Most business owners ask us this in the first ten minutes of a call, so let us answer it the way we would answer a client.
The short answer: established businesses typically invest 5 to 10 percent of revenue in marketing. Businesses in growth mode, entering a new market or launching something new, often go to 12 percent or more. Below 5 percent, marketing usually cannot maintain your current position, let alone grow it.
Why a percentage and not a fixed amount
A fixed amount ignores your economics. A plumbing company earning 800 thousand a year and a restaurant earning 800 thousand a year have completely different margins, customer values and repeat rates. The percentage anchors marketing to what the business can actually sustain, and forces the more useful question: what is a customer worth to you?
If your average customer brings in 4,000 dollars over their lifetime, paying 200 dollars to acquire one is a bargain. If a customer is worth 40 dollars, that same 200 is a disaster. Until you know that number, every budget conversation is guesswork.
Where the money should go first
Order matters more than volume. Before spending a rupee or a dollar on ads, make sure the foundation converts: a Google Business Profile that looks alive, a website that loads fast and asks for the inquiry, reviews that reassure, and a brand that does not look interchangeable with the cheapest competitor. Ad money spent before that foundation exists mostly buys traffic that bounces.
The mistake we see most
Stop-start spending. Three months on, two months off. Marketing compounds, and pausing resets the compounding. A smaller budget running all year beats a big budget running in bursts, almost every time.
