You Do You: Why the 60/40 Rule Doesn’t Work for Every Brand

Marketing is full of sacred cows. One of the most enduring? The 60/40 rule. You’ve probably heard it before: 60% of your marketing budget should go toward brand building, and 40% toward direct response or conversion-focused activity. The idea, backed by ‘research’ and widely accepted in marketing circles, suggests this is the optimal split for both long-term brand health and short-term results.

But here’s the thing: You’re not a case study. Your brand and business aren’t part of a textbook. Your living, breathing organisation has its own unique DNA — shaped by your category, people, products, culture, stage of growth, and yes, your budget.

So why would you follow someone else’s ratio?

The 60/40 rule was born out of very generalised research, especially in B2C verticals. It’s a reasonable starting point, but a terrible endpoint. Blindly following it assumes that all brands face the same challenges and have the same sales cycles, margins, and growth opportunities.

A SaaS startup trying to prove product-market fit doesn’t need to spend 60% of its lean budget on brand building. A beloved legacy brand losing market share to scrappy disruptors might need to lean hard into performance marketing just to compete. A challenger brand trying to punch above its weight needs to stand out and zig where the leaders zag.

In short, different brands need different blends.

 

What You Actually Need: Your Unique Sweet Spot

Forget the formula. The goal isn’t to find the “right” ratio — it’s to find your ratio.

Your unique sweet spot is the mix of brand and performance that drives:

• Awareness that actually converts
• Leads that fill not only your CRM but also your pipeline
• Revenue that fuels business growth, not just vanity metrics

That sweet spot also evolves over time. It flexes with your goals, maturity, and market conditions. It’s not static; it’s strategic.

 

Build Your Own Rulebook

So how do you find your mix? Start with questions, not rules:

• Where is your business now — and where do you need it to be in 12 months?
• Are you building category awareness or fighting for share of voice?
• How strong is your brand recognition, really?
• What’s the conversion rate from awareness to action?
• What can your team execute well and measure meaningfully?

Your answers will tell you what your real marketing mix should look like — not what someone else’s research suggests.

 

Growth Comes From Knowing Who You Are

If there’s one universal truth in marketing, it’s this: authenticity cuts through. That goes for your brand’s voice, customer experience, and, of course, your strategy. For us at J2X, it’s all about driving genuine digital results. We thrive on working with clients to deliver totally unique campaigns that solve business challenges across the major search, social, and tech platforms, even as they too continue to evolve.

The brands that win aren’t the ones who follow the rules. They’re the ones who know themselves and double down on what works for them.

So, the next time someone tells you to follow the 60/40 rule, remember:

You do you. Because no one else can.

 

FIND YOUR FORMULA

If you’d like to help in developing your own unique approach to reaching long and short term marketing goals, give us a call or drop us a line at stu@j2x.digital. We’d love to hear from you