Matched-market tests
Run a channel in some districts or cities and not in similar ones, then compare enquiries and sales. The most practical test for TV, print, radio and BTL.
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Guide · Media planning
Splittingthe budget
TV, print, digital and BTL, funded by the job each one has to do. Who this is for: Owners deciding how to split a marketing budget across channels.
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/ 01 The short answer
How should you splita marketing budget?
There is no correct fixed split. Start from what marketing must achieve this year.
Then let your category, buying cycle, geography and sales channel decide which channels lead. Fund the lead channel properly first and keep a small test budget. Reallocate every quarter based on cost per enquiry and sales, not habit.
PromotEdge builds the budget from your numbers first, splits it across channels, and tests the split every month.
Published benchmarks, such as the share of budget a sector puts into digital, average very different companies. Their margins, distribution and competitors differ. They tell you what others did, not what will work for you. The better question is what job each channel has to do for your brand. Then ask how much it takes to do that job well.
An Indian company planning across TV, print, radio, outdoor, digital and BTL is usually choosing between building demand and capturing it. Mass media and broad video create demand; search, marketplaces and dealer programmes capture it. A plan that only captures existing demand eventually runs out of people to capture.
/ 02 The logic
Five factorsthat decide the split
| Factor | Questions to ask | How it shifts the mix |
|---|---|---|
| Objective | Are you launching, entering new regions, defending share or growing repeat purchase? | Launches and expansion need more reach (TV, print, outdoor, broad video). Defending share and repeat purchase lean on digital, CRM and trade programmes |
| Category | Is it an impulse buy, a considered purchase, a family decision or a B2B purchase? | Impulse and FMCG need reach and shelf visibility. Considered purchases need search, content and demos. B2B needs exhibitions, LinkedIn and sales support |
| Buying cycle | Do people buy in days, months or years, and who influences them? | Short cycles reward promotions and retail visibility; long cycles reward content, search, nurturing and relationship-led BTL |
| Geography | National, a few states, a few cities or a cluster of districts? | Concentrated geographies favour regional TV, local print, radio, outdoor and on-ground work. National footprints make national TV and digital more efficient |
| Sales channel | Do you sell through dealers and retailers, online, through a sales force or direct? | Dealer-led sales need trade and influencer programmes. Online sales need performance and marketplace budgets. Sales-force models need lead generation and sales material |
Two more questions refine the answer. How much can you afford to pay for a customer, given your margin? And how heavily do competitors spend in your regions?
/ 03 Channel roles
What each channelis good at
| Channel | Main job | How the budget behaves | Judge it on |
|---|---|---|---|
| TV (national and regional) | Fast reach, emotional impact, trust | High entry cost: production plus enough weight to be noticed. A thin TV plan is mostly wasted | Reach and frequency, branded search and sales by region |
| Newspapers and magazines | Credibility, launches, offers, local reach | Bought by edition, size and day, so it scales city by city | Response to offers, enquiries and branded search around release days |
| Radio | Frequency in one city at low cost | Low entry cost; works in bursts around offers and events | Calls, walk-ins and offer codes |
| Outdoor | Owning a city, a route or a dealer town | Bought site by site, usually by the month; quality varies by site | Site audits and photo proof, plus branded search and footfall nearby |
| Search and marketplaces | Capturing people who are already looking | Scales with existing demand; once you cover the relevant searches, extra money buys little | Cost per lead or sale, and lead quality |
| Social and online video | Reach, consideration and retargeting | Flexible and quick to adjust; creative wears out and needs refreshing | Cost per lead or sale for response; reach and completed views for awareness |
| SEO and content | Compounding visibility for what buyers search | Steady monthly investment; returns build over months | Organic enquiries, rankings for buying searches, AI-search citations |
| Activations and events | Trial, demonstration, lead capture | Cost grows with every town, day and crew | Contacts, trials, leads and cost per lead |
| Trade and dealer programmes | Recommendation at the counter, and stocking | A mix of schemes, materials and meets, often tied to sales volumes | Outlets stocking, counter share, sell-out |
| Rural BTL | Reach and trial beyond the cities | Vans, haats and walls; cost scales by cluster and season | Villages covered, demonstrations, leads and retailer stocking |
/ 04 Build and capture
Balance brand-building with demand capture
Budgets tend to drift towards whatever is easiest to measure, which in India is usually performance digital. It works, until the pool of people already searching for you runs dry.
The signs are familiar. Cost per lead rises as more money goes into the same performance campaigns, while branded searches stay flat. That usually means the plan needs more spend upstream. Put it in channels that make new people aware of the brand, rather than more of the same.
The best-known evidence on this balance comes from Les Binet and Peter Field's analysis of the IPA effectiveness databank. It was published as The Long and the Short of It (IPA, 2013). It is often summarised as roughly 60% brand-building to 40% short-term activation for consumer brands. The data comes mainly from UK campaigns. Treat it as a reminder to fund both, not as an Indian rule.
/ 05 Illustrative starting points, not benchmarks
Illustrative splitsby scenario
High, Medium and Low show relative emphasis within one plan. They are illustrative starting points, not benchmarks, and they are not shares of budget.
| Scenario | TV | Radio and outdoor | Digital | BTL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regional FMCG brand entering a new state | High (regional) | Low | Medium | Medium | High: sampling, retail visibility, retailer schemes |
| Real-estate project launch in one city | Low | High | High | High | Medium: site visits, kiosks, broker meets |
| Building-materials brand selling through dealers | Medium (regional) | Medium | Medium, in dealer towns | Medium | High: mason and contractor programmes, dealer branding |
| Two-wheeler or consumer-durable dealer network | Medium | Medium | Medium | High | High: test rides, melas, finance camps |
| B2B industrial or capital equipment | Low | Low to Medium (trade press) | Low | High: search, LinkedIn, content | High: exhibitions, demonstrations, plant visits |
| D2C or ecommerce brand | Low until it has scale | Low | Low | High: performance, marketplaces, creators | Low to Medium: sampling, pop-ups |
| Education institution in admission season | Low to Medium | High | Medium | High | Medium: school visits, counselling fairs |
Illustrative starting points, not benchmarks. Your objective, margins, competition and distribution should override any row here. Your own results should replace it within two quarters.
/ 06 Method
How to build the split,step by step
- 01
Work back from the number
Start with the target, such as orders or bookings. Use your own conversion rates to work out how many enquiries, visits or trials you need, region by region.
- 02
Ring-fence fixed costs
Production, agency fees, tools, tracking and research come off the top. Plans that forget them end up cutting media halfway through the year.
- 03
Fund the lead channel properly
Give the channel doing the main job enough to work. That means enough TV weight to be noticed, enough search budget to cover the main buying searches, enough BTL to cover the priority clusters.
- 04
Match capture to the demand you create
If you run mainline, budget search and social to catch the extra interest it produces, from the first day of the flight.
- 05
Add the conversion layer
Dealer programmes, retargeting, WhatsApp follow-up and activations turn interest into orders. They are often underfunded.
- 06
Keep a test budget
Set aside a small, fixed amount each quarter for a new channel, format or region, with a clear measure of success.
- 07
Phase by season
Weight spend towards your selling seasons. These include the festive months around Durga Puja and Diwali, wedding seasons, admission cycles, harvests for rural demand, and the post-monsoon building season for construction categories.
- 08
Agree each channel's measure in advance
Write down how each channel will be judged before money is spent, so reallocation is not argued after the fact.
/ 07 Reallocation
How to test and reallocateevery quarter
| When | What to review | Typical decision |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly | Digital cost per lead, search terms, creative performance, lead quality reported by sales | Shift money between campaigns and ads within a channel |
| Monthly | Cost per qualified lead and per order by source; BTL cost per lead by event; dealer feedback | Pause what is not working; scale the campaigns and towns that are |
| Quarterly | Cost per order by channel, branded search trend, sales in exposed versus comparison regions, share of voice | Move budget between channels and regions; retire or scale tests |
| Yearly | Brand awareness and consideration (if tracked), market share, the objective itself | Reset the objective and rebuild the split from the five factors |
/ 08 Testing
Ways to testbefore you move money
On-off flighting
Switch a channel on and off in planned bursts and watch what happens to enquiries, branded search and sales.
Platform lift studies
Google and Meta offer lift studies that compare exposed and held-out audiences. They suit cases where spend and conversion volumes are high enough to qualify.
Codes, numbers and QR
Unique offer codes, phone numbers, QR codes and landing pages for each channel, so every enquiry carries its source.
Branded search as a signal
Searches for your brand name rise when mass media works. Track them by region alongside your campaign calendar.
Marketing mix modelling
Statistical modelling of sales against spend, season and price. Useful once you have a few years of consistent weekly data.
/ 09 Avoid these
Common budgetingmistakes
| Mistake | What to do instead |
|---|---|
| Last year's split, plus a little | Rebuild from this year's objective and last year's results |
| A little of everything | Fund fewer channels properly, and add channels once the lead channel is working |
| Everything into performance digital | Fund some demand creation, and treat a rising cost per lead as a sign the pool is shrinking |
| Mainline with no digital capture | Run brand search and landing pages from the first day of every flight |
| BTL with no lead capture | Capture every contact digitally and track it through to an order |
| Cutting brand spend at the first dip | Check whether the dip is seasonal or competitive before cutting what builds future demand |
| Judging every channel on cost per lead | Judge each channel on the job it was given |
/ 10 Getting help
Building the split with a planner
A media and communication plan turns these factors into numbers. It sets budgets by channel, region and month, with the measure each channel will be judged on.
PromotEdge builds these plans as part of its strategy work and runs them across mainline, digital and BTL. If you are weighing ATL against BTL in particular, start with our guide to ATL, BTL and TTL marketing.
Our beliefWe can't do magic alone. The more involved you are, the faster you see results.
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Priyam GhoseContent CreatorStraight answers.
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There is no single right figure. It depends on your margins and growth stage, your category and your competition. A company launching or entering new regions usually spends a bigger share of revenue; one defending an established position spends less. Work out what your sales target needs in enquiries and reach, and cost that, instead of starting from a percentage.
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Enough to capture the demand that already exists and the demand your other channels create. Add whatever digital does as a lead channel in your category. For a D2C brand that may be most of the budget. For a dealer-led building-materials brand it may sit alongside larger trade and regional media budgets.
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For many categories, yes. This is most true for regional TV in the states where you sell. You need the distribution to turn reach into sales. It needs enough weight to be noticed and a plan to capture the searches and enquiries it produces.
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Usually with more weight on exhibitions, demonstrations and search. Also on LinkedIn, content and sales material, with little or no mass media. The exact split depends on how many buyers you have. It also depends on how long they take to decide and how much each customer is worth.
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Review digital weekly. Review campaigns and events monthly. Review the split between channels quarterly. Rebuild the whole split once a year from the objective. Moving money too often makes it hard to tell what is working, because no channel gets a fair run before the next change arrives.
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Compare regions that saw the campaign with similar regions that did not. Track branded search and direct enquiries around release dates. Use offer codes or dedicated phone numbers in the creative, so each call or visit can be traced back to the ad. None of these is perfect, but together they give a fair picture.
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Yes, and plan them explicitly. Set aside money for production, agency fees, tools and tracking first. Then split the media budget, so the plan does not have to cut media halfway through the year. Leaving these costs out is a common reason a plan that looked fine on paper runs short of money.