How to Justify Content Marketing to Your CFO
We talk about content like it's an expense. But we should be positioning it as an investment.
CFOs love paid marketing.
It's neat, predictable, and fits nicely in a spreadsheet.
Spend $10,000, get $30K back. It's clean math they can depend on.
Content, by contrast, is like Paid's misunderstood sibling. (The one who doesn't want to go to business school, dad. He just wants to make art.)
Organic and brand-focused content is messy, hard to measure, and it takes time to see returns.
Unpredictable? CFOs aren't crazy about that. So we have to justify our existence.
And that's where I think a lot of marketing leaders make a mistake.
Talk in Terms of Risk
I don’t imagine CFOs like surprise parties.
Their whole job revolves around making the unpredictable predictable.
So when you walk in asking to shift budget to content marketing, it’s like asking them to trade the certainty they love for some potential that might pay off later. Not an easy pitch.
The thing is, these conversations aren't about ROI at all. When CFOs ask about returns, they're really thinking about risk.
When your CFO says, "What's the ROI?" they really want to know:
"How certain are you about the projected returns?"
"How long before we see tangible results?"
"What happens if it doesn't work as planned?"
CFOs aren't against making more money. They're against not knowing when or if they'll make that money.
Content as Investment, Not Expense
If you walk into your CFO’s office talking about content as a cost center, you've already lost the battle.
But if you frame it as an asset that appreciates and pays dividends over time, you're speaking a language they understand.
Content you publish today might bring in just a handful of leads this quarter, but it keeps working for you month after month, year after year, with little additional investment.
Unlike paid media that stops paying back the moment you stop spending, content keeps bringing in traffic and leads long after you publish.
Okay. You get it. So how do you translate this into numbers?
Content Math
How do you make your creative, long-term content play fit nicely on a spreadsheet? Here are three ideas.
1. CAC-Based Measurement
If you sell a straightforward product with a quick sales cycle, this is your play.
Calculate how much it costs to acquire a customer through each channel and compare. And don’t forget to account for time.
While paid’s CAC stays relatively consistent month to month, content marketing's CAC starts high and drops over time as your content continues to work with minimal upkeep.
2. Pipeline Influence
Selling complex solutions or professional services? CAC probably isn't your metric.
Sales cycles drag on forever, and it’s nearly impossible to pinpoint what actually led to the sale.
So instead of CAC, track how your content influences qualified pipeline. For example, if you influenced $10M in pipeline from a $50K content budget, that’s a 200:1 return.
3. Intellectual Property
This one’s out of the box.
Think about when HubSpot acquired The Hustle and Semrush bought Backlinko. They invested millions in content libraries and an established audience.
Why? Because they valued those assets like other business investments—by calculating their ongoing returns. They looked at:
The cost to rebuild that audience through paid channels (often millions per year)
The predictable traffic that generates leads month after month
The established authority that would take years to build from scratch
So instead of treating content as a marketing expense, present it as capital with lasting value.
Track metrics that finance understands. Things like replacement cost (what you'd pay to recreate it today), traffic value (what you'd pay for equivalent paid traffic), and projected future returns.
Build Your Case to Finance
CFOs don’t hate content marketing. They hate uncertainty.
Show them how your content holds value over time.
Yes, the initial payback period for content is longer than paid. But once you build a decent library, the quarter-to-quarter performance becomes more predictable.
Plus, you don't need to make it an either/or proposition.
You could present a plan that starts heavier on paid (for predictable quick wins) and gradually shifts toward organic as content starts pulling its weight.
Worth Noting
Self-reported attribution is making a comeback. As cookies disappear, marketers are returning to simply asking customers "How did you hear about us?" to capture “dark” touchpoints. This combination of qualitative data with digital attribution provides a more complete picture of how content influences buying decisions.
B2B measurement is still a dumpster fire. Forrester reports that only 3% of B2B organizations consistently use data to inform decisions. If you can show your CFO meaningful metrics about your content program, you're already miles ahead of competitors who might as well be guessing.
Try This
Want to impress your CFO in just 30 minutes? Here's a dead-simple way to show the long-term value of just one piece of content:
1. Pick your star performer. Find one piece of content that's been live at least six months. Could be a blog post, guide, video, whatever.
2. Grab just two numbers.
How many monthly views is it getting? (use a three-month average)
What's the conversion rate?
3. Do some fifth-grade math.
Monthly visits × conversion rate × average deal size = What it makes you each month
That monthly number × 24 months = What it'll make you over two years (and that's being conservative)
That's it. No attribution models. No spreadsheets. Just a simple calculation that proves a single piece of content keeps paying you back long after you've paid to create it. Even your most skeptical finance leader will get it.
Napkin Notes
Mary Keough says that two things set great marketers from the pack: Focus and intention. Most teams are drowning in tactics—trade shows, webinars, paid ads, content—but rarely ask if it's actually working. Worth a read.
I recently read about Morgan McBride, who runs a DIY home improvement site called Charleston Crafted. In March 2024, she posed for photos for a Google ad celebrating how the search giant helped her business grow. By the time the ad ran a month later, her traffic from Google had fallen more than 70%. She suspected people were getting renovation advice from AI answers at the top of the SERP instead.
I was on a podcast. Check out the latest episode of Demand-Geniuses.