What to stop funding in your 2027 B2B marketing plan: a stop list with tests
Stop funding programs that cannot show a link to qualified pipeline, that continue only because they are familiar, or that optimize a metric your buyers no longer move, such as MQL volume. In 2027 the usual candidates are lead-volume programs, events without account follow-up, unused martech, generic content and AI pilots that automate unclear processes. Test each one against pipeline evidence before cutting, and retire it in a way that keeps the data.
Key takeaways
- Forrester’s 2027 guidance asks B2B marketing leaders to decide what to stop funding entirely, not only what to add.
- Familiar, easy-to-measure and politically hard-to-end programs are the usual survivors that should not be.
- Ten stop candidates come up in most enterprise plans; each has a survival test.
- Stopping well means keeping the audience, data and learnings, not just cancelling the invoice.
- Write the stop list before the add list, and present both to finance together.
Why the stop list comes first in 2027
Forrester's budget planning guidance for 2027, published July 9, 2026, puts it plainly: leaders should decide "what to stop funding entirely", including "eliminating underperforming segments" and "stopping misaligned or premature AI initiatives". Its conclusion is that success will come from doing fewer things better.
In MarTech on August 14, 2026, Forrester's Mark Ogne went further. He warned that "not every familiar program deserves another year of investment" and named the activities that survive budget cycles without earning it: those kept because they are familiar, easy to measure or politically hard to end. He also noted that Forrester's Budget Planning Guide research found nearly nine in 10 B2B marketing decision-makers expected marketing investment to increase over the next 12 months. More money makes a stop list more important, not less.
Ten stop candidates and the test each must pass
These are the lines we most often see continue without evidence in enterprise B2B plans. None is wrong in principle. Each must pass its test to stay.
| Stop candidate | Why it survives | Test to keep funding it |
|---|---|---|
| MQL volume programs (content syndication, broad gated offers) | Easy to count and to hit targets with | Share of these leads that reach a qualified opportunity, by account, against other sources |
| Events without account follow-up | Visible, familiar, liked by sales | Target accounts met, meetings booked within 30 days, opportunities over one cycle |
| Sponsorships chosen by habit | Relationships with organizers | Overlap between the audience and your target account list |
| Unused martech seats and overlapping tools | Contracts auto-renew | Weekly active users and a workflow that would break without it |
| Generic top-of-funnel content | Traffic looks healthy | Visits from ICP accounts and assisted opportunities; presence in AI answers for target prompts |
| Broad display and programmatic without account lists | Cheap reach | Engagement lift on target accounts against a holdout |
| Branded search over-bidding | Looks efficient on last click | Incrementality test with a geography or time holdout |
| Segments that no longer fit the ICP | Legacy revenue | Win rate, deal size and retention against priority segments |
| AI pilots without an owner or process | Signal innovation | A documented process, an owner and a measured baseline before the pilot |
| Reports nobody acts on | Tradition | A decision made from the report in the last quarter |
For the AI line, the risk is specific. Ogne wrote that "more AI pilots can signal innovation while scaling unclear decision rights." We cover how to size and gate the line that replaces scattered pilots in our article on the AI agent experiment budget for 2027.
How to run the stop review
- List every program and recurring cost over a threshold your finance team agrees, with owner and 2026 spend.
- Attach the evidence available: qualified opportunities, pipeline influenced, target accounts engaged, or "none".
- Apply the test from the table above, or an equivalent you agree with sales and finance.
- Mark each line keep, reduce, stop or prove-by-date. Prove-by-date lines get one quarter and a named measure.
- For every stop, write what you keep: audiences, data, content assets and the reason, so the decision is reversible with evidence.
- Present the stop list and the add list in the same meeting, with the money moving from one to the other.
If you need the four tests behind each keep or stop call in more depth, our marketing spend audit before the 2027 budget covers pipeline link, incrementality, measurement quality and strategic role.
For a full rebuild instead of a review, see our zero-based marketing budget method.
Bring your 2027 target. In 30 minutes we map the pipeline gap, the first 90 days and what to fix before January.
Stopping without losing what you learned
- Export audiences and lists before cancelling platforms or campaigns.
- Keep tracking and UTMs in place for content you unpublish from promotion but leave live.
- Record the result and the reason in a decision log finance can read next year.
- Tell sales what is stopping and why, especially for events and sponsorships they valued.
- Set a review date for anything stopped for budget reasons rather than performance.
How to tell stakeholders
Stopping a program affects people: the event team, the agency, the sales leader who liked the sponsorship, the vendor who expects a renewal. Most resistance comes from surprise, not from the decision itself. Share the evidence and the test before the decision, not after.
For each stopped line, give owners three facts: what the evidence showed, what replaces the work and how the decision can be revisited. Programs stopped with a clear reason and a review date rarely come back without evidence; programs cut quietly often return in the next budget round under a new name.
Where the freed money should go
Forrester names four areas for 2027 investment: visibility in AI-driven buying environments, continuous market and competitive intelligence, AI-enabled marketing workflows and integration of brand and demand programs. In our work, the money released by a stop list most often funds three things: measurement that connects spend to pipeline, account-based programs for the accounts that carry the target, and AI search visibility for the questions those accounts ask.
The way you report also changes what survives. If the 2027 scorecard still rewards MQL volume, MQL programs will win the ranking every time. Our article on buying groups vs MQLs explains the measurement shift that keeps a stop list honest.
Our view
A good stop list is short, evidenced and agreed with sales and finance. It should feel uncomfortable in one or two places; if it does not, it probably protects the familiar programs Forrester warns about.
Our paid media and demand generation teams run this review with enterprise marketing teams before budgets lock.
If you want an outside view of your 2027 lines, talk to our team and bring the spend list.
Frequently asked questions
What should B2B marketers stop doing in 2027?
Stop funding programs that cannot show a link to qualified pipeline, that continue only because they are familiar or easy to measure, and AI pilots that automate unclear processes. Common candidates are MQL volume programs, events without account follow-up and unused martech.
How do we stop a program sales likes?
Show the evidence, offer a prove-by-date option with a measure sales agrees to, and explain what replaces it. Events and sponsorships are easier to stop when the money visibly moves to programs that serve the same accounts.
Should we stop content syndication?
Test it first. Measure the share of syndicated leads that reach a qualified opportunity, by account, against your other sources over one sales cycle. Keep it if it holds up; stop or narrow it if it does not.
Is it risky to stop brand programs?
Yes, if you judge them on in-quarter pipeline. Most buyers are out of market at any time, so brand and reach should be tested on account engagement and long-term pipeline rather than cut for lack of short-term leads.
How much budget should a stop review free up?
There is no standard figure. The goal is to fund the add list without asking for more, and to move money from lines with weak evidence to lines with strong evidence.
Sources
- Forrester: Budget Planning 2027, B2B Marketing Leaders Must Prioritize Focus For Resilience (July 9, 2026)
- MarTech: The 2027 CMO planning challenge is bigger than the budget (Mark Ogne, Forrester, August 14, 2026)
- Marketing Week: The 95:5 rule is the new 60:40 rule (Peter Weinberg and Jon Lombardo, LinkedIn B2B Institute)
We run enterprise B2B demand generation for teams in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and the United States.
