Opex if You Must

But there’s often a smarter way to fund strategic projects

Early in my career, a bit spotty, overconfident, and carrying a dog-eared copy of Guerrilla Marketing (4th edition; before growth hacking, after fax machines), I found myself in a meeting I probably shouldn’t have been, if it wasn’t for the generosity and mentorship of my then boss. 

The top dog asked;

“Is this CapEx-able?”

Everyone nodded, except me.

I had no clue what they were talking about.

I was a passenger in the meeting, of course, there to listen for the most part. But it stuck with me ever since (at least I remembered it and it became relevant). Because it was a lesson in the framing of spend, and how that can matter more than the spend itself.

So, why does this matter for marketers?

In a lot of small B2B orgs, including that of our clients, marketing teams end up owning spend conversations they were never trained for. Why? Well, there’s often no CFO. More like someone, somewhere, saying “can you get it in, under budget?”

But if the thing you’re buying is infrastructure, like a website that’ll inevitably last at least 3–5+ years and serve sales, marketing, product, and customer success, then trying to squeeze it into a quarterly campaign budget doesn’t just make life hard, it makes the project look like the wrong kind of spend.

Here’s the basic idea; (skip this if you’re already familiar)

• Opex (Operational Expenditure) = business-as-usual spend. Campaigns, tools, services. Paid social and the like.
  
• CapEx (Capital Expenditure) = longer-term investments. Things that last and build value over time.

You don’t buy a building with your stationery budget etc.  And you shouldn’t rebuild your entire website or marketing & sales infrastructure from the same pot you use for Google Ads.

What this looks like and means in the real world is stuff like this;

• Potential tax breaks; in some regions you can deduct more, sooner (e.g. UK’s Annual Investment Allowance, US Section 179, Australia’s temporary full expensing).
  
• Opens doors to incentives; similar to above, might make your company eligible for investment allowances or government schemes aimed at say, digital transformation.
  
• It looks better on paper; recording the investment as a business asset instead of a big hit to this year’s profit may look better on the balance sheet.
  
• Matching cost to value; the investment can be written off over the years e.g. over the time a website is actually generating leads or sales, rather than all at once.

Note: none of this is financial advice. We are not accountants. Speak with your qualified advisors.

And look, not every marketing expense can or should be magically transformed into capital expenditure; your Google Ads are OpEx as is your content creation. That conference you definitely don’t need to attend but really want to? OpEx.

But all too often if you frame foundational projects as capital investment you might just enjoy;

• A different pool of money.
• A different approval path.
• A different strategic weight.

You’re not gaming the system but you are using the right framing for the right kind of work.

One final thought

If you don’t have a CFO-type, ask whoever holds the spreadsheet. If they don’t know, that’s okay, figure it out together.

Just don’t let meaningful work get blocked by the wrong label and don’t let a five-year asset die in a one-year budget. Because sometimes, that [a label] all it takes to shift the answer from “not this year” to “of course.”