ServiceMOFU
Marketing strategy built on numbers, not slides
The short answer
Most marketing strategies are lists of channels with a budget next to each. A real strategy answers harder questions: what a customer is worth, what you can afford to pay for one, where the next rupee earns the most, and — just as important — what you're deliberately not going to do.
PMG builds strategy from unit economics upward, and hands it to people who will execute it — including us, if you want.
What a strategy engagement produces
- Unit economics model: LTV, affordable CAC and break-even ROAS
- Market and competitor analysis
- Customer segments and their buying journeys
- Channel mix with a defined role and KPI for each channel
- Budget allocation by funnel stage and quarter
- Messaging and creative direction
- Measurement plan and scorecard
- 90-day execution roadmap with owners and dates
The questions we answer
- How much should we spend? — derived from affordable CAC and payback tolerance
- Where? — channels ranked by role and marginal return
- On whom? — segments with the best economics
- Saying what? — positioning and proof that differentiate
- Measured how? — a scorecard everyone agrees on in advance
- What are we not doing? — explicit trade-offs, written down
How the engagement runs
- Discovery — interviews with leadership, sales and customers.
- Data audit — spend, results, tracking and unit economics.
- Strategy workshop — options, trade-offs and decisions.
- Plan — the written strategy, budget and roadmap.
- Handover or execution — to your team, to us, or split.
A worked example: from margin to media plan
A D2C brand sells at a ₹1,600 average order value with 58% gross margin. After shipping, payment fees and a 12% return rate, contribution per order before marketing is about ₹640. The founders want a 3-month payback on new customers, and data shows customers order 1.8 times in their first year. That makes an affordable first-order CAC of roughly ₹640–₹900 depending on how much repeat revenue they're willing to count. Every channel in the plan then gets a target derived from that number — and any channel that can't produce customers under it doesn't get scaled, however good its platform ROAS looks.
What does a marketing strategy include?
| Component | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| Market and customer | Who buys, why, and what alternatives do they consider? |
| Positioning | Why should they choose you — in a sentence a customer would say? |
| Unit economics | What is a customer worth, and what can you afford to pay? |
| Channel roles | Which channels create demand, which capture it, which retain customers? |
| Budget | How much, split by stage and channel, with a test budget |
| Targets and measurement | Which numbers define success, and how they're measured |
| Roadmap | What happens in the next 90 days, and who does it |
From margin to media plan: the calculation
- Contribution margin per order — price minus product cost, shipping, payment fees, returns.
- Break-even ROAS — 1 ÷ contribution margin %. A 40% margin means 2.5x.
- Affordable CAC — first-order contribution plus a share of expected repeat contribution.
- Target volume — customers needed to hit the revenue plan.
- Budget — target customers × affordable CAC, split by funnel stage.
- Channel allocation — based on each channel's expected cost per customer at that volume, and tested.
Run your numbers with the break-even ROAS calculator and the CAC:LTV calculator.
How should budget be split across the funnel?
There's no universal split — it depends on how much demand already exists for your category and brand:
| Situation | Demand creation (TOFU) | Consideration (MOFU) | Capture and conversion (BOFU) |
|---|---|---|---|
| New brand, new category | High | Medium | Low |
| Known category, new brand | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| Established brand with search demand | Lower | Medium | High |
Our article on the TOFU/MOFU/BOFU budget split explains how to adjust as results come in.
What does a strategy engagement cost?
Strategy is usually a fixed-fee project of a few weeks — research, workshops, economics modelling and a written plan — or part of an ongoing fractional CMO arrangement. The fee depends on the number of markets, products and stakeholders involved. Plus 18% GST. Clients who then hire us for execution start with a plan everyone has already agreed.
Signs your marketing needs a strategy reset
- Spend is rising faster than revenue
- Teams or agencies report conflicting numbers
- Nobody can say what a customer is worth
- Every channel "works" in its own report, but profit isn't growing
- The same tactics are repeated because nobody knows what else to try
- A new market, product or funding round changes the goals
Strategy needs by business stage
| Stage | Key strategic question |
|---|---|
| New brand | Which customers and channels should we start with? |
| Growth | How do we scale without destroying unit economics? |
| Plateau | What's limiting growth — product, price, channel or creative? |
| New market | How do we enter and what will it cost? |
A worked example: a strategy that cut the budget
A brand wanted to double ad spend. The strategy work showed its repeat rate was too low for its acquisition costs to pay back. The plan prioritised retention and pricing fixes first, then a staged increase in spend once payback improved — saving money that would otherwise have bought unprofitable customers.
Inside Marketing Strategy & 360° Consulting
5 specialist services under one accountable marketing strategy & 360° consulting team.
Why teams choose PMG for Marketing Strategy & 360° Consulting
- Measurement first. Unit economics and clean tracking come before any increase in spend.
- You own everything. Ad accounts, data and creative stay in your name; ad spend goes straight to the platforms.
- Senior hands on the account. The strategist you speak to is the person running it.
- Weekly transparency. Scorecard, change log and test board — every week.
- Short minimum terms. We keep clients with results, not contracts.
- India and international. One Mumbai team running campaigns across Indian cities and overseas markets, Mon–Sat, 7am–9pm IST.
Where we run Marketing Strategy & 360° Consulting
We manage Marketing Strategy & 360° Consulting for businesses across India — including Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad — and for companies in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Singapore and Germany. Campaigns are planned market by market, with language, currency, platform mix and privacy rules matched to each. See all Indian locations and international markets.
Free growth audit
Get a written audit for Marketing Strategy & 360° Consulting.
No sales call required. Tell us where to look; a strategist replies within working hours and sends the written audit within 72 hours.
- Tracking check
- Pixels, Conversions API, GA4 events and offline conversions — what is firing, what is double-counted, what is missing.
- Wasted spend
- Search terms, placements, audiences and overlap that cost money without producing qualified leads or sales.
- Conversion path
- Landing page speed, message match, form friction and follow-up time — where interested people drop off.
- 90-day priorities
- The three changes we would make first, with the metric each one should move.
Frequently asked questions
Do you only do strategy, or execution too?
Both. Some clients take the strategy in-house; many ask us to execute it.
How long does a strategy engagement take?
Three to six weeks, depending on how much data exists and how many stakeholders need input.
How often should strategy be revisited?
A full review annually, with a quarterly check against the scorecard.
How is marketing strategy different from a marketing plan?
Strategy sets the direction — who, why, how much and where. The plan is the schedule of activities that executes it. We deliver both, with the plan covering the first 90 days in detail.
Do you do strategy for startups?
Yes, including pre-launch and early-stage go-to-market work. See startup marketing and go-to-market strategy.
Can you work with our leadership team in workshops?
Yes — in person at our Mumbai office or yours, or remotely. Workshops cover customers, positioning, economics and priorities.
How detailed are the financial projections?
Detailed enough to set budgets and targets: contribution margin, CAC, payback and volume scenarios. We don't produce investor-grade financial models, but we'll align with yours.
What happens after the strategy is delivered?
You can execute in-house, with other partners or with us. We can also review progress quarterly.
Do you implement the strategy too?
Yes, if you want — many strategy clients move into ongoing management.
What do we receive at the end?
A written strategy with targets, channel mix, budgets, roadmap and measurement plan.
Is there a long contract?
No. Minimum terms are short, because we would rather keep clients with results than with contracts.
Will we own the ad accounts and data?
Yes. Everything runs in your own accounts with partner access for PMG, and you can see it all at any time.
What do you need from us to start?
Access to ad accounts and analytics, your margins and order values (or deal values), brand assets, and a decision-maker available for a weekly 30-minute call.
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