The CFO Case for Brand Marketing: A Master Class

If you’ve ever sat across from a CFO trying to justify why brand matters, you know how tough that conversation can be. The numbers never feel clean. The ROI slides don’t land. And half the time you walk out feeling like you lost ground instead of making progress.

That’s why we kicked off a three-part series with Dale Harrison. Hosted by Matt Sciannella of Refine Labs, this first session goes deep on one of the hardest topics in modern B2B marketing: how to make the case for brand investment when the finance team is pressing for proof.

‍
The CFO Case for Brand Marketing: Why Measurement Has to Evolve in B2B

Marketers know the drill. Every time you advocate for brand marketing, the CFO pushes back:

• “It’s not trackable.”
• “It’s too early.”
• “We need ROI now.”
• “Everyone already knows us.”

These objections keep coming up. The real issue is not whether brand matters. The real issue is how we measure and justify it in terms that finance actually believes.

This post breaks down why brand marketing is essential in B2B, why traditional ROI math is broken, and how to frame the conversation in financial language.

Why brand is hard to justify in B2B

The biggest roadblock is measurement. In B2C, brand ROI is easier to connect because of short purchase cycles, larger audiences, and clearer attribution. In B2B, it gets messy.

Common objections:

• It’s not measurable. There’s no clear ROI tied to brand impressions.
• It’s too early. Leaders assume brand should wait until later stage growth.
• It’s wasteful. If you cannot show a trackable return, it looks like burning cash.
• It doesn’t influence decisions. The belief that B2B buyers make purely rational choices.

But here’s what the data shows:

• 85 percent of B2B buyers already have a “day one consideration set” before they ever enter the buying cycle (Gartner, BCG, 6sense).
• 90 percent of purchases come from that set.
• That means three out of four decisions are locked in before a buyer fills out a demo form.

Brand’s job is simple: make sure buyers know you exist before they enter the market.

Why ROI is the wrong conversation

CFOs do not care about “pipeline influenced” or “marketing sourced.” They care about incremental contribution margin which is the money left after you subtract:

• the cost of making the product
• the cost of selling it (sales and marketing)

Most marketers walk into the room with ROI math that does not hold up. For example:

• Naïve ROI calc (using LTV:CAC) → 12x
• Contribution margin ROI → 9x
• Incremental contribution margin ROI → 2.7x

If you are claiming 12x ROI, finance knows you are wrong. They know sales comp, delivery costs, and long purchase cycles matter. They laugh quietly at inflated ROI numbers because they do not reflect reality.

This credibility gap is why marketing loses budget battles.

‍

Brand vs. performance marketing

Marketers often pit brand and performance against each other. The truth is they work together but in different time horizons.

• Performance marketing targets the 5 percent of buyers in-market today. Its job is to trigger immediate action and move deals forward. Its impact expires after one sales cycle.
• Brand marketing reaches the 95 percent who are not ready yet. Its job is to build recallable memory structures so when they do enter the market, your brand is on the shortlist. Its impact compounds over months and years.

Brand does not take a long time to work. It works instantly for in-market buyers and keeps working for future buyers as long as memory associations last.

That is also why brand spend makes performance spend more efficient. If a buyer already knows you, your search ads, social posts, and retargeting convert faster and cheaper.

Example:
A biotech company ran billboards on key traffic routes into major research facilities. Within an hour of the billboard going live, branded search volume jumped 20 to 30 percent. The effect lasted for two to three months after the billboard came down.

That is brand memory in action. And performance benefited directly.

Brand is often more cost effective

Highly targeted performance ads cost up to ten times more per impression.

• Reddit and Meta CPMs: $3–7
• LinkedIn CPMs: $40–50+
• Niche app store ads: $400–500 CPM

If you are only optimizing for efficiency (cheap clicks, low wastage), you miss the bigger picture. The right lens is effective CPM to your ICP which means the cost to reach future buyers even if many impressions look “wasted” on paper.

Brand is usually the cheaper way to scale awareness across the right audience.

How to measure brand in modern B2B

Brand is measurable if you track the right signals:

1. Brand search volume: Are more people typing your name into Google?
2. Category search CTR: Do more people click on you in competitive SERPs?
3. Day one consideration set share: Are sales hearing “we knew about you already” earlier in the process?
4. Panel surveys: Ask ICP buyers if they recognize your brand. Track this over time.
5. Performance lift: Do your ads, emails, and outbound convert better when brand spend increases?

These metrics will not give you perfect ROI but they will give you defensible, finance-friendly proof points.

What marketers should tell the CFO

Brand is not about vague storytelling. It is a financial multiplier.

• It increases consideration rates.
• It improves win rates. Buyers close three times more often when you were in their initial set.
• It lowers CAC. Performance gets cheaper when buyers already know you.

The CFO case is simple:

Brand is the factory building. Sales is the assembly line. Performance is the quick trigger. Without the building, nothing runs.

Key takeaways

• Brand marketing creates durable memory structures. Without it, you are invisible to 75 percent of buyers before they are ready to purchase.
• ROI math is broken. Shift the conversation to incremental contribution margin, time lags, and cross-effects with performance.
• Brand and performance are not opposites. Brand compounds over time, while performance works in short bursts. Both are essential.
• Cheaper does not mean better. Optimize for effective CPM to your ICP, not just low wastage.
• Measurement is possible. Use search behavior, surveys, consideration set share, and performance lift to show impact.

Modern B2B marketing is not about choosing between brand and performance. It is about understanding how they compound and arming yourself with the right measurement language to win the CFO conversation.
‍

Want to learn more? We'll be back. Or checkout the full episode on our Youtube Channel here.
‍
----------
Refine Labs is the leading B2B demand generation agency that has helped over 300+ B2B companies accelerate revenue growth and improve marketing ROI with innovative marketing strategies.

Learn more at www.refinelabs.com. Connect with us on LinkedIn and YouTube.
Listen to our Podcast with weekly episodes Stacking Growth.