Investment
Anton Buchner, Founder, Front Foot Marketing Last updated 8 August 2026
Where should we stop spending?
The question behind the question
Where should we spend more?
What's actually earned its place in the budget?
The straight answer
The hardest marketing decision isn't where to invest more. It's what to stop.
Most organisations can always find another initiative to fund. Another channel, another campaign, another agency, another platform, another test. The harder question is what you'd stop if you had to.
The deeper answer
That question exposes activity that's survived because nobody's challenged it, not because it's earned its place.
Stopping something isn't necessarily a failure.
Sometimes it's the most commercially responsible marketing decision you can make.
The uncomfortable bit
The line item nobody wants to touch is usually the one nobody's checked in years.
What we know
- What's currently funded, and roughly what each line reports against its own metrics
- How long each initiative has been running unchallenged
What we don't
- What would actually happen to the result if you stopped it
- How much of what each line claims credit for was genuinely incremental
What we need to decide anyway: What to defund this cycle, using the best read you have rather than waiting for a perfect one.
What I'd challenge
I'd challenge the assumption that everything currently in the budget earned its place there. Most of it earned its place last year. That isn't the same thing.
The Anton Test
If this line item wasn't already in the budget, would we approve it if it landed on our desk today?
What I'd do next
I'd list everything currently funded and ask one question of each line: what evidence says this is working? Anything that can't answer that quickly goes on the list to defend.
The decision
This is ultimately a decision about what gets defunded this cycle.
This connects to the broader decision on Marketing investment is under scrutiny, if you want the fuller picture.
Keep asking
Related answers
Investment
How much should we invest in marketing?
There isn't a universally correct percentage of revenue to spend on marketing.
Decision
What are we assuming that we haven't proved?
Every marketing strategy contains assumptions. The danger is forgetting they're assumptions.
Decision
What decision are we actually trying to make?
This is often the question that should come first.
Still working out what the real question is?
Sometimes the hardest part isn't finding the answer. It's knowing which question to ask.