Most B2B marketing teams still run their planning in spreadsheets.
Campaign calendars in one sheet. Budget calculations in another. Quarterly targets listed across columns. Add a few notes, drop in some static conversion rates, and you’ve got yourself a marketing plan.
It’s what we’ve always done. But it’s also what’s keeping marketing from operating like the strategic growth driver it should be.
The problem isn’t the spreadsheet itself.
The problem is how most marketing teams use it.
Same Tool, Different Mindset
Finance teams plan in spreadsheets too, but they do it very differently.
Finance Planning:
- Structured, formula-driven models
- Forecast scenarios and downside cases
- Linked assumptions and drivers
- Shared visibility across teams
Marketing Planning:
- Ad hoc tables and formats
- One static plan locked in
- Manual edits with suspect, rules-based logic
- Localized, often siloed
Where finance uses spreadsheets to model uncertainty and plan for what’s next, marketing often uses them to document decisions that have already been made using static assumptions that rarely hold.
It’s the difference between a living model and a planning graveyard.
Why This Breaks Modern B2B Marketing
Spreadsheets feel safe. But they fall apart in fast-moving B2B environments where plans need to adjust quickly and cross-functional alignment is critical.
Here’s how spreadsheet-based planning holds marketers back:
1. No Scenario Flexibility
Want to test what happens if you shift 20% of spend from events to paid search? You’ll need to manually edit formulas, assume relationships are linear, and pray assumptions truly hold. By the time you’re done, you’re less confident, and likely have another scenario coming your way to change things again.
2. Static Assumptions
Marketing plans are often built on static assumptions about capacity, constraints, conversion rates. That leads to misaligned plans as you ramp up and down inputs. On paper it looks like you’ll hit your number. But the minute diminishing returns, bottlenecks, and lags become reality, the forecasts are wrong.
3. No Real-Time Forecasting
Markets change. Budgets shift. Offers evolve. But spreadsheets rarely get updated fast enough to keep up and they don’t scale with the speed GTM teams now operate at.
4. No Visibility or Version Control
Marketing, sales, and finance are often working off different documents with different assumptions. You don’t just lose speed, you lose trust.
The Hidden Cost: Confidence
When marketing can’t adjust plans quickly, explain tradeoffs, or show how spend connects to outcomes, it becomes harder to justify the budget.
And when you’re forced to defend a spreadsheet while the CFO is forecasting risk-adjusted revenue in a dynamic model, you’re not just behind, you’re misaligned.
What Better Planning Looks Like
Modern planning doesn’t require fancy software. It requires a better approach.
Here’s what it looks like:
- Scenario Planning: Multiple “what if” options, not just one locked plan
- Dynamic assumptions: Assumptions change as the scenarios changes
- Fast Forecasts: Plans that adjust quickly when the world does
- Visibility: A single source of truth the whole GTM team can align around
It’s not about ditching spreadsheets entirely. It’s about leveling up how we use them or moving beyond them when they become a bottleneck.
How Align BI Helps
At Align BI, we help B2B marketing teams stop reacting and start modeling.
Our Media Mix Modeling platform allows CMOs to simulate budget changes, model revenue scenarios, and align with finance and sales on shared planning inputs.
The goal isn’t a prettier spreadsheet. It’s a smarter, faster, more confident marketing plan.
Final Thought
Spreadsheets got you started. And if you treat them more like finance does, by structuring them for forecasting, linking assumptions, and modeling scenarios, they can still get the job done.
But most marketing teams don’t have the time or tooling to turn Excel into a real planning engine. That’s where Media Mix Modeling and tools like Align BI come in.
They make structured planning faster, more dynamic, and far easier to align with sales and finance.
B2B marketing leaders deserve planning tools that match the complexity and speed of the world they operate in. And those tools start with the same mindset finance already uses:
Plan for scenarios. Model your tradeoffs. Build confidence, not chaos.