CMOs often face a persuasion gap with CFOs when it comes to brand investments. Marketing teams talk about awareness and brand equity, while finance focuses on tangible returns. The result is a disconnect: 17% of CFOs think brand marketing is essentially “setting fire to their money,” and 10% refuse to invest in brand at all. Yet, a full 73% of CFOs are actually supportive or at least open-minded if marketers can demonstrate measurable impact. In other words, CFOs don’t oppose brand marketing – they oppose marketing without measurable returns.
The message for marketing leaders is clear: to win budget, you must prove, not promise. This post outlines how B2B SaaS CMOs can bridge the marketing-finance gap using data, ROI modeling, and finance-aligned metrics. We’ll cover the five things CFOs want to see in a brand plan (from revenue linkage to time-to-impact), benchmark data on current brand spend by company size, mini-case studies of brand investments that lowered customer acquisition cost (CAC), a simple framework to model brand ROI (e.g. using share-of-search as a leading indicator of pipeline), a CFO-ready checklist for your next brand budget proposal, and a roundup of tools to measure and benchmark brand success.
The goal: help you make the financial case that brand isn’t a “nice-to-have” – it’s a growth investment that can be tracked and justified in concrete terms.
02. What finance wants to see: 5 key requirements
When asking a CFO for brand budget, frame your case in the language of finance. Based on CFO surveys and expert insights, here are five key things finance leaders look for in a brand proposal:
Revenue linkage:CFOs fund initiatives tied directly to pipeline and revenue. It’s critical to draw a clear line from brand efforts to future sales. For example, show how increasing brand awareness or share-of-voice will translate into more inbound leads or higher win rates.
Even supportive CFOs demand evidence that brand marketing ultimately drives dollars. Use models or historical data to connect brand metrics (like brand recall or search volume) to pipeline growth. If you can demonstrate that a brand campaign will generate, say, a 10% lift in lead-to-deal conversion or a faster sales cycle, you’re speaking the CFO’s language (more revenue).
In short: explicitly tie brand investments to financial outcomes (pipeline, CAC, LTV) whenever possible.
Hard KPIs, not “soft” metrics: Finance executives are allergic to vague goals like “improve awareness” without numbers attached. They want hard KPIs and quantifiable targets. In your deck, specify how you will measure brand impact – e.g. brand awareness % in target market, share of search, direct traffic lift, NPS, etc. – and set targets for each. Commit to metrics that are tracked like any funnel metric, not just vanity stats.
Brand funnel metrics (awareness, consideration, preference) should be presented with the same rigor as performance KPIs. By defining concrete, time-bound KPIs (e.g. “increase branded search volume by 25% in H1” or “achieve 15% share-of-voice in industry publications”), you give the CFO something tangible to monitor. Hard numbers build credibility.
Competitive benchmarks: CFOs love context and benchmarks. Show how your brand stacks up against competitors – and how investment can close gaps or create an advantage. This can include competitor brand metrics (e.g. Competitor X has 2x our share-of-search or higher brand recall) and industry norms for spend.
For instance, if industry data shows most SaaS companies invest ~30% of marketing budget in brand, but you invest only 10%, that comparison can help argue that you’re under-investing relative to peers. Finance will appreciate a data-driven justification like, “Companies our size allocate ~31% to brand on average; we are at 15%, and it’s hurting our competitive visibility.”
Likewise, tracking your brand health vs. the competition is key – e.g. using brand tracking surveys or share-of-voice tools to show where you lag or lead. Highlighting competitor examples also reinforces the cost of missing out: “Our top competitor’s stronger brand is pulling in pipeline that could have been ours.”
In sum, use benchmarks to quantify the opportunity. CFOs find comfort in data that shows where you stand in the market.
Cost of inaction: Spell out the risks and costs if the company does not invest in brand. This “dark side” of the business case often resonates with finance.
For example, you might show that without brand spend, performance marketing is less effective – one study found conversion rates on performance ads were up to 2.86× higher with strong brand awareness support. Conversely, low brand awareness means you pay more for each lead (higher CAC) and face longer sales cycles. If you have internal data (or industry research) showing CAC is rising or pipeline is shrinking due to brand neglect, bring it forward. In fact, marketers who ignore brand health often see their pipeline shrinking – likely not a coincidence.
Make clear to the CFO: the status quo of minimal brand investment could be costing the company revenue. For instance, “our win rate against Competitor X is down because their brand is front-of-mind and we’re not” or “organic traffic is plateauing because our brand is not being searched.”
Frame brand spend as insurance against future decline: failing to invest could mean losing market share, paying a “brand tax” on every lead (via higher ad spend), or missing growth targets. Quantify these wherever possible (e.g. “if our CAC continues to rise 5% quarterly, that’s $Y million lost”). Highlighting the cost of inaction builds a sense of urgency in CFOs’ minds.
Time-to-impact (ROI timeline): Be upfront about when and how brand investments will pay off. CFOs have varying expectations depending on company size, but all want a timeline for returns. For smaller companies, the CFO may expect to see some impact in 3–6 months; mid-size firms might accept a 6–12 month horizon; larger enterprises may allow 12–24 months for brand ROI.
Acknowledge this and lay out a phased roadmap:
Quarter 1: launch brand campaign and establish baseline metrics; Quarter 2: early leading indicators (website traffic up, faster sales calls); Quarter 3: pipeline lift begins, etc.
Provide milestones and leading indicators for each phase so finance can monitor progress before the final ROI is realized.
Crucially, manage expectations – brand is a longer-term play than pure demand-gen, but with compounding returns. By setting a realistic timeline (and perhaps tying part of the budget ask to hitting interim goals), you show the CFO you’re approaching this investment responsibly. Also, emphasize any “quick wins” or short-term benefits (e.g. a burst of PR or community buzz that generates some immediate leads) alongside the long-term gains.
The bottom line: provide a clear time frame for ROI and ensure it aligns with your CFO’s tolerance. This builds trust that you have a plan to track the investment over time, not just spend and hope.
Show that you will track brand impact with rigor and tie it to business results from day one. Even the most numbers-driven CFO will listen when you present brand as a growth strategy with proof points rather than a nebulous spend.
What this tells us: smaller SaaS companies on average put slightly more of their budget into brand (34.5%) than larger firms (31%). However, the variability is huge. Among the smallest companies, some spend almost nothing on brand (5%) while others invest the majority of their marketing budget (up to 80%).
This often comes down to philosophy – a startup desperate for quick leads might funnel everything into performance marketing, whereas another might bet big on brand early to get noticed. By contrast, larger companies showed a narrower range (most falling between 15% and 50%). It’s rare for an enterprise to do zero brand marketing – but also rare to see one spending more than half of marketing on brand.
Another data point: brand measurement tools. According to our Wynter survey, most companies under 500 employees spend <$10k per year on brand measurement, whereas once a company exceeds 500 employees, spending under $10k becomes unusual.
In the 500+ employee tier, a $10–25k annual spend on brand tracking and research is the norm. (Only ~15-25% of companies of any size spend over $100k on brand measurement tools.) This suggests that as organizations grow, they invest more in measuring brand health – not just in doing brand marketing. Larger firms demand data on brand impact and are willing to pay for ongoing tracking.
For a CFO, these benchmarks serve as a reality check. If your budget proposal is out of line with peers, be ready to explain why. For example, if you’re a 200-person SaaS business proposing 40% of budget to brand while the average is ~31%, emphasize the strategic reasons (e.g. a new category creation, or a recent uptick in CPC costs making brand more cost-effective). Conversely, if you’re only investing 10% and peers do 30%, point out the risk of falling behind in share of voice. CFOs will appreciate that you’ve done your homework. As one CMO put it, “The better our brand, the greater market pull and less reliance on marketing push…Slack spends comparatively little [on ads] because it doesn’t need to.”In other words, a strong brand can yield marketing efficiency gains – less spend needed per acquisition – which is exactly what finance wants to hear.
04. Case studies: when brand investment reduces CAC
Nothing convinces a CFO like real examples. Let’s look at a few B2B SaaS companies that bet on brand building and saw tangible payoffs in growth and lower customer acquisition cost:
Slack – Viral Brand, Minimal Paid Spend:Slack (team collaboration software) is famous for achieving explosive growth with very little traditional marketing spend. Instead of big ad budgets, Slack focused on word-of-mouth and product-led brand. Users loved the product and told others, creating a viral loop. Slack’s website traffic has been largely direct or via user referrals, indicating strong organic brand pull. In fact, Slack historically “spends notoriously little on marketing and content,” leveraging its brand advocates to drive adoption.
This strategy paid off: Slack reached hundreds of millions in revenue with far lower sales/marketing expense than peers. By not having to buy every new user through ads or outbound sales, Slack’s CAC stayed low even as it scaled.
The takeaway: investing in product experience and brand love early on can create a self-sustaining engine of growth, dramatically reducing the need for paid acquisition.
Atlassian – brand & product led growth: Atlassian (maker of Jira, Confluence, etc.) provides another illustrative case. Atlassian famously went public with an unusual model: no traditional sales team, and a heavy reliance on inbound marketing and brand reputation among developers. As a result, Atlassian’s customer acquisition spend was a fraction of the SaaS industry norm. Whereas the median SaaS company spends 50–100% of annual revenue on sales and marketing, Atlassian spent only ~12-21% of revenue on customer acquisition in the years before and after its IPO. In other words, Atlassian acquired customers far more efficiently than competitors. How? By building a strong product that essentially “sold itself” via word-of-mouth (a brand known for quality and simplicity) and by fostering a loyal community of users. Atlassian’s low CAC and high margins were directly tied to its brand-driven, self-service go-to-market strategy. For CFOs, Atlassian is a proof point that brand equity and product advocacy can translate into huge marketing cost savings. A well-loved brand means each marketing dollar goes further.
Workbooks CRM – bold campaign drives pipeline: You don’t have to be a tech giant to see brand ROI; even mid-size SaaS companies are reaping rewards. Workbooks, a UK-based CRM software firm, launched a cheeky “No BS CRM” brand campaign that broke through a crowded market. The creative, distinctive campaign (with headlines like “Has your CRM hit the fan?”) dramatically boosted the company’s profile. The result? A +143% increase in sales pipeline value in the UK, and recognition as Marketing Week’s B2B Campaign of the Year. This happened in 2024, underscoring that even in the current environment, bold brand plays can yield immediate revenue impact. Importantly, Workbooks achieved this without outspending larger rivals; they outsmarted them with creativity. For a CFO, this case shows that a focused brand investment can deliver a direct spike in pipeline, improving the efficiency of the funnel (more opportunities for the same or lower acquisition spend). It’s a reminder that brand marketing can be a lever for near-term growth, not just long-term awareness.
HubSpot – inbound brand engine: One of the more famous examples is HubSpot, the SaaS company that popularized inbound marketing. HubSpot invested heavily in content creation, thought leadership, and educational resources to build its brand as the go-to for marketing advice. This inbound brand strategy yielded a massive amount of organic traffic and leads over the years, drastically lowering HubSpot’s paid CAC. While specific recent figures are internal, HubSpot’s approach demonstrates how brand content can fill the funnel with warm leads at a far lower cost than ads. By positioning itself as a trusted authority, HubSpot converts prospects that come pre-sold on its brand. The company’s growth to $1B+ revenue with healthy unit economics is often credited to its brand-driven inbound pipeline. For CFOs, HubSpot exemplifies how investing in brand-owned media and content can create an annuity of “free” leads, improving marketing ROI in the long run.
Each of these cases reinforces a theme: strong brand = lower CAC. When customers know you, trust you, and even love you, they come to you organically or convert with less persuasion. That means you spend less on acquiring them. Whether it’s Slack’s viral buzz, Atlassian’s community-driven growth, a creative campaign like Workbooks’, or HubSpot’s content machine – the common denominator is brand investment turning into financial upside. Use stories like these in conversations with your CFO to illustrate the point that brand isn’t a nebulous expense; it’s a strategy to improve marketing efficiency. As one CEO in our survey noted, “in the end, [brand is] an investment in efficiency” – the better the brand, the more “market pull” and the less you need to rely on brute-force marketing push.
05. Modeling brand ROI: from share-of-search to pipeline
To make brand investment more concrete, CMOs should present a simple ROI model that links brand metrics to financial outcomes. One effective approach is using Share of Search (SoS) as a leading indicator of demand. Share of Search is the proportion of online searches for your brand relative to competitors – essentially a proxy for mindshare or interest. Research has shown SoS often predicts market share: if your share of search rises, your sales tend to rise in the subsequent period.
For modeling purposes, you can posit that an increase in SoS will lead to a proportional increase in inbound leads or pipeline. For example, if your brand’s share of category search queries goes from 10% to 15%, you might model a similar ~5% uptick in pipeline contribution from organic channels (assuming search interest correlates with purchase intent).
There’s solid evidence behind this kind of relationship. In a 2023 analysis of B2B campaigns, 85% of creatively award-winning campaigns saw their share of search increase significantly, and many sustained that momentum for a year. More importantly, this translated to business results: one bold campaign (for Workbooks CRM, mentioned earlier) drove a 143% jump in pipeline by dramatically lifting the brand’s visibility and distinctiveness.
In broader studies, marketing scientists have reconfirmed what’s known as the 60/40 rule – roughly 60% of budget should go to longer-term brand building because it directly drives sales over time. According to Nielsen’s marketing mix modeling data, increasing upper-funnel brand awareness by just 1% leads to a 0.4% lift in short-term sales and a 0.6% lift in long-term sales. That gives you a rule of thumb for ROI calculations: e.g., for every point of brand awareness we gain, we expect ~0.5 points of revenue growth.
Put another way, you can present an equation:
Incremental Pipeline = f(Brand Lift).
For instance, if brand surveys or share-of-search data show a 10-point gain in awareness/interest, and past patterns or industry benchmarks say that yields, say, a 20% increase in consideration and a 5% increase in purchase intent – you can estimate the pipeline impact from those numbers. It won’t be exact, but it provides a data-driven rationale for ROI. CFOs know how to discount optimistic projections, but they’ll appreciate that you’re using concrete metrics and external benchmarks (like Nielsen’s 0.5% rule above) to forecast outcomes, rather than “trust us, this will help eventually.”
Another framework to model brand ROI is to track how brand improvements influence funnel conversion rates. Strong brand can make all your other marketing more effective – for example,. So your model could say: If we increase brand awareness from X to Y, we anticipate our SEM click-to-lead conversion will improve by Z%, and our win-rate by W%, resulting in $M more pipeline from the same spend. Finance teams can plug those assumptions into their spreadsheets and play with scenarios. The key is to demonstrate a logical cause-and-effect: brand investment drives specific measurable changes (search volume, web traffic, direct visits, conversion rates, etc.), which in turn drive revenue.
Finally, commit to measuring and iterating. For example, RevLifter’s VP of Marketing Dan Bond shared how his team measures the impact of a bold brand voice using share-of-search and share-of-earned-media as affordable proxies – then watches how those metrics move customer acquisition cost and pipeline velocity over time. If share-of-search is rising but CAC isn’t falling yet, that might mean the payoff is coming later (lagging indicator), or it could signal a need to tweak messaging to better convert the new interest. Either way, you’re monitoring real data. The takeaway for the CFO: we will treat brand like an investment with KPIs and course-correct as needed, just as we do with performance campaigns.
In summary, break down the black box of brand into a few trackable metrics and a rough quantitative model. Show the math of how brand feeds the funnel – even if it’s based on correlations and assumptions, it’s far better than shrugging and saying “we believe brand is good for business.” When you can articulate Brand ROI as Share-of-Voice ↑ -> Pipeline ↑ -> Revenue ↑, you turn an abstract concept into a business plan. And remember to bring third-party evidence to back your model (industry studies, past experiments, etc.), so the CFO sees it’s grounded in reality. As one of our Wynter Research reports put it, “when you can prove brand builds pipeline, the budget debate ends.”
06. CFO-aligned brand plan checklist
To ensure your next brand strategy presentation hits the mark, use this checklist of CFO-aligned elements. These are the must-haves in a brand plan deck or proposal that will resonate with finance leaders:
✔ Revenue linking
Clearly show how brand efforts will generate revenue or pipeline. For example, map out the flow: brand campaign → increased web traffic + higher lead-to-sale conversion → $X in pipeline. Include projections or case studies as proof. Don’t just talk awareness – talk dollars (even if estimated).
✔ Hard metrics & KPIs
Define exactly how you will measure brand impact. Set quantitative targets (brand awareness %, share-of-search, NPS lift, direct traffic growth, etc.). Establish baseline vs. target numbers and how often you’ll report them. No fuzzy metrics – ensure every claim has a number attached that can be tracked.
✔ Competitive benchmarks
Provide context by comparing to industry or competitor data. Show competitor brand metrics (if available) or cite how much peers invest in brand (percentage of budget). Highlight where competitors outrank you (e.g. higher share-of-voice or preference) and how your plan addresses that. This positions brand spend as a move to stay competitive, not a vanity project.
✔ Cost of not investing
Paint the picture of inaction’s consequences. Use data or scenarios to show what happens if brand is under-funded: e.g. “If we continue zero brand spend, our pipeline will grow only 5% instead of 15%, and CAC will keep rising”. Include any signs of brand weakness (declining direct traffic, lost deals, etc.) and the associated financial risk. Make the opportunity cost real – CFOs appreciate seeing the downside of status quo.
✔ Time-to-impact plan
Outline a timeline for ROI with milestones. For instance:
Q1: Baseline brand survey; Q2: +10% lift in branded searches; Q3: +5% in opps; Q4: Impact on revenue realized.
Be honest about lag time, but show interim checkpoints (leading indicators) to reassure the CFO that progress will be visible and will be managed. Align this timeline with CFO expectations (shorter for small firms, longer for large).
By covering these points, you’ll answer the key questions a CFO is likely to ask before they ask them. This checklist can serve as the outline of your proposal – even the section titles (“Revenue Impact,” “Metrics & Measurement Plan,” “Competitive Position,” etc.) speak in terms a finance chief cares about.
A final tip: use simple language and avoid marketing buzzwords. Phrases like “brand equity” or “mindshare” mean less to a CFO than “leading indicator of sales” or “customer acquisition efficiency.” In the words of one CFO, they are sick of marketing that “can’t speak the language of finance.” So, make your brand story financially coherent, backed by evidence, and focused on business outcomes. The checklist above ensures you cover those bases – increasing your chances of getting that budget approval
07. Tools & vendors to measure and maximize brand impact
To bolster your case and execute on a data-driven brand strategy, it helps to leverage the right tools. Here’s a list of relevant tools and vendors that support brand investment, measurement, and benchmarking for B2B SaaS:
Wynter – B2B Brand Tracking & Research: Wynter is an on-demand research platform that lets you survey your exact ICP (ideal customer profile) to measure brand awareness, preference, and messaging resonance. It’s purpose-built for B2B, providing statistically significant insights in ~48 hours. Wynter Brand Tracking can show, for example, how well your brand is known or how it’s perceived versus competitors – giving you hard numbers to take back to the CFO. Armed with this data, you can prove whether brand marketing is moving the needle (and Wynter’s reports make it easy to share progress with the whole team quarterly).
Qualtrics BrandXM (and Survey Tools): For a comprehensive brand health tracking program, survey platforms like Qualtrics BrandXM or SurveyMonkey Audience can be used to run recurring brand awareness and sentiment studies. These tools help quantify brand awareness%, consideration%, preference, NPS, etc. among your target market. Presenting regular brand health reports (with sample sizes of 100+ decision-makers, per best practices) will give CFOs confidence that brand is being monitored like a KPI. Some solutions even offer benchmarks by industry so you can compare your brand metrics to peers.
Google Trends & SEO tools: Google Trends is a free and effective way to gauge Share of Search for your brand versus others over time. By tracking if your brand’s search interest is rising, you have a proxy for awareness in the market. SEO tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs can provide more granular data on search volumes for your brand and category keywords. These help quantify the top-of-funnel demand that brand efforts are creating. You can correlate increases in branded search with campaigns or PR hits, which is a nice quantitative win to show finance (e.g. “brand campaign in July led to 40% spike in Google searches for our product”). Share-of-search has historically been a strong predictor of market share growth, so these metrics can be leading indicators for your pipeline.
Social listening & share of voice: Tools such as Brandwatch, Sprout Social, Meltwater or even social media native analytics can track your brand’s share of voice on social platforms and online media. They monitor mentions of your brand vs. competitors, sentiment of those mentions, and the reach of your earned media. For B2B, this can be particularly useful to measure PR and thought leadership impact – for instance, after a big webinar or report launch, did your share of conversation in the industry increase? These tools give data on how visible your brand is in channels that don’t directly show up as clicks or leads, filling in an important piece of the attribution puzzle for CFO conversations.
Web analytics & competitive intelligence: Don’t overlook standard analytics – Google Analytics (GA4) or alternatives can show growth in direct and organic traffic (often a byproduct of brand strength). An upward trend in direct traffic to your site is a classic sign that brand awareness is improving (more people are typing your URL or clicking saved bookmarks). Additionally, competitive web intelligence tools like Similarweb or Comscore can compare your website traffic and engagement against competitors’. If you can show that your traffic (especially organic) is growing faster than peers after a brand campaign, that’s compelling evidence of success. CFOs also appreciate seeing web traffic translated into pipeline via conversion rates – which you can pull from analytics (e.g. “our demo request volume rose 20% QoQ, largely due to increased branded visits following our rebrand”).
Attribution & mix modeling software: To truly connect brand to revenue in a rigorous way, consider advanced measurement like marketing mix modeling or multi-touch attribution tools. Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) platforms (e.g. Nielsen’s Compass, Analytic Partners, or newer SaaS like Recast) can quantify the contribution of upper-funnel marketing – including brand advertising, content, events – on sales over time. These require sufficient data, but they speak the CFO’s language by calculating ROI for each marketing channel (often showing that brand activities have a positive long-term ROI that might be missed by short-term attribution). On the multi-touch side, tools like Dreamdata or HockeyStack can attribute pipeline to earlier marketing touches. While attribution models have limitations (they often undervalue brand impressions that aren’t clicked), they at least provide a framework to include some brand touches (like first-touch website visits, view-through conversions from ads, etc.) in revenue credit. Using these tools can help you present a more holistic ROI picture. For example, you might show that although a lead’s “source” was organic search, the originating touch was a LinkedIn video ad viewed – indicating the brand ad played a role in eventual pipeline. Such insights can convert a skeptical CFO when they see that brand marketing isn’t “lost” but is influencing deals.
Brand benchmarks & indices: Finally, leverage third-party benchmarks or indexes that give your CFO external validation. For B2B, resources like Gartner or Forrester research, industry reports, or even something like the Brand Finance Global 500 (though mostly B2C) can underscore the value of brand. If Gartner says top-quartile B2B firms have significantly higher brand awareness or spend, that’s a reference point to bring up. Some industries also have brand ranking studies (e.g. in tech, the Fortune 500 or Glassdoor perceptions can be proxy). The goal is to show your finance team that brand is a recognized value driver and that your efforts can be benchmarked externally, not just measured in a vacuum.
Incorporating these tools into your strategy and reporting will make your life easier and your case stronger. They provide the data and dashboards to continuously monitor brand performance – which in turn lets you keep the CFO in the loop with credible updates. As the Wynter team notes, “if you’re spending real money on brand, tracking whether it’s working is a must – CFOs are ready to approve more budget if you can prove it’s working.”
Using the tools above, you’ll be equipped to prove it, track it, and optimize it. Brand will no longer be a black box, but a well-instrumented part of your growth machine – with you steering it by the numbers. And when finance sees that, you’ll have effectively sold brand to the CFO, with proof rather than promises.
