Start with programme selection, not budget. Decide which award programmes are genuinely worth entering given your agency's positioning, client base, and the work you have produced. This shortlist drives everything else.
For each programme on your shortlist, estimate: the number of submissions you intend to make, the likely deadline stage (early vs. final), the entry format (single vs. campaign), and the member status that applies. Input these into the Awardy budget planner to generate an estimated total per programme.
Aggregate those totals into a master budget view, then add a production cost estimate (typically 20-30% of the entry fee total for case study and video production). That combined figure is your awards budget request.
Present it to leadership with a brief rationale: which programmes you have prioritised and why, what results you are targeting, and what a similar investment produced in previous years. A well-constructed budget request is far more likely to be approved than a vague line item.