Keeping the budget hidden rarely makes a proposal more useful. It makes the agency design around an unknown.
A team may spend days developing an approach you cannot fund. Or recommend something modest when your ambition needs more investment. Both lead to another round of work.
Give a budget or a realistic range. Explain whether it includes agency fees, production, media, technology and taxes. Ask the agency to show the assumptions behind its recommendation and what different levels of investment would buy.
Be equally honest about timing. Is the launch date fixed by an event, or simply preferred? Who must supply content, approve claims or sign off the work before launch?
A tight deadline may require fewer deliverables or a phased launch. Discussing that early is usually easier than discovering it during production.
A good brief makes constraints visible so the agency can design a workable response. It cannot remove every surprise, but it can reduce the ones you could have anticipated.
