10 Questions Marketers Should Ask Their Finance Teams About Currency Fluctuations
If you’re a marketer working across multiple countries, you’ve probably seen a couple of things happen over the past week:
In some countries, your product or service just became more expensive
And, in some countries, the cost of marketing activities has increased
And this isn’t about tariffs, this is about how a sudden change in exchange rates can present both challenges and opportunities for global businesses.
On one hand, you may have customers (or potential customers) pulling back on spend or taking longer to sign contracts, which means your KPIs and targets are a little harder to hit, and you might see a drop in revenue.
And on the other hand, there might be opportunities where your product or service has just become cheaper in certain markets, and buying ad space, booking events or other marketing activities has also become more cost effective for you.
Here’s an example.
If you’re based in the US, UK or the EU and you sell into Australia, your products and services are now around 10% more expensive due to the Australian dollar dropping in value.
And whether or not it’s you or your customers who take the financial hit, depends on which currency you sell in. Especially in tech, there are a lot of businesses who still only sell in USD and not AUD.
Having worked through the dotcom bust, global financial crisis and the pandemic, there are a few things I picked up along the way about working globally during economic uncertainty.
One of the key learnings is that working with your finance team during challenging times is so important. They should be your best friend.
And you should be having proactive conversations with them, don’t wait until potential cuts in the marketing budget hit.
So here are 10 questions you should be asking your finance team this week (some of them you’ll probably already know).
What currencies do we charge customers in, and where are we taking a hit on exchange rates?
What’s our customer and revenue geographic split - and where are we most exposed?
Has our product or service become more expensive (or cheaper) for customers in key markets?
How are currency shifts affecting our CPL, CAC, Revenue and other KPIs in different regions?
Are we budgeting and reporting campaign spend in local currencies or home currency?
What marketing costs have we already committed to - and what’s still flexible?
Where should we be pulling back - and where should we double down based on margin and demand?
What regions or products are showing the strongest margins or lowest cost of acquisition right now?
What assumptions has Finance made about growth and pricing - and how can Marketing support or challenge those?
Do we have a plan for best-case and worst-case currency scenarios? What’s Marketing’s role in each?
Having the answer to those questions can help you adapt your marketing strategy and pivot quickly if needed. And I’m talking holistically - from pricing all the way through to promotion.
Marketing plays such an important role in navigating through challenging times. But we can’t do it alone.
Cross Functional collaboration is key across all areas of the business.
And the relationship between Marketing and Finance is so important right now.
And speaking from experience, it’s always easier to collaborate and work together.
Hi, I’m Debbie 👋
I help B2B businesses - especially those scaling up - build thoughtful, effective marketing strategies that set them up for long-term success.
With over 20 years of experience in global marketing, I focus on strategy, product marketing, AI search visibility, and supporting marketing teams to grow with confidence.
Follow me for practical marketing insights - including marketing through challenging times, and tag or share this post if you know someone who could use a bit of clarity and support with where to focus next.
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