The CFO’s playbook for marketing leaders: How to expand impact without expanding budgets 

“I’ve never implemented a cost cut and also served up a reduction in goals as a counter to that.”

That’s the financial reality marketing leaders face in 2025, according to Brandon Sullivan, CFO at 2X. Whether you’re a CMO defending your organization’s budget, a VP of Demand Gen justifying additional capacity, or a Director of Marketing Operations building the case for expanded partnerships, the challenge is identical: demonstrate how you’ll expand impact without proportional budget increases.

Amid economic uncertainty, marketing organizations face dual pressure: tightening budgets and unrelenting growth expectations. Pipeline targets remain. Brand impact still matters. Growth KPIs don’t pause just because your budget does. The question is: How will your team respond?

At every level, finance teams evaluate marketing investments based on return, flexibility, and strategic alignment. Brandon offers a candid CFO perspective on how finance evaluates marketing expansion requests, especially in a climate of heightened scrutiny on ROI.

Why CFOs prioritize measurable ROI over marketing metrics

CFOs aren’t asking how much your campaign cost. They’re asking what it returned. And if your team’s answers sound like “top of funnel exposure,” “share of voice,” or “hit our MQL targets,” you’ll struggle to justify expansion investments.

What gets questioned first when finance reviews marketing spend?

• Programs that can’t demonstrate measurable pipeline contribution
• Initiatives with long feedback loops and unclear ROI timelines
• Redundant tools or vendors without clear differentiation

“Hope-based” marketing isn’t defensible. CMOs must translate every initiative into measurable business outcomes, not just impressions and anecdotes. 

“There’s probably very little that is more important than how your customers and prospects and competitors and investors view you in the market,” says Brandon. “But metric attribution is probably foggy at best, especially with the short-term lens on a lot of that stuff.” 

How flexible marketing operating models reduce financial risk

Marketing is absorbing what Brandon calls “aggressive oscillation” due to post-pandemic growth, inflation pullbacks, and now cautious spending patterns.

In growth periods, marketing scales. In austerity, it faces the sharpest scrutiny.

That’s why marketing organizations need flexible, responsive operating models, not wishful thinking. Whether you’re making the case to expand an existing vendor partnership or justifying new internal headcount, flexibility is what finance values most. Think:

• Variable capacity models instead of fixed org charts
• Modular vendor relationships, including outsourced marketing services
• Agile budgeting that adjusts as strategy shifts

If your dollars are tied up in rigid contracts, fixed org charts, or non-refundable commitments, you’re stuck. And stuck doesn’t work in a volatile market.

For teams already using flexible operating models like subscription-based marketing services, the expansion conversation shifts from “Why should we invest in marketing?” to “Where can additional capacity create the most value?” That’s a fundamentally different (and more winnable) conversation.

What finance teams look for in marketing expansion proposals

To build credibility with finance, marketing leaders must deliver more than defense. CFOs want strategic thinking that demonstrates rigor, tradeoff analysis, and an understanding of business risk. This matters whether you report directly to the CFO or you’re building a proposal that will eventually reach them. The most effective proposals:

• Bring tiered scenarios: What gets cut at 10%, 20%, 30%? What’s the downstream impact? What happens if performance lags?
• Think in tradeoffs, not just totals: Don’t protect everything. Protect the things that move the business.
• Have a recovery plan: Because economic conditions shift. And when they do, the marketing organization that can scale fast wins.

5 questions every marketing expansion proposal must address

1. If we cut the budget by 20%, what goes first?
   Start from scratch with reduced resources. What would you rebuild and why? For expansion requests, this means proving you’ve already eliminated waste.
2. What’s the tradeoff if we choose this over that?
   Don’t just defend line items. Show the implications of your choices across pipeline, sales, and brand momentum.
3. How flexible is your spend portfolio?
   Know what’s fixed, what’s variable, and how quickly you can reallocate. Teams already using subscription-based resourcing models have built-in flexibility, so expansion doesn’t require new vendor onboarding or long-term commitments.
4. What’s the short-term and long-term ROI?
   Demonstrate impact across immediate KPIs and future growth potential. Reference existing performance when proposing expansion: “We’ve achieved X with current scope; additional capacity projects Y incremental return.”
5. How fast can you scale when conditions improve?
   Be ready to seize opportunity when the market shifts. For partnerships with proven workflows, expansion ramp time is measured in weeks, not quarters. 

Ready to build your expansion business case?

Our Growth Play workshop helps marketing leaders at all levels scenario-plan expansion decisions, align cross-functional stakeholders, and design proposals that pass financial scrutiny. Especially valuable for teams evaluating how to expand proven vendor partnerships without adding permanent overhead.

Watch the full CFO + CMO conversation 

Catch the full conversation between Brandon Sullivan, CMO Lisa Cole, and marketing transformation veteran Jennifer Ross, where they break down how CMOs should approach cost cuts, AI integration, and org design.