Marketing and spend
Why can't marketing show what its budget brings in?
By Doug Taylor and Jake Mayell, Co-Founders · Last reviewed 16 October 2026
Because every platform reports its own version of the sale, and none of them match what sales and finance see. The spend is planned in one place, the customer is recorded in another and the sale lands in a third. Until someone joins the three, nobody can say what the budget returned.
Spend you can't defend · 1 min
The problems in this area
Which of our marketing channels actually bring in customers?
Another report or dashboard won't tell you. The ad platform and the email tool both claim the same sale, and the order itself never makes it back to either.
Why do customers get the wrong message at the wrong time?
Because each message comes from a different tool that knows nothing about the others, and consent given in one system often isn't applied in the rest.
What the video says
The board asks what the marketing budget brought in. Every channel has its own figure, and together they add up to more sales than the business made.
Every platform is happily marking its own homework, and none of the reports agree with what sales and finance see.
Meanwhile customer messaging follows a fixed plan, instead of responding to clear customer signals.
Wasted spend and wasted messages have the same cause. The spend is planned in one place, the customer is recorded in another, and the sale lands in a third, with nobody joining the three.
When marketing, sales and finance work from the same customer and the same sale, the budget follows what really brings in customers, and every message has a reason to be sent.
So which is closer to your problem?