AAJ Marketing SkillsSkills

// design

Marketing Budget Planning

Use when the user wants to set or sanity-check a total marketing budget — how much to spend overall, as a percentage of revenue, by company stage and business model — and split it across brand, demand gen, content, and tooling. Also use when the user mentions marketing budget, % of revenue on marketing, how much should we spend on marketing, or budget allocation across functions. Produces a recommended budget and a function-level split.

DesignengineStarter
bash
$npx skills add sarojkjha/aaj-marketing-skills --skill marketing-budget-planning

// when to use it

Use when the user wants to set or sanity-check a total marketing budget — how much to spend overall, as a percentage of revenue, by company stage and business model — and split it across brand, demand gen, content, and tooling. Also use when the user mentions marketing budget, % of revenue on marketing, how much should we spend on marketing, or budget allocation across functions. Produces a recommended budget and a function-level split.

// what you give

Business model, company stage, annual revenue, and growth ambition

// what you get

A recommended marketing budget (% of revenue, annual, monthly) and a split across functions

Marketing Budget Planning

Decide how much to spend on marketing overall — the question that comes before how to split it across channels. The answer is set by stage, model, growth ambition, and cash runway, expressed as a percentage of revenue and then divided across functions.

When to use

The user needs a total marketing budget or wants to check whether their current spend level is reasonable for their stage and model.

Before you start

  1. Read the brand/product context (.agents/product-marketing.md / .agents/aaj-brand.md) for model and stage, if present.
  2. Gather: business model (B2B SaaS / ecommerce / services / marketplace), stage (pre-seed → mature), annual revenue (ARR or revenue), and growth ambition (conservative / balanced / aggressive).
  3. Have unit economics handy. A budget is only affordable if the implied CAC clears LTV:CAC — run the unit-economics skill if unsure.

Method

Marketing spend as a share of revenue is highest early and falls as you scale (you're buying growth and learning), and varies by model (SaaS and marketplaces spend more than services). Growth ambition flexes it up or down; runway caps it. This produces a budget; affordability is confirmed against unit economics.

Run the engine

Paths assume you installed with npx skills add. From a clone of this repo, use skills/marketing-budget-planning/resources/… instead.

node .agents/skills/marketing-budget-planning/resources/budget-planner.js  # demo (B2B SaaS, Series A, $3M)
node .agents/skills/marketing-budget-planning/resources/budget-planner.js '{"model":"ecommerce","stage":"growth","annualRevenue":8000000,"growthTarget":"aggressive"}'
node .agents/skills/marketing-budget-planning/resources/budget-planner.js --help

It returns the recommended % of revenue, the annual and monthly budget, and a split across functions (demand gen, content/SEO, brand, etc.), plus JSON.

Interpret & connect

  • Treat the % as a starting benchmark, then adjust for runway, payback tolerance, and how much demand actually exists to capture.
  • The demand-gen / paid slice flows straight into the paid-media-budget-allocation skill for the channel split.
  • If LTV:CAC won't support the implied spend, fix economics or lower the budget before scaling.

Present the result

Lead with the headline budget (% of revenue, $/yr, $/mo), then the function split, then the affordability check against unit economics and the handoff to channel allocation.

Guardrails & common mistakes

  • Benchmarks aren't targets. A % of revenue is a sanity check, not a mandate — demand and economics decide.
  • Runway caps ambition. Aggressive % with thin runway is a fast way to run out of money.
  • Spend follows ability to absorb it. Doubling budget overnight wastes money if the funnel and team can't scale with it.
  • Total budget ≠ paid budget. This sizes all marketing; only the demand-gen slice is paid media.

Related AAJ resources

Related skills

unit-economics (affordability) · paid-media-budget-allocation (split the paid slice) · marketing-plan (the strategy the budget funds).

Credits

Original AAJ skill. The Agent Skills format and Corey Haines' coreyhaines31/marketingskills (MIT) were references for structure and coverage; this skill is independently written. See the repository README.

// faq

// install

$npx skills add sarojkjha/aaj-marketing-skills --skill marketing-budget-planning

// run it

$node .agents/skills/marketing-budget-planning/resources/budget-planner.js --demo

// worked example

Get the worked example for marketing-budget-planning

One email. The filled-in config, the output, and how to read it.

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// sprint

Unit Economics & Retention Sprint — $3,500, 10 business days

This skill is one of the engines behind the Unit Economics & Retention Sprint — $3,500, ten business days.

LTV, CAC, payback and churn on your actual numbers — with a verdict, not a dashboard.

See what's included.

// human in the loop

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