The forgotten CFO: The same £100k marketing plan approved one quarter and refused the next.
September 21, 2026
Part of our Forgotten CFO series, written for the finance leaders who have to make marketing numbers add up. And the marketing teams looking for quicker sign-off.
A marketing lead walks into a meeting asking for £100,000 for something genuinely good.
The logic works. The opportunity is real. In a different quarter, the answer might be yes in five minutes.
But cash is tight, a major stock payment is due and the business needs every pound back faster than usual. So the answer is no. To marketing, it feels like finance has moved the goalposts. But the problem is not necessarily the plan.
The same investment can be commercially right in one quarter and wrong in another.
That is because marketing budgets do not exist in isolation. They compete for cash with stock, people, infrastructure and everything else the business needs to fund.
Growth mode vs preservation mode
Most businesses move between two broad modes.
In growth mode, the priority is usually scale. The business may accept a longer payback period, invest ahead of demand and tolerate lower short-term contribution if there is confidence in the return.
In preservation mode, cash matters more. Payback windows shorten, hurdle rates rise and investments that looked sensible three months ago can suddenly become difficult to justify.
Neither mode is inherently better.
The problem comes when marketing is planning for one while finance is operating in the other.
The context marketing cannot always see
That context is often driven by things sitting outside the marketing dashboard:
Cash runway and working-capital headroom
A large stock deposit due before the inventory generates any revenue
VAT, tax or debt repayments
A seasonal build where cash goes out months before it comes back
Other investments competing for the same £100,000
Finance can see those pressures. Marketing can see the acquisition opportunity, expected CAC, revenue and ROAS. Both may be right, but they are answering different questions.
The useful commercial question is not simply “Will this marketing work?”
It is: “Is this the best use of £100,000 for the business right now, and how quickly do we get that cash back?”
*“Sometimes you can sense the mood in the changing room. If you cannot, ask what mode we're in.”
Karl Lloyd, fractional CFO*
Sometimes you can sense the mood in the changing room. If you cannot, ask what mode we're in.
Karl Lloyd, Fractional CFO
Ask before you pitch
Before building the business case, ask what mode the company is operating in. Because the answer should change the proposal.
In growth mode, lead with the size of the opportunity, the incremental contribution available and what additional investment could unlock.
In preservation mode, lead with the cash profile. How quickly does the money come back? What happens if CAC is 20% worse than planned? At what point do you stop spending? Can the £100,000 be released in stages rather than committed upfront?
That last point matters. Too many marketing proposals are framed as “approve £100k” when the better commercial structure is often “approve the first £20k, then release the next tranche if the economics hold.”
That creates a different conversation between finance and marketing. Instead of debating belief, you agree the hurdle rates and guardrails in advance.
For example:
Maximum CAC
Minimum contribution
Acceptable payback period
Spend level at which performance is reviewed
Clear conditions for scaling, holding or stopping
Finance should make the operating context explicit too. If the business needs cash back inside 60 days, tell marketing before they build a plan with a six-month payback. If the priority is aggressive growth, tell them they have permission to bring opportunities that require more investment.
The objective is not for finance to approve more marketing. It is for better capital-allocation decisions to get made faster. Because a £100,000 marketing investment should never be judged purely on whether the campaign is good. It should be judged against the economics, cash position and priorities of the whole business at that moment.
Send this to your finance and marketing teams before the next budget conversation.
At The Growth Foundation, we help founders, finance and growth teams make investment decisions around contribution, payback, cash and the commercial priorities of the business as a whole. If that is a conversation worth having, get in touch.