• Scenario planning in everything we do. Contingency fund.

• Be ready to postpone or cancel initiatives and how the funds will be diverted to high impact opportunities.

• Clearly define what is "Essential" to meet potential constant moving targets.

• Establish Succession Planning early on, account for no backfills in team R&R.

Final Thoughts

Successfully managing $100M in marketing budget requires a transition from simple campaign management to a rigorous, data-driven operational engine.

By implementing sophisticated attribution models, automating global reporting, and maintaining a 3% deviation threshold for forecasting, founders and executives can transform massive complexity into a high-precision growth machine.

Whether you are leading a lean startup or a global operation across 40+ countries, the principles remain the same: every dollar must be accounted for, every process must be documented through clear SOPs, and every strategy must be agile enough to adapt to the unexpected - like a global pandemic.

Ultimately, this level of scale is not just about spending more; it is about building the systems, governance, and organizational grit necessary to turn millions in investment into billions in sustainable revenue.