Marketing Budget Calculator

Common Questions

• How much should a small business spend on marketing?

  Most guidance lands between 5% and 20% of revenue. Two things move you inside that range: who you sell to, and how hard you are pushing for growth this year. Gartner's 2025 CMO Spend Survey put the average marketing budget at 7.7% of company revenue. On $500,000 in revenue that is about $38,500 a year, or roughly $3,200 a month. If you are trying to grow rather than hold, plan for the higher end. The calculator above works out your range from your own revenue instead of an average.

• What percent of revenue should go to marketing?

  Gartner's 2025 CMO Spend Survey found budgets averaging 7.7% of revenue across the companies it tracks. The CMO Survey, run out of Duke's Fuqua School, reported a wide spread by model — around 6.4% of revenue for B2B product companies and about 15.5% for B2C product companies in early 2025. Use those as the middle of your range, not as a target. Both surveys lean toward larger companies than most local businesses, which is why the bands above are wider than the published averages.

• Do B2B and B2C budgets differ?

  Yes, and the gap is large. The CMO Survey put B2C product companies near 15.5% of revenue in early 2025 against roughly 6.4% for B2B product companies — better than double. The reason is structural, not a failing on either side. Consumer businesses buy attention from a huge audience every month. B2B businesses chase a short list of buyers through a long sales cycle, where a salesperson's time does work that a consumer brand has to pay media for. Same goal, different bill.

• How much should a new business spend?

  A business with no revenue cannot budget as a percentage of revenue, so start from a different number: what it costs to win one customer, times how many you need. If you need 50 customers this year and a customer costs $200 to acquire, that is $10,000 before you have made a dollar. Expect the first year to run above the percentages here — you are paying to be known, not just to be chosen. Set a monthly figure you can fund for 12 months and hold it, rather than spending it all in month one.

• What should the budget include?

  Everything that brings customers in. Ad spend across every platform. Your website — building it, hosting it, and keeping it current. Content: photos, video, writing. The software you pay for monthly, like email and scheduling tools. Agency or freelancer fees. Print, signs, and local sponsorships if they work for you. Keep it separate from sales costs like commissions, and separate from overhead you would pay regardless. If your $3,000 a month quietly includes $900 of hosting and software, only $2,100 is actually buying reach.

• Is $2,000 a month enough?

  It depends on your revenue, not on the number itself. At $200,000 a year, $2,000 a month is 12% of revenue — a real growth budget for a B2C business. At $2 million, the same amount is 1.2%, which is close to invisible. Judged another way: $2,000 a month at a $200 cost per customer is 10 new customers, so ask whether 10 a month gets you where you want to go. Put your own revenue in above and compare it against the band.