Digital Marketing Budget 2026: Your Complete Guide

Introduction: Why Your Marketing Plan in 2026 Needs a Reality Check

Most businesses waste 30-40% of their marketing dollars on tactics that don't drive measurable results. They chase trends, spread resources too thin, and lack clear systems to track what actually works. This wasted spend represents a significant opportunity cost, hindering growth and diminishing profitability.

Planning your digital marketing budget 2026 feels overwhelming. You’re facing rising ad costs, the disruption of AI across every channel, and constantly shifting consumer behavior. Add economic uncertainty to the mix, and it’s easy to freeze up or default to last year’s approach without questioning its continued relevance.

Here’s the context: 2026 brings unique challenges requiring a rethink of how you invest. AI tools are reshaping content creation and campaign management, offering both opportunities and complexities. Privacy regulations continue to impact paid ad performance and tracking accuracy. Competition for attention across every digital channel intensifies, driving up costs while making differentiation harder.

This guide covers practical allocation strategies, ROI maximization techniques, and proven frameworks you can apply immediately. You’ll get benchmarks specific to your business type, channel-by-channel breakdowns, and a step-by-step process for building a plan that actually drives growth.

By the end, you’ll have a clear roadmap to distribute your resources effectively across channels that deliver returns, not just activity. You’ll know which investments to protect, where to test carefully, and how to avoid the mistakes that drain budgets without generating results.

What’s your biggest challenge in planning your marketing spend for next year?

Understanding the 2026 Context for Investment Decisions

Why Costs Are Shifting Across Channels

Every major advertising platform is becoming more expensive. LinkedIn CPCs for B2B campaigns have climbed 18-25% year-over-year. Google search ads face increased competition as more companies fight for the same keywords. Meta’s ad auction dynamics continue favoring advertisers with larger budgets and sophisticated targeting capabilities.

AI tools create a paradox. They reduce some production costs, especially for content creation and basic campaign management tasks. However, they also create new investment requirements. You need subscriptions, training, and quality control processes to use these tools effectively. Simply adopting AI without a strategic plan won’t automatically translate to cost savings.

Privacy changes continue to affect performance and tracking. Third-party cookie deprecation forces advertisers to rely more on first-party data systems, which require upfront investment. Attribution becomes murkier, making it harder to prove which channels actually drive conversions. This necessitates a greater focus on data privacy and building direct relationships with customers.

Rising customer acquisition costs reflect this perfect storm. When ad rates climb while tracking accuracy decreases, you pay more for less certainty about what’s working. This underscores the importance of optimizing existing channels and exploring alternative, cost-effective strategies.

The Reality Check: What Businesses Actually Invest

B2B companies typically allocate 8-12% of revenue to their overall marketing function. Technology and SaaS businesses often invest 12-20% due to longer sales cycles and competitive landscapes. E-commerce and retail businesses average 10-15%, driven by the need for constant customer acquisition. These are averages, and optimal spending varies significantly.

For small businesses working with constrained resources, annual digital spending typically ranges from $10,000 to $50,000. That’s not a lot when you consider platform minimums, content production costs, and the tools required to execute effectively. Strategic prioritization is crucial for small businesses.

Enterprise companies operate in a different territory entirely. A mid-sized B2B technology company might allocate $500,000 to $2 million annually. Large enterprises can spend tens of millions, but they’re also managing complex attribution systems and larger teams. Scale brings complexity and requires sophisticated management.

Industry variations matter significantly. Professional services firms might weight their investment toward SEO and LinkedIn. Local service businesses need different channel mixes than national e-commerce brands. Manufacturing companies selling through distributors have different requirements than direct-to-consumer retailers. Understanding your industry’s specific dynamics is essential.

Three Critical Questions Before You Build Your Plan

First question: Do you have the systems in place to efficiently run your business? If your operations are chaotic, pouring money into lead generation just creates problems. You’ll generate inquiries you can’t handle properly, damaging your reputation and wasting the investment. Operational efficiency is a prerequisite for successful marketing.

Second question: Can you accurately measure returns from each channel? Without proper analytics in place, you’re flying blind. You can’t optimize what you can’t measure. Many businesses discover they’ve been funding channels for months that deliver zero actual revenue. Robust analytics are non-negotiable.

Third question: Is your current spending actually incremental to growth? This is the most overlooked issue. Some activities you fund would happen anyway through organic demand. That LinkedIn campaign might be reaching people who would have found you through search. That retargeting ad might be converting customers who already decided to buy. Non-incremental spending drains resources without adding value. Focus on activities that demonstrably drive new business.

The 70-20-10 Rule for Smart Resource Distribution

How to Apply This Framework to Your Plan

The 70-20-10 framework protects you from the two most common mistakes: playing it too safe or chasing too many shiny objects. Here’s how it works.

Seventy percent goes to proven channels with consistent ROI. These are your bread-and-butter activities. For most businesses, this includes channels you’ve tested over multiple quarters and understand deeply. You know what you’ll get for what you invest. The returns might not be spectacular, but they’re reliable and predictable.

Twenty percent funds improvement of existing strategies. This isn’t new channel testing – it’s making your current approach better. Maybe you’re optimizing landing pages to improve conversion rates. Perhaps you’re testing new messaging angles in your paid campaigns. This allocation recognizes that incremental improvements to proven channels often deliver better returns than jumping to completely new platforms.

Ten percent supports careful experimentation with emerging tactics and platforms. This is your “test and learn” fund. You’re trying new approaches without betting the farm. If something shows promise, you can shift it into your 20% optimization bucket or even promote it to core status in your 70%.

This balance protects against waste while enabling growth. You maintain stability through your core channels, improve efficiency through optimization efforts, and stay current through disciplined testing.

Matching Distribution to Business Objectives

Different goals require different allocation approaches. A business focused on lead generation in the short term might weight its 70% heavily toward paid ads and conversion-focused tactics. A company building long-term brand equity might allocate more to content creation and SEO.

Short-term revenue needs push you toward proven performance channels. If you need qualified leads this quarter, you can’t wait six months for SEO to deliver. You need paid channels where you can control volume by adjusting spend.

Long-term sustainable growth requires patient investment in owned assets. That means content libraries, email lists, organic search authority, and community building. These take time but compound over years.

Your market position influences allocation too. Market leaders can invest more in brand awareness and defensive strategies. Challengers need aggressive acquisition tactics. New entrants might focus resources on establishing basic credibility and visibility.

Common Distribution Errors That Kill Returns

Spreading resources too thin across too many channels is the most frequent mistake. A business with $30,000 annually can’t effectively run LinkedIn ads, Google search, Facebook campaigns, SEO, content production, and email programs simultaneously. Each channel needs minimum viable investment to test properly.

Chasing trends without disciplined testing wastes the experimental portion of your allocation. Someone reads about a hot new platform and dumps $5,000 into it without clear success metrics or testing protocols. When it fails, they’ve learned nothing useful.

Neglecting owned media in favor of rented attention is a long-term trap. Paid ads deliver immediate visibility but build zero lasting assets. When you stop paying, traffic stops immediately. Balancing paid channels with investments in owned properties creates sustainable advantage.

Ignoring performance data from 2024 and 2025 means repeating the same mistakes. Your historical results tell you what works in your specific business context. Disregarding that evidence in favor of general advice or competitor observation leads to poor decisions.

Channel-by-Channel Breakdown for Smart Investment

SEO: The Long-Game Compound Investment

Most businesses should allocate 15-25% of their total investment to SEO. This includes technical optimization, content creation, link building, and ongoing maintenance. For a company spending $60,000 annually, that’s $9,000 to $15,000 toward organic search visibility.

SEO delivers compounding returns over time. Unlike paid channels where results stop when spending stops, organic authority builds month over month. A well-optimized piece of content can drive traffic and conversions for years with minimal additional investment.

AI impact on search is significant but nuanced. Tools like ChatGPT and Claude make content production faster and cheaper. A task that took a writer four hours might now take 90 minutes with AI assistance. But quality control becomes more critical. AI-generated content often lacks the specific expertise, unique perspective, and depth that ranks well and converts visitors.

Essential metrics include organic traffic trends, keyword rankings for terms that drive business value, and conversion rates from organic visitors. Don’t obsess over vanity metrics like total keyword count. Focus on traffic that turns into customers.

Realistic timeline expectations matter for leadership buy-in. SEO typically takes 3-6 months to show meaningful movement and 6-12 months to deliver substantial returns. Businesses needing immediate results need to balance SEO with faster-acting channels.

Content Creation in the AI Era

AI tools fundamentally change content economics. Production costs drop when you can generate first drafts quickly. A content calendar that required three full-time writers might need just one editor and strategist working with AI assistance.

But the quality versus quantity balance is shifting for 2026. Google’s algorithms increasingly prioritize genuine expertise and unique perspective. Publishing 50 mediocre AI-generated posts delivers less value than creating 10 deeply researched, expert-informed pieces.

Content types that still require human expertise include analysis that draws on specific industry experience, case studies based on actual client work, thought leadership that takes controversial or unique positions, and content requiring interviews or primary research.

Email marketing integration with content strategy creates distribution leverage. That detailed blog post becomes a newsletter feature, a LinkedIn article, and a lead magnet. Smart content planning designs each piece for multiple uses across channels.

Measuring effectiveness beyond vanity metrics means tracking assisted conversions, time on page for high-intent topics, email signups from content, and actual revenue influenced by content touchpoints.

Paid Advertising Across Platforms

Paid channels make sense when you need controlled, predictable lead volume or when you’re testing new markets or offers quickly. They’re less attractive when margins are thin, lifetime value is unclear, or you lack capacity to handle increased inquiry volume.

LinkedIn advertising for B2B remains expensive but effective for reaching decision-makers. Expect CPCs of $8-15 for competitive categories. A modest LinkedIn campaign requires a minimum monthly investment of $3,000-5,000 to gather meaningful data. But for companies selling high-value B2B services, the returns justify the costs when targeting is precise.

PPC recommendations vary by industry context. Local service businesses often succeed with $1,500-3,000 monthly Google Ads spend focused on high-intent local searches. E-commerce businesses need larger investments to test product campaigns across shopping and search. Professional services might allocate $2,000-4,000 monthly to branded and category terms.

Avoiding the “set it and forget it” trap requires active management. Paid campaigns decay over time without optimization. Audiences fatigue. Competitors adjust bids. New keywords emerge. Plan for weekly monitoring and bi-weekly optimization at minimum.

Analytics requirements for proper optimization include conversion tracking through your CRM, revenue attribution to specific campaigns, audience segment performance, and incrementality testing to verify you’re not just paying for traffic that would have converted anyway.

Emerging Channels Worth Testing

New platforms and partnership opportunities deserve consideration within your 10% experimental allocation. For 2026, that might include testing newer social platforms reaching specific demographics, exploring podcast sponsorships in your niche, or developing co-promotion arrangements with complementary businesses.

Testing with your experimental funds means starting small with clear success criteria. Invest $500-1,000 in a new channel with defined metrics for what “success” looks like. If it hits those markers, expand investment. If it doesn’t, cut losses quickly.

Criteria for promoting a channel from test to core include consistent performance over at least three months, clear ROI above your hurdle rate, and confidence you understand what drives success so you can replicate results.

Knowing when to cut losses matters as much as identifying winners. If a channel shows no promise after reasonable investment and time, reallocate those dollars to proven performers. Sunk cost fallacy kills budgets.

Creating Your Plan: Step-by-Step Process

Step 1: Audit Your Current Spending

Start by reviewing every channel and campaign from the past year. Create a spreadsheet listing each channel, total amount invested, and returns generated in leads, sales, or other relevant KPIs.

The key question for each channel: How much was spent and what was the return in business outcomes that matter? Not impressions or clicks – actual leads, opportunities, or customers generated.

Identify your highest and lowest performing investments. You might discover that a channel consuming 20% of resources generates just 5% of results. Or that a channel getting minimal investment delivers outsized returns and deserves more allocation.

Tools for tracking spend across platforms include your accounting software for total expenditures, platform-specific dashboards for channel costs, and analytics systems for attributing results back to sources.

Step 2: Set Clear, Measurable Objectives

Revenue targets translate to specific activity requirements. If you need $500,000 in new revenue and your average deal is $10,000 with a 25% close rate, you need 200 qualified opportunities. Work backward to determine how many leads each channel must generate.

Lead volume requirements must include quality standards. Not all leads are equal. Define what “qualified” means for your business. Establish both quantity and quality thresholds.

Brand awareness metrics that actually matter include direct traffic trends, branded search volume, and assisted conversions from awareness touchpoints. Avoid vanity metrics like social media followers that don’t correlate with business results.

Connecting objectives to spending decisions creates accountability. Each dollar should trace to a specific goal. If you can’t explain how an activity supports a measurable objective, question whether it belongs in your plan.

Step 3: Calculate Your Available Investment

The percentage-of-revenue approach provides a starting point. Take your current or projected revenue and multiply by the benchmark percentage for your industry and business stage. A $2 million revenue B2B services firm at 10% would allocate $200,000.

Competitive parity method considers what competitors invest. This isn’t about copying them, but understanding market dynamics. If everyone in your space invests heavily and you don’t, you’ll struggle for visibility.

Objective-and-task method offers the most accuracy but requires more work. List every objective, identify tasks required to achieve it, cost out those tasks, and sum the total. This builds your number from the bottom up.

Building in flexibility for adjustments recognizes that conditions change. Consider creating three scenarios: minimum viable investment, target allocation, and growth scenario. This gives leadership options based on business performance.

Step 4: Allocate by Channel with the 70-20-10 Framework

Map your proven channels for the 70% allocation. These are activities with demonstrated returns over multiple quarters. For many B2B businesses, this includes SEO, Google search ads, LinkedIn, and email campaigns.

Identify optimization opportunities for your 20%. Maybe your landing pages convert at 2% and industry benchmarks suggest 4% is achievable. Invest in conversion rate improvement. Perhaps your email open rates lag because of weak subject lines. Fund testing and optimization.

Select test channels strategically for your 10%. Choose based on where your audience is moving, not where everyone else is advertising. If your buyers are increasingly active in specific communities or platforms, test presence there.

Create a month-by-month spend plan that accounts for seasonality in your business. Many B2B businesses see slower summer months. Retail has clear holiday patterns. Align your investment timing with when your buyers are most active.

Step 5: Build in Analytics and Measurement Systems

Essential tools for tracking performance include Google Analytics 4 for website behavior, CRM integration for lead attribution, call tracking for phone conversions, and dashboard tools like Databox or Supermetrics for consolidated reporting.

Setting up attribution models that work requires choosing an approach that fits your sales cycle. Last-click attribution is simple but misleading for complex B2B sales. First-touch overcredits awareness activities. Multi-touch models are complex but more accurate for longer sales processes.

Weekly and monthly reporting cadences create accountability without overwhelming teams. Weekly reviews focus on tactical adjustments – pausing underperforming ads, doubling down on what’s working. Monthly reviews examine strategic questions about channel mix and overall performance.

Creating feedback loops for quick pivots means establishing triggers for action. If cost per lead exceeds your threshold for two consecutive weeks, that triggers investigation and adjustment. If a channel misses targets for two months, that triggers reallocation discussion.

Maximizing ROI: Optimization Strategies

The Incremental Spend Question

Here’s the critical insight most businesses miss: Is that spending actually incremental to your growth? Are you funding activities that drive additional results, or paying for outcomes that would have happened anyway?

Testing incrementality without wasting resources requires careful experimental design. You might pause investment in a channel for a defined period in one geographic market while continuing in another. Compare results. Did the paused market see proportional declines? If revenue stayed steady, that spending wasn’t incremental.

Identifying activities that would happen anyway through organic demand protects you from wasting resources. If you’re running branded search ads and pausing them doesn’t hurt conversions, those clicks would have happened organically. That’s not incremental.

Redirecting non-incremental spending to higher-return areas immediately improves overall efficiency. Finding even $10,000 in non-incremental spending and moving it to a channel delivering real incremental growth boosts results without increasing total investment.

Tools and AI That Reduce Costs

AI tools that genuinely save time and money in 2026 include content generation assistants like ChatGPT and Claude for first drafts, design tools like Midjourney for concept visualization, and campaign management platforms using machine learning for bid optimization.

Marketing automation platforms worth the investment include HubSpot or ActiveCampaign for email workflows and lead nurturing, Hootsuite or Buffer for social media scheduling, and Zapier for connecting systems without custom development.

When to use AI versus investing in human expertise depends on the task complexity and stakes. AI excels at repetitive tasks, data processing, and generating options quickly. Humans excel at strategy, judgment calls, relationship building, and quality control.

Cost-benefit analysis framework for new tools: Calculate time saved multiplied by hourly cost of the people whose time you’re saving. Compare that annual value to the tool’s annual cost plus implementation time. If saved time exceeds cost by at least 2x, the tool likely makes sense.

Partnership and Co-Marketing Approaches

Splitting costs with complementary businesses extends your reach without increasing spending. A commercial real estate firm might partner with a business insurance broker to co-host educational webinars, splitting production and promotion costs while accessing each other’s audiences.

Channel partnerships extend reach by leveraging others’ established audiences. A software company might partner with an industry association to sponsor their newsletter, reaching qualified prospects at lower cost than building that audience independently.

When collaboration makes more sense than solo campaigns: when you’re entering new markets where partners have established credibility, when production costs for quality content exceed your individual capabilities, or when audience overlap creates mutual benefit without direct competition.

Measuring partnership returns accurately requires tracking leads and conversions separately from other sources. Assign unique tracking parameters to partnership activities. Calculate cost including your time investment, not just hard dollar costs.

The Quarterly Review Process

Why annual budgets fail without quarterly adjustments: market conditions change, campaigns fatigue, and unexpected opportunities arise. Rigid adherence to an annual plan can lead to wasted resources and missed opportunities.

Key performance indicators to review every 90 days: lead volume, cost per lead, conversion rates, revenue generated, customer acquisition cost, and return on ad spend. Focus on metrics that directly impact business outcomes.

When to double down vs. when to cut a channel: Double down on channels consistently exceeding targets. Cut or significantly reduce investment in channels consistently underperforming. Don’t be afraid to make tough decisions based on data.

Building organizational buy-in for budget flexibility requires transparency and communication. Share performance data with stakeholders. Explain the rationale behind adjustments. Demonstrate that you’re making data-driven decisions to maximize returns.

What Marketing Leaders Are Doing Differently in 2026

Trends Shaping Investment Decisions

The shift from vanity metrics to revenue attribution is accelerating. Leadership teams no longer accept “engagement” or “awareness” as success metrics. They demand proof that activities generate pipeline and revenue. This forces harder choices about channel mix.

Increased investment in first-party data systems reflects privacy regulation impacts. Companies are building email lists more aggressively, creating customer data platforms, and developing direct relationships rather than relying on platform data that’s increasingly restricted.

AI integration across campaign management changes how teams operate. Automated bid management, content generation assistance, and predictive analytics let smaller teams manage more sophisticated campaigns. But integration requires upfront investment in tools and training.

Focus on customer lifetime value over acquisition cost alone creates different strategic priorities. A company optimizing for LTV might accept higher acquisition costs to attract better-fit customers who stay longer and buy more. Short-term efficiency metrics can be misleading.

Balancing Short-Term Results with Sustainable Growth

The danger of over-optimizing for immediate returns is real. Algorithms push you toward the lowest-cost conversions, which often means lower-quality customers. Channels delivering fast results get over-funded while slower-building assets like content libraries and organic authority get starved.

Building brand equity alongside performance activities requires protecting investment in awareness and education even when direct attribution is unclear. The B2B buyer who converts today likely encountered your brand multiple times over months. Pure last-click thinking misses this reality.

When to sacrifice short-term efficiency for long-term positioning: when you’re building new markets where education is required, when you’re repositioning your brand, or when competitive dynamics demand establishing authority that compounds over time.

Creating budgets that serve both goals means segregating “performance” spending from “positioning” investment in your planning. Define success metrics appropriate to each. Don’t hold brand-building activities to the same immediate ROI standards as direct response campaigns.

Effective Marketing in an Uncertain Economy

Building flexibility into your structure means creating modular plans. Identify your absolute core activities that continue regardless of conditions. Define the next tier that gets added when business is steady. Outline the expanded investment layer for growth scenarios.

Scenarios planning helps leadership make faster decisions when conditions change. Create three versions: optimistic scenario if business exceeds targets, realistic baseline, and pessimistic version if revenue underperforms. Pre-define what gets cut or added in each scenario.

Protecting core channels while staying nimble means maintaining minimum viable investment in proven performers even in tough times. These are activities with clear ROI that keep leads flowing. But build in quarterly review points to shift tactics within channels as conditions evolve.

Communication strategies with leadership about budget needs should focus on specific options and tradeoffs. Don’t just ask for more money. Show what specific incremental investment would generate in measurable results, or what you’ll have to cut if resources are constrained.

Common Budget Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Mistake 1: No Clear Connection Between Spend and Business Goals

Disconnected budgets waste money by funding activities that feel productive but don’t connect to goals that matter. Teams stay busy but don’t move needles on revenue, qualified leads, or other metrics leadership cares about.

Aligning every dollar to specific, measurable outcomes means being able to trace each line item to a measurable objective. If someone asks why you’re investing in a particular channel or tactic, you should articulate exactly what business result it’s designed to generate.

Getting leadership buy-in through goal clarity starts with understanding what keeps executives up at night. Is it revenue growth? Market share? Customer retention? Frame your plan around solving their specific problems with measurable success criteria they care about.

Mistake 2: Following Competitors Blindly

Your business isn’t their business. You have different strengths, different customer relationships, different operational capabilities. A competitor’s successful strategy might fail for you because of these differences.

Using competitive intelligence without copying means understanding what competitors do, but filtering it through your specific context. If a competitor invests heavily in conferences but you lack their brand recognition, the same investment might not generate equivalent returns.

When to zig while others zag: when everyone in your space follows the same playbook, differentiation becomes valuable. If every competitor is on LinkedIn, you might find better ROI in underutilized channels where competition for attention is lower.

Mistake 3: Underinvesting in Measurement

The hidden cost of flying blind is making decisions based on guesses rather than data. You keep funding channels that don’t work. You underfund channels that do. You can’t prove value to leadership, making it harder to secure resources.

Minimum viable analytics stack for accurate ROI tracking includes website analytics with goal tracking, CRM integration for lead source attribution, call tracking for phone conversions, and basic dashboard visualization to monitor KPIs.

Why measurement is part of the budget, not separate from it: If you invest $50,000 in campaigns but $0 in tracking what works, you’ve wasted the entire investment. Budget 5-10% specifically for analytics tools and systems.

Mistake 4: Sticking to a Clearly Defined Budget Too Rigidly

The paradox: you need structure to maintain accountability and prevent chaos, but you also need flexibility to respond to changing conditions, new opportunities, and performance data that contradicts your assumptions.

Building approved contingency budgets means getting pre-approval for adjustments within defined parameters. Perhaps you have authority to shift up to 15% between channels without additional approval as long as total spending stays within overall allocation.

Creating approval processes that don’t slow you down requires clear decision rights. Define what level of change requires what level of approval. Empower team members to make tactical adjustments within strategic boundaries.

How Much Should You Actually Spend on Digital Marketing in 2026?

Industry Benchmarks and Guidelines

B2B services: 7-12% of revenue E-commerce and retail: 10-15% of revenue SaaS and technology: 12-20% of revenue Why your stage of business matters as much as industry

The Small Business Reality

Working with limited budgets effectively Where small businesses should allocate first Channels that deliver fastest ROI with smaller spend Building spend gradually as revenue grows

Scaling Spend as You Grow

When to increase your marketing budget percentage Signs you’re underinvesting in growth Avoiding the scale-too-fast trap Marketer-to-spend ratios for internal resources

Conclusion: Your Action Plan for Digital Marketing Budget 2026 Success

Key Takeaways Summary

Your digital marketing budget 2026 should be built on data from 2024-2025 performance, not guesswork. The 70-20-10 framework protects ROI while enabling strategic testing. AI tools will reduce some costs but require investment in the right areas. Measurement and analytics are non-negotiable for budget optimization. Flexibility matters: stick to a clearly defined business plan but review quarterly.

Immediate Action Steps

1. Complete your current spend audit by channel this week
2. Calculate your target budget percentage based on revenue and goals
3. Map your 70-20-10 allocation across proven, optimization, and test channels
4. Set up monthly tracking systems for each channel’s performance
5. Schedule quarterly review dates now to adjust strategy as needed

Your Next Move

Ready to Optimize Your Marketing Investment?

Start with one channel where you can improve ROI before adding new spend. Remember: effective marketing isn’t about spending more – it’s about allocating smarter.

Need help developing a data-driven plan that maximizes returns? Blendly Agency specializes in helping California businesses build and execute high-performance strategies. Call us at (714) 710-1033 to discuss your specific situation and goals.

Final Question

Are you able to spend quality time analyzing your marketing investment, or are you too busy to optimize for maximum ROI? What will you do differently with your 2026 marketing budget based on what you’ve learned here?