Sample result
Marketing Budget Builder for Restaurants
The owner asked this:"Between the two locations I sell 214 million a month and I do not know how much of that I can put into marketing. This month I paid for ads, photography and a Tuesday two-for-one, and I do not know which of the three gave me anything back."
① One visit's margin, channel by channel
A new guest is not worth the same through the three doors. Product cost comes from the menu's average food cost, 34%; what each channel charges comes from your own receipts and is assumed here until you confirm it.
| Channel | Check | Product (34%) | What the channel charges | Contribution margin | Yardstick per new guest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dining room | 48,000 COP | 16,320 COP | 1,200 COP (card fee, 2.5%) | 30,480 COP | 15,240 COP |
| Own delivery | 48,000 COP | 16,320 COP | 5,300 COP (packaging 1,800 + delivery 3,500) | 26,380 COP | 13,190 COP |
| Delivery platform | 48,000 COP | 16,320 COP | 13,800 COP (25% commission + packaging 1,800) | 17,880 COP | 8,940 COP |
The yardstick is half the contribution margin, not the whole of it: that way the first visit already leaves something and there is no waiting on a second one nobody has measured. Once the frequency log exists and says new guests come back, the yardstick can rise to the full margin. Not before.
What the table says. The same new guest is worth 30,480 COP through the dining room and 17,880 COP through the platform. Paying the dining-room yardstick —15,240 COP— for a guest who arrives through the platform leaves 2,640 COP on that visit, and that does not even cover washing the dishes. So this month's acquisition money points at the dining room and the platform stays in presence.
Illustrative figures built from the data you handed over. The platform commission, the packaging and the cost of your own delivery are assumptions: swap them for yours in one line and the whole table recalculates.
② The month's envelope, down to the peso
The marketing budget already existed: it lived inside expenses and nobody had added it up. Against the month's sales for both locations:
| Line | Money | Points of sales |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | 214,000,000 COP | 100% |
| Prime cost (34% product + 28% payroll) | 132,680,000 COP | 62% |
| Occupancy and expenses, marketing excluded | 59,100,000 COP | 27.6% |
| Today's marketing | 5,100,000 COP | 2.4% |
| Today's profit | 17,120,000 COP | 8% |
The 5,100,000 COP came from adding five lines that lived in five different places: paid social 900,000, photography and running the accounts 1,400,000, print and in-store material 280,000, comps for guests 630,000 (42 plates at 15,000 COP of product) and the Tuesday two-for-one 1,890,000 (125 giveaway plates at 15,120 COP of product each). The last two never left the bank and are 49% of the envelope.
That 2.4% was copied from no manual: it is what the business was already spending without anyone calling it a budget, and it works as a starting point, not as a target.
The envelope's ceiling is 5,100,000 COP for as long as profit stays where it is. The goal —from 8% to 14% in 12 months without raising menu prices— asks for 12,840,000 COP more profit every month, and every peso the envelope grows today comes out of exactly that. So the envelope does not grow by decision: it grows by half of whatever a line returns above its yardstick, and that sum is done on the first working day of the month.
③ The split by objective and its yardstick
The same 5,100,000 COP, split by what they buy and not by the channel where they get spent.
| Objective | Amount | Share of the envelope | What it buys | Yardstick per visit | Minimum visits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Presence | 1,680,000 COP | 33% | Photography, the platform listing, the printed menu and the accounts kept current | Hard cap: a third of the envelope | Not applicable |
| Repeat business | 1,920,000 COP | 38% | A WhatsApp redemption to whoever already came | 10,160 COP | 189 recovered visits |
| Acquisition | 1,500,000 COP | 29% | Paid social pointing at the dining room | 15,240 COP | 99 new visits |
The repeat-business yardstick is a third of the margin and not half: someone who already came does not need paying to discover the house, only to remember it. Presence promises no visits, so it is not asked for a number it cannot give; in exchange it carries a hard cap, and it fits under its own by 20,000 pesos.
If every line lands right on its yardstick, the envelope returns 3,678,240 COP of margin a month: 1,517,520 from acquisition and 3,840,720 from repeat business, less the 1,680,000 of presence. That is 28.6% of the 12,840,000 COP the goal asks for. The other two thirds do not come out of the envelope —they come out of prime cost and menu price—, and this assistant does not touch them.
One finding from the split. The Bandeja de la casa does not fit under a 32% food cost even at full price: 15,120 COP of product against a 42,000 COP menu price is 36%. It cannot carry the discount. The problem there is not the offer, it is the menu price.
The full example has 2 more part(s): you see them inside the library, with your account.