How to Cut Marketing Campaigns Without Hurting Your Business

One of the hardest decisions marketers face is knowing when to pull the plug on a campaign. It’s stressful—what if cutting a campaign leads to a dip in revenue? What if it wasn't the campaign at fault, but something else? If you’re a marketer, executive, or business owner, these are the dilemmas you’ve likely wrestled with.

In this post, I’ll walk you through a practical framework to cut underperforming campaigns and strategies with confidence—without risking your brand or bottom line. You’ll also learn how to reallocate budgets effectively to fuel new opportunities.

Why Cutting Marketing Campaigns Is Hard

The fear of cutting a campaign often boils down to a few concerns:

1. What if revenue drops after I cut it?
   You may not see any measurable impact from the campaign right now, but what if eliminating it unexpectedly lowers revenue?
2. What if people think I'm a bad marketer?
   Marketing involves experimentation. Not every campaign will succeed, and facing judgment is just part of the game. The good news is you get the glory when things work—and when they don’t, you learn and pivot.

How to Know When It’s Time to Cut a Campaign

1. Identify Key Positive and Negative Signals

Start by understanding the signals—data points that show if a campaign is leading toward conversions or failing to create value.

• Positive signals: Indicators that prospects are moving smoothly through the sales funnel (e.g., demo requests, sales-qualified leads).
• Negative signals: Clear signs that a campaign isn’t working (e.g., leads from a particular campaign never convert).

If a campaign consistently triggers negative signals, it’s a strong candidate for being cut. Make sure you track these signals over time to get a full picture of what’s driving revenue.

2. Cut Incrementally, Not All at Once

Rather than slashing a strategy entirely, test small reductions first. Here’s how:

1. Select the campaigns generating the most negative signals.
2. Reduce their budgets in phases.
3. Measure the impact after each phase (allow enough time to see results).

If revenue holds steady or increases, you know those campaigns weren’t delivering meaningful returns. If revenue drops, you may need to investigate further—was the decline due to your budget cut, or was another factor at play, such as product issues or sales performance?

Top Campaigns B2B Companies Should Consider Cutting

We’ve found that these types of campaigns often perform poorly across B2B companies:

1. Branded Search Ads

Branded search ads rarely deliver enough value to justify the spend. If someone is actively searching for your company by name, they’ll likely click your organic result anyway. Paying for these clicks is often unnecessary, especially if your site ranks well in organic search.

Quick win: Cut branded search ads and see if revenue stays the same—most companies don’t notice a difference.

2. Large Investments in In-Person Events

Unless you’re hosting your own events with well-targeted audiences, participating in or sponsoring third-party events can drain your budget.

• When it works: If you're hosting an event with your existing clients or highly targeted prospects.
• When to cut: If you're exhibiting at events with minimal returns or targeting the wrong audience.

3. Non-Targeted Ads on Broad Platforms

Some platforms make it difficult to target the right audience. If your ads are showing up in random placements or irrelevant networks, it’s time to trim that spend.

Pro tip: Shift budget from poorly targeted platforms to channels that allow for precise targeting and audience segmentation.

How to Ease the Pain of Cutting Campaigns

Feeling nervous about slashing a portion of your marketing budget? Here are a few ways to make the process easier:

1. Experiment with Similar Channels

Instead of eliminating a campaign entirely, reallocate some budget to similar experiments. For example, if you cut branded search ads, test a different paid search strategy or explore another ad platform to reach your audience.

2. Reallocate Budget into Smaller, Hyper-Targeted Experiments

When you cut budget from underperforming campaigns, use a fraction of that savings to run highly specific experiments. The more precisely you can target your ideal customer profile (ICP), the faster you’ll see whether an experiment works.

For example:

• If you save 10% of your marketing budget, reinvest 2% into small experiments.
• Use the remaining 8% as a safety net or scale up the experiment that shows promising results.

Final Thoughts: Focus on What Works and Double Down

To maximize marketing ROI, you need to identify the signals that matter and align campaigns around those positive signals. This requires slicing your data in multiple ways—by account, contact, channel, and messaging—to understand what’s truly driving conversions.

Once you find what works, double down on it. Take what you learn from your experiments and apply those insights to the rest of your strategy. With this approach, you’ll not only save budget but also unlock new growth opportunities along the way.

Key Takeaways

• Track positive and negative signals to know which campaigns are effective.
• Cut incrementally and measure the impact before making larger changes.
• Focus on data-driven cuts, especially for branded search ads, non-targeted ads, and large event investments.
• Experiment with new channels using saved budget and reallocate funds strategically.
• Double down on strategies that show strong positive signals and fuel your business growth.

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