A step-by-step guide to the free Hynt Digital Budget Planner
- Josh Leigh
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Let’s be real: staring at a blank spreadsheet when you’re trying to plan a marketing budget can fill you with more questions than numbers in columns, especially when you’re balancing digital alongside 5 other marketing roles at a charity.
What’s the best use of my spend?
How can I convince my manager this is the right use of our money?
What sort of results can we expect?
This is where our Digital Budget Planner comes in. Grab it now and strap yourself in. This blog runs through how to actually use it, sheet-by-sheet, to map out your ad spend, calculate your expected ROI, and present a bulletproof case to your leadership team, whether you have £2,000 or £50,000 to make an impact with.
(bonus: you’ll also get access to our Hynt Index Digital Benchmarking for Lead Gen!)
The big picture: how the template works
When you open the spreadsheet, don't let all the demo numbers overwhelm you. The whole tool is designed around a simple concept: the marketing funnel.
Awareness > Upper Funnel > Views & Engagements Consideration > Middle Funnel > Email & Phone Leads Conversion > Lower/Bottom Funnel > Donations & Regular Gifts
You’re going to input a planned spend (or an imagined budget if you don’t have a campaign coming up) across different tabs, the Summary Sheet automatically pulls everything together. It gives you three magic numbers at the top:
Total spend: How much cash you’re putting in.
Total projected income: How much cash/donations you can expect back.
Overall ROI: Your return on investment ratio.
Here’s how to work through each tab:
Tab 1: Upper & Middle Funnel (Awareness & Engagement)
This tab is all about getting your charity in front of human eyes and building a warm audience.
Where to allocate: Focus primarily on Meta (Facebook & Instagram).
What to input: Enter a modest monthly figure under green month columns (e.g., £250/month).
What the sheet calculates: Based on a benchmark 30% engagement rate (or 50%+ for video content), it will instantly show you how many impressions and post engagements you’ll generate for the year.
Pro-tip 💡 Feeding the Meta algorithm with storytelling video content here isn't a luxury, it lowers your acquisition costs when you run conversion campaigns later down the funnel.
Tab 2: Middle Funnel (Email Lead Generation)
This is the bread-and-butter tab for small-to-medium charities. Instead of asking for money straight away, you’re investing to grow your email list.
Key inputs: Put in your planned monthly media spend (e.g., £500 to £1,000/month).
The levers you can tweak:
Click-Through Rate (CTR): Standard benchmark is set to 1.0%–1.25%.
Lead Form Conversion Rate: Standard benchmark is set around 35%–40%.
The result: The sheet calculates your Cost Per Lead (CPL), usually somewhere between £0.87 and £1.60. (check out your sector email lead gen benchmarks in the Hynt Index for extra confidence in what you might achieve)
The ROI magic: The sheet also lets you factor in the Immediate Donation Rate (typically 0.5% to 3% of new leads will donate right when they sign up). You'll see how those immediate gifts offset your ad spend, pushing your ROI closer to a cost-neutral 1.0!
Tab 3: Telephone Lead Generation
If you recruit monthly regular givers and have telemarketing capacity, this tab handles two-stage phone acquisition.
Input 1 (Ad Spend): Put in your Meta media budget to collect phone numbers (e.g., £5,000–£15,000 for a pilot campaign).
Input 2 (Telemarketing Agency Costs):
Enter your agency’s Cost Per Contact (UK industry average is around £6.50 per connected call).
Add any setup or scripting fees (e.g., £500).
Set your conversion rate (typically 6%–8%, or up to 10% if you’re offering a physical item like a badge or tote bag).
The result: The sheet calculates your total combined cost (media + phone agency) and tells you your final Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) per regular giver.
Tab 4: Direct Conversion – Regular Giving (RG)
Now we enter the lower funnel. Tab 4 models direct asks for monthly recurring gifts on social media or search.
A reality check: Direct regular-giver recruitment on cold social media audiences often carries eye-watering Costs Per Acquisition (CPAs)—frequently £200 to £400+ per donor unless you have massive scale and testing budgets.
The strategy: If you want to use Tab 4 effectively on a smaller budget, pair your ad spend with telemarketing:
Collect consented phone leads on Meta.
Have a phone agency call those warm leads (typically achieving 6%–8% conversion rates).
Note: If your total organisational budget is under £300k, keep this tab minimal and focus your energy on email list growth first!
Tab 5: Direct Conversion – Cash (Single Donations)
Tab 5 is dedicated to capturing single, one-off donations—typically driven by urgent appeals, seasonal campaigns (like Christmas), or targeted search intent.
Where it shines: Google Ads (capturing high-intent searchers) and warm-retargeting audiences on Meta (people who already know you).
What to watch: Cold cash conversion on Meta can be unpredictable. Use Tab 5 to model appeals sent to audiences built up in Tabs 2 and 3, where conversion rates will naturally be much higher.
Tab 6: Direct Conversion – SFR (Special Events & Community)
Tab 6 handles Supporter-Funded Events (SFR) - think challenge events, 10k runs, coffee mornings, or Facebook Giving Group challenges.
What to input: Your ad spend to drive event sign-ups, plus your estimated registration fees and average supporter fundraising targets.
The maths: This tab helps you calculate your true cost per participant against the average total amount a participant actually raises, ensuring your challenge events are genuinely profitable after marketing costs are deducted.
📋 Quick reference: Your step-by-step game plan
Start with Tab 2 & 3: If you have a modest test budget (say, £2,500–£5,000), plug your numbers into Awareness and Email Lead Gen first.
Fill in Tabs 4, 5, or 6 only if you have specific campaigns or telemarketing capacity ready to go.
Check Tab 1: Review your overall projected spend vs. return.
Adjust the levers: Tweak your target CTRs or CPLs slightly to see best-case and conservative scenarios.
Export & pitch: Take Tab 1 to your leadership team with complete confidence.
Need a review or help to deliver it?
If this has been helpful but you’re still feeling a bit overwhelmed, why not book a free 30 minute call with Josh? We can review what you’re looking at so far and help you find your next steps. Book a call>>
