Best Marketing Budget Software Shortlist
Here are the best marketing budget software I’ve selected for my shortlist.
- HubSpot Marketing Hub - Best for budgeting based on performance metrics
- Sugar Market - Best with predictive lead scoring
- Acoustic - Best for highly personalized marketing
- Wrike - Best budget and project management in one
- Mediatool - Best budget planning and tracking in one
- Dreamdata - Best for tracking B2B revenue attribution
- ActiveCollab - Best for budgeting by project profitability
- ProWorkFlow - Best for budgeting client projects
- FunctionFox - Best for estimating project costs
- Workday Adaptive Planning - Best flexible scenario planning tool
- MARMIND - Best for top-down and bottom-up budget allocation
- Shopperations - Best for standardizing budgeting processes
When it comes time for budget planning as a CMO or Marketing Director, you know you need to have clear objectives and a killer strategy. But do you cringe thinking about the Excel spreadsheets you’ll have to wrestle with and the benchmarks you’ll have to calculate? Yeah, me too. And this is where a marketing budget software can be your best friend.
I wanted to find the best platform to help me outline my marketing budget, track my marketing spend, and track the return on investment of my campaigns. So I set out to do some research, tested various software options, and narrowed down this list. Hopefully, it will help you find what you’re looking for, too!
What is Marketing Budget Software?
Marketing budget software is a platform that helps marketing departments manage their spending across campaigns, resources, and projects. Marketing managers, directors, and executives use the software to strategically plan and report on how funds are allocated across various marketing initiatives. Some platforms have budget tracking tools to log your marketing expenses and avoid overspending. Others provide features that help you outline and track your marketing goals, and interactive dashboards to monitor your marketing performance.
The information collected and assessed through these platforms helps you make data-driven decisions about where and how you spend your marketing dollars. It also helps you understand the return on investment of your past spending.
Overviews of the 12 Best Marketing Budget Software
You can use the detailed overviews below to understand how each marketing budget software stands out from the rest. The overviews showcase each software’s best use case, standout features, and which apps and SaaS tools they integrate with. I’ve also added screenshots to give you a feel for the interface.
1. HubSpot Marketing Hub - Best for budgeting based on performance metrics
HubSpot Marketing Hub is a marketing software with extensive inbound marketing, metrics tracking, and budget management features.
Why I picked HubSpot Marketing Hub: This software offers a nice bundle of marketing tools, including detailed analytics and reporting features. I included it on the list because the tracking capabilities help you base your budget on performance data. You can track and measure the performance of your marketing activities in the software, but you can also use it to manage your initiatives. It has tools to help you craft new content like blogs, social media posts, videos, and Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google ads. You can also manage your lead conversion channels (email marketing, account-based marketing, lead tracking, and a landing page builder).
HubSpot Marketing Hub Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include the company’s exceptional support and service team. I love that they provide both software and resources to upskill your team. You can get chat, email, or phone support 24/7 from their team of specialists, and receive a customized onboarding experience. They also provide training sessions and have a huge knowledge base of articles, how-to guides, courses, and certifications.
Integrations include Aircall, ChurnZero, Databox, Eventbrite, GoToWebinar, Jotform, Lucky Orange, Mailchimp, Outfunnel, TextingHouse, Wordpress, and Zoom. Further integrations are available by connecting a paid Zapier account.
Price: Starts from $45/month
Free Trial: Free plan available
Pros
- Comprehensive suite of features
- In-depth analytics
- Excellent for lead generation
Cons
- Learning curve when getting started
- Freemium plan lacks features
2. Sugar Market - Best with predictive lead scoring
Sugar Market is a multi-channel marketing automation platform that helps you build your pipeline, fuel your funnel, and monitor the performance of your initiatives.
Why I picked Sugar Market: I selected Sugar Market for my list because it’s a complete marketing platform with plenty of features. You can manage your social media accounts and Google ads, and build email marketing campaigns and unique landing pages with the software. But what makes it particularly helpful as a budgeting tool is its advanced analytics and predictive lead scoring capabilities. The software’s AI algorithms help predict the likelihood of leads to convert, allowing you to best allocate your marketing budget to the right channels and lead nurturing activities.
Sugar Market Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features I noticed include the software’s profile mapping tool, which expands on its predictive lead scoring. It helps you understand user behavior and plan your next actions accordingly, which I found to be helpful for taking an account-based approach. Users can also get custom onboarding and select from various service plans, including monthly advisory sessions with their marketing experts.
Integrations include Experlogix, Faye, Kinamu, PandaDoc, PhoneBurner, Ringover, Sapiens.BI, Slack, Survey Rocket, Triblio, Upsert Migrator, and Yoxel Signals.
Price: Starts from $1,000/month
Free Trial: Free demo available
Pros
- Drag-and-drop landing page builder
- Excellent customer support
- Powerful marketing automations
Cons
- No drag-and-drop builder for events
- Custom reporting is challenging
3. Acoustic - Best for highly personalized marketing
Acoustic is a marketing and customer success software that digs deep into user profiles and behaviors to help you craft highly personalized and targeted marketing campaigns.
Why I picked Acoustic: Building highly personalized customer experiences and marketing campaigns is a great way to create brand loyalty. I picked Acoustic for the list because it provides various tools that can help you better understand your customers and craft more customized experiences. This allows you to divide your marketing budget in a more effective and impactful way. The software breaks down your complete customer journey and goes beyond the standard metrics to show you deeper insights into how your visitors convert into paying customers. These insights help you develop campaigns that speak more directly to customer concerns, goals, and desires.
Acoustic Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features that impressed me started with the UX prioritization tool, which gives your product team insights into the customer experience. Beyond marketing, your team will be able to use the tool to inform your product strategy. I think this is a nice feature to bring marketing and product teams closer together and facilitate a more product-led growth approach.
Integrations are not currently listed by the provider.
Price: Available upon request
Free Trial: No data available
Pros
- Easy to use
- Well-organized UI
- In-depth data
Cons
- Journey planning is lacking some functionality
- Some difficulty with workflow planning
4. Wrike - Best budget and project management in one
Wrike is a comprehensive all-in-one solution for workflow, project, and marketing management and automation. It’s built to replace virtually all the standard SaaS tools a company would typically have in their tech stack.
Why I picked Wrike: This was an easy addition to my list because the software’s capabilities are so broad, but the functionality doesn’t suffer from the scope. It’s easy to use and has a friendly user interface. You can accomplish everything from planning your marketing projects to submitting budget requests and automating your workflows through the platform. It also has marketing tools like a roadmap builder and asset management. By bringing all of these aspects of your strategic operations into one place, you’ll be better able to manage where the money goes and how these investments perform.
Wrike Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include the system’s resource management capabilities, which I find to be quite helpful and straightforward. This is just one more thing you can do under the same roof, and it’s directly related to how you manage your marketing budget. You can set priorities and allocate the right resources to every project, then monitor your utilization as you progress to make sure you stay on track.
Integrations include Asana, Airtable, BambooHR, Clearbit, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Salesforce, Slack, and hundreds of others. You can also build custom integrations using its API.
Price: Starts from $9.80/user/month
Free Trial: Free plan available
Pros
- Highly customizable solution
- Versatile platform with broad functionality
- Various data visualization options
Cons
- No offline access
- No subtasks in the freemium plan
5. Mediatool - Best budget planning and tracking in one
Mediatool is a marketing campaign and analytics software that helps you plan, measure, evaluate, and improve upon your marketing activities.
Why I picked Mediatool: This is a great platform to not just track and analyze your performance metrics, but also to document your strategic plans. The media plan calendar lets you map out your projects and tactics, and even develop approval flows for executing on your plan. You can set KPIs and budgets for your campaigns and overall marketing strategy, which you can then track in the system. The dashboard gives you real-time data on your budget distribution and planned vs. actual spend on every campaign.
Mediatool Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features I found to add particular value were the simplified reporting tool, which was easy to use and helpful for quickly running analytics reports. You can generate custom dashboards but also complete campaign reports showing planned vs. actuals on all your set KPIs. It even has branding options so you can present the data in your own brand colors. The software also integrates with plenty of other tools, and pulls data directly from them to create a central source of truth.
Integrations include Google Analytics, Google Workspace, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat, Adform, HubSpot, and Quora, among others.
Price: Available upon request
Free Trial: Free demo available
Pros
- Connects to various data sources
- Budget planning and tracking in the same place
- Ability to create campaign roadmaps
Cons
- Setup and adoption can be time consuming
- Somewhat complex to use, not always intuitive
6. Dreamdata - Best for tracking B2B revenue attribution
Dreamdata is a B2B marketing software that specializes in revenue attribution, and pulls data from your various go-to-market tools into one place.
Why I picked Dreamdata: This platform is a good option for marketing departments that don’t have an internal data analytics team. It takes a ton of time, energy, and money to build out your data operations system, and you can use this software to centralize, transform, and model your marketing data. This covers everything from defining your performance metrics and KPIs to tracking your budget and spending. But in particular, the software can deep-dive into your revenue analytics, and provide more accurate attribution than you get from other tools.
Dreamdata Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include the product’s detailed documentation, which is accessible through the website. There are clear and detailed articles outlining how to accomplish various tasks with the software. I like that there’s ample self-serve support material, so I can learn the platform on my own time and according to my own needs. The highly rated customer support team is also available if there’s anything I need extra help with.
Integrations include HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, LinkedIn, G2, Twitter, Facebook, Google Ads, Drift, Marketo, and Intercom, among others. Zapier can also be connected to build additional integrations.
Price: Available upon request
Free Trial: Free demo available
Pros
- Consolidate all your data
- Plan budgets based on revenue attribution
- Exceptional customer support
Cons
- Complex, takes time to learn
- Relatively new software, features still being developed
7. ActiveCollab - Best for budgeting by project profitability
ActiveCollab is a robust project management platform that has budget and profitability features as well as resource, time, and client management tools.
Why I picked ActiveCollab: I decided to include this software on my list because it offers a comprehensive project management platform, but also budgeting tools to align your costs with your project plan. When you’re planning a project, you can input the costs associated with it as well as deadlines, collaborators, clients, and other information. The software can calculate the profit margin of each project, allowing you to manage your marketing budget as you plan your workload. This gives you a gauge of the profitability of various initiatives so you can prioritize your work based on potential revenue.
ActiveCollab Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include the team collaboration tools included in the software. You marketing team members can leave comments and notes for each other, conduct asynchronous discussions, and use the live-chat tool to work together from afar. I love that you can collaborate in this way from directly inside the platform, rather than app-switching in and out of another communication tool. It even has file sharing and team member tagging.
Integrations include Google Drive, Dropbox, Hubstaff, Slack, QuickBooks, WebHooks, and Timecamp. An API is also available, or you can connect with a Zapier account to build additional integrations.
Price: Starts from $11/month for up to 3 users
Free Trial: 14-day free trial available
Pros
- Plan projects, budgets, and resources in one place
- Friendly and straightforward interface
- High value for price
Cons
- Limited number of native integrations
- Time tracking tool isn’t the smoothest
8. ProWorkFlow - Best for budgeting client projects
ProWorkFlow is a project, resource, and time management software that helps teams and organizations streamline their workflows and report on their operations.
Why I picked ProWorkFlow: The system is equipped with project and task management tools to help you plan and organize your team’s workload. You can also track employee time and effectively allocate your resources across projects. But one of the main reasons I added it to my list is the built-in CRM, which stores your staff, client, and contractor contact information. You can manage both invoices and quotes through the software, too. This makes it easy to track your project budgets as your team progresses on their work.
ProWorkFlow Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features I liked in my testing were the templates available in the platform as well as its communication tools. There are templates for projects, tasks, quotes, and invoices, which I found to be a big time saver, especially when these items tend to follow similar structures. As for communication, both your staff and clients can message through the software, which allows for file sharing and thread conversations. I like that you can have discussions to provide updates and collaborate without leaving the platform.
Integrations include Xero, QuickBooks, FreshBooks, MYOB, Kashflow, Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Workspace, Microsoft OneDrive, and Microsoft Sharepoint. Integrations with Adobe, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Outlook can be purchased as add-ons. Zapier and the system’s rest API can be used to configure additional integrations.
Price: Starts from $20/user/month
Free Trial: Free trial + free demo available
Pros
- Suitable for professional services businesses
- Project, resource, time, and client management in one
- Built-in messaging and client communication
Cons
- Some features and integrations come as paid add-ons
- Some admin tools and templates not included in starter plan
9. FunctionFox - Best for estimating project costs
FunctionFox is a timesheet and project management software that has built-in communication and reporting tools.
Why I picked FunctionFox: I added FunctionFox to my list because it’s a straightforward platform that can carry your projects from conception through to completion and monitoring. It’s an effective tool for planning and managing your marketing budget as it corresponds to your campaigns, projects, and tasks. The software not only tracks time, but also expenses. You can calculate your estimated expenses for projects to make sure you’re scoping your work within the allocated budget. And the reporting tool allows you to track your planned vs. actual expenses and overall ROI of your campaigns.
FunctionFox Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include the software’s templates, which are available with every paid plan. These can really speed up the project planning process, and when your team works on similar projects, it’s a true time saver. I also like that you can configure custom fields in your project outlines. This makes it much more customizable to suit the type of work your team does.
Integrations are not currently listed by the provider.
Price: Starts from $35/month
Free Trial: Free plan available
Pros
- Free plan with solid functionality for small teams
- Invoicing and quoting tools included
- Unlimited clients with all plans
Cons
- Additional monthly charge per additional user
- Project management feature limitations with classic plan
10. Workday Adaptive Planning - Best flexible scenario planning tool
Workday Adaptive Planning is a flexible planning software that can be used to manage your finances, workforce, or operations.
Why I picked Workday Adaptive Planning: As a flexible planning solution, I thought this software made a good addition to my list. It has tools to help you map out various scenarios for your budgeting and business planning, so you can make informed decisions about how to proceed. You can connect your other tools and use the spreadsheet-style interface to craft monthly or quarterly budgets and break down daily forecasts. You can also create more long-term plans for how you’ll accomplish your goals and the funds you’ll need to allocate to various swimlanes.
Workday Adaptive Planning Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include the simple analytics dashboard that you can use to produce custom reports as needed. It’s intuitive and user friendly, which I really appreciate when I’m trying to quickly draw up some numbers. The planning interface is also reminiscent of a spreadsheet, which was familiar to me. That made it quicker to get up and running in the system.
Integrations can be built with the software’s integration framework to connect data from ERP/GL, CRM, HR, and PSA sources.
Price: Available upon request
Free Trial: No data available
Pros
- Suitable for enterprise-level complexity
- Import existing data from Excel
- Friendly and familiar user interface
Cons
- Pricing is not transparent
- Deployment can take a number of months
11. MARMIND - Best for top-down and bottom-up budget allocation
MARMIND is a marketing planning and budgeting software that also provides workflow automation and asset management tools.
Why I picked MARMIND: This software acts as a central hub for planning your marketing strategy and allocating your budget across initiatives. The campaign management tools lets you break down your strategies into tangible projects and activities in a spreadsheet view. From there, you can use the budgeting features to plan your financial needs in accordance with your plan. You can also forecast costs, calculate ROI, and reconcile planned vs. actual marketing costs for your projects. Purchase order and invoice management are also included in the system.
MARMIND Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features I appreciated were the software’s ability to facilitate both top-down and bottom-up budget management. This is super handy because depending how your team operates, the software is flexible enough to meet your needs. You can produce bottom-up forecasts to understand the cost of your various marketing initiatives. Or, you can start with your budget and allocate funds bottom-down across your initiatives.
Integrations include Acoustic Campaign, ActiveCampaign, Adobe Experience Manager, Asana, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Google Analytics, Hootsuite, Jira, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, and SAP, among others.
Price: Available upon request
Free Trial: Free demo available
Pros
- Campaign and budget planning in one
- Asset management included
- Top-down or bottom-up budget allocation
Cons
- Budgeting tools are limited in bottom-tier plan
- Comes with a learning curve
12. Shopperations - Best for standardizing budgeting processes
Shopperations is an omni-channel planning software that marketing teams can use to map out their campaigns and effectively allocate their budget.
Why I picked Shopperations: I added this software to my list because of its extensive budget management features. You can view all your multi-channel campaigns in one place and create budget transparency around various projects. The software also has tools to help you standardize your budgeting processes to create consistency in how funds are allocated at a team and organizational level. Expense tracking is included, and you can implement rules around spending to make sure your budget is being utilized correctly.
Shopperations Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features I noticed in this software were its automated calendars and agency collaboration tools. The calendars are easy to produce and provide an overview of upcoming work, helping you manage your team’s time effectively. And if you’re working with any agencies, you can manage the collaboration through the software. File sharing and communications can be handled directly in the platform, saving everyone time.
Integrations can be configured by the company’s service team.
Price: Available upon request
Free Trial: Free demo available
Pros
- Services are also provided by the company
- Invoice and deduction tracking included
- Reconcile costs and budgets automatically
Cons
- Integrations need to be custom configured
- Pricing is not transparent
Other Marketing Budget Software Options
Although they didn’t make it to the shortlist, here are a few other options of marketing budget software that stood out in my research.
- Planful - Best with AI-powered insights
- Uptempo - Best for B2B or B2C marketing teams
- MyMarketingMate - Best with marketing plan templates
- Wave - Best for small businesses
- QuickBooks - Best for its flexibility, scalability, and customization options
- Scoro - Best for complete visibility over your entire operation
- Centage - Best for high-level budgeting, forecasting, and data analysis
- Float - Best for centralizing your people and their time into one live schedule view
Selection Criteria for the Best Marketing Budget Software
To curate my list of the best marketing budget software, I started with a long list of options with good user ratings. From there, I built out my selection criteria (outlined below) and compared each platform to the next based on these important factors. I’ve also managed my fair share of marketing budgets over the years. With this experience, I was able to look for standout features that are particularly valuable for marketing leaders.
When I evaluated each marketing budget software, these are the top criteria I looked at to determine which tools would make it onto my list:
Core Functionality
While some of the software options I researched were expressly budgeting solutions, others had different functionalities that contribute to budget management. I took into consideration the primary use case of each platform, and how that connects to managing your marketing budget. You’ll find details about each software’s core functionality and how it can help you with your marketing budget in my overviews.
Key Features
Because the functionality varied from one platform to another, so did the features. That said, here are some of the common key features I spotted in my research:
- KPI and metrics tracking: By understanding what your initiatives are achieving and how your campaigns perform, you’re better able to allocate your funds.
- Project management: Effectively planning, executing, and monitoring your marketing projects is a great way to understand the time, effort, and resources that go into different activities, as well as your return on investment.
- Resource management: Being able to effectively allocate your human, financial, and physical resources helps you understand their utilization and the associated costs.
- Expense management: This is a more obvious one, but it’s important to track your expenses across projects and understand how money is getting distributed.
- Quotes and invoicing: Especially for service-based industries, managing your quotes and invoices is an integral part of budget management.
I’ve also noted standout features that I found to be uniquely valuable in each software overview.
Usability
I really value software that’s intuitive to use and easy to understand. User-friendliness is always something I evaluate when I’m testing out new platforms, and I’ve added notes about usability in my overviews. The easier something is to navigate, the more inclined you’ll be to make the most of it!
Integrations
These days, most companies have a long list of software tools and apps they use to get work done. Whatever your tech stack is, it’s important to evaluate whether a new platform will fit in with the other tools you’re using. I’ve listed the integrations each software has with other platforms to help you pick an option that will connect to your stack.
Pricing
It’s always important to consider the cost associated with a new software before you move forward with it. But remember, it’s as much about the price tag as it is about the features and functionality. Just because one tool is cheaper doesn’t mean it's the best choice for your team.
Pricing and free trial information is included with every overview to help you make an informed decision about which platform fits your budget and your business needs.
People Also Ask: Common Questions About Marketing Budgets and Software
Whether you’ve never managed a marketing budget before or if you’re well-versed and looking for supportive software, you might still have some questions. Here are some answers to a few frequently asked questions about marketing budgets and the software that can help you manage them:
What are the biggest benefits of marketing budget software?
How do you create a marketing budget?
How do you develop a marketing strategy?
What KPIs should you track for your marketing strategy?
What other marketing software should you use?
Marketers Just Wanna Have Funds
Budgeting is one of the most essential tasks of a marketing leader. Yet, it’s not always easy to know where to begin or how to best allocate funds to enable your team. Using software to effectively plan, track, and distribute your marketing budget can help you make better use of the cash your team has, and demonstrate the ROI of their hard work. Try one of the tools on this list to manage your marketing budget!
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