In recent conversations with CMOs, I’ve heard several lament $5 million budgets. They think they need twice that, at least, to stand apart in hyper-speed digital media.

That’s a common misconception borne of news about top 100 advertisers. The fact is, $5 million is a normal budget within the middle market -- and a dream for many startups. The tragedy is that too many marketers make it like $2 million.

You need to double your impact, not your budget. Here’s how.

Eliminate fee bloat. Whether it’s agency retainers, consulting fees, or commissions, many brands are spending more than they should on intermediaries. If you have $5MM in fees, you can't allow agencies plus technology to handicap the buying power of that spend.

Free up media money by consolidating your partner roster and insist there is no principal media buying or markup to agency DSP rates.

If you are doing influencer marketing, mandate that there is no markup on influencers, which often hides the real profit influencer agencies take.

Right-size creative. You need to invest in creative with a sensible ratio. A $1 million shoot doesn’t suit a $5 million brand, but a $100-200K production budget might. Lighter crews devoted to filming an entire content campaign -- not just hero spots -- are the right model for most marketers.

Look for flexible labor models, heaps of assets (social, performance, video, etc.) and insist on enough content for iterative creative testing.

DIY technology. From programmatic platforms and CRM systems to analytics software, many brands end up paying for technology they can’t fully use or justify.

Instead of the $1 million Adobe suite or fancy, branded CDP you saw at a data conference, make your own CDP using Snowflake; you’ll own your destiny at a fraction of the cost. 

Limit (or at least test) brand search. I’ve seen brands devote almost 50% of spend to brand search without any testing to understand incrementality, or how shifting of dollars may grow the franchise.

It’s not about brand search being great or bad -- it's about not being able to afford sacred cows when you have a mid-market budget.

Prioritize incremental sales. Are you growing the pie or just re-slicing your piece? It’s common to fall into the trap of overspending on current customers, because lower-funnel demand media is easier to measure.

To find the right balance, conduct market mate tests to compare test and hold-out markets. Also compare different media mixes using software providers like Cassandra and Re-cast which make MMM affordable and accessible to the mid-market in ways it didn’t used to be.

The annals of marketing are full of brands that won big by outsmarting competitors they could never outspend. Dollar Shave Club started out with a much smaller budget than Gillette and other legacy competitors.

Clever digital advertising, accentuated by a now-famous viral video (“Our blades are f***ing great”), cut through the clutter to make the challenger a major player and prompt a $1 billion acquisition by Unilever. 

That old saying “necessity is the mother of invention” rings true with media budgets.

By refocusing the entire marketing allocation -- from channels and creative to data to just being more mindful of where your money could get trapped -- middle market brands can generate outsized business impact.

In the process, they can institute practices that will yield giant marketing when they grow. And say it with me, “my budget is enough!”