How much should I spend on marketing?
A one-minute answer, a plain-English fix, and one thing you can do today — pick how you'd like to take it in below.
For most small businesses starting out, you shouldn't spend a cent until the free basics are done (see Topic 08). Once they are, a common starting range is 3–8% of monthly revenue — but honestly, spend less than that and spend it slowly. Every dollar spent before the foundation is done is money out the window.
The marketing industry has convinced every small business they need to spend more. The truth is smaller and calmer: small businesses grow by getting the free things right, then adding a tiny bit of paid spend once they know what's actually working. Rushed spending is where budgets die.
A pilates studio owner rang me in tears. She'd spent $4,500 on a "marketing package" from a Facebook agency in three months. Not one new client. When we looked, her website had the wrong opening hours, no booking button, and Google didn't know she'd moved suburbs. The problem wasn't ad budget. She'd paid thousands to send strangers to a broken shop. The same money, spent on fixing the shop first, would have filled her classes twice over.
Free basics before paid spend — every time
Topic 08 is not optional. It's the wall your ad money bounces off if it isn't done. Finish the foundation before spending a cent.
Start tiny — $50 to $200 total
Not a monthly budget. A total experiment. Run it for two weeks. Watch what happens. This teaches you what works before you scale.
Only spend on what you can track
If you can't see whether it worked, don't do it. Google Ads and Meta Ads let you see clicks, calls, bookings. "Brand awareness" campaigns often don't. Skip them.
Never sign a 12-month agency contract too early
Not until you've spent a year building your foundation and testing tiny experiments yourself. Agencies are amplifiers, not saviours. Amplify a broken business and you break it faster.
The rule of thumb (once you're ready)
3–8% of monthly revenue is a common starting range for a small business that's past the foundation stage. Below 3% and you're probably not investing enough to grow. Above 8% and you're probably wasting money you could keep.
Add up what you've spent on marketing in the last 3 months — and be brutally honest about the results.
Every subscription, every ad, every agency invoice. Write them down. Next to each one, write the actual result you can point to. If you can't match a dollar to a result, circle it. Pause the circled ones next month. Redirect that money into the foundation instead.
- Free basics before paid spend — always.
- Start tiny ($50–$200 for 2 weeks) before scaling anything.
- Only spend on things you can measure.
- Don't sign long agency contracts until you know what's working.
You've got the foundation and you're spending sensibly. Business is steady. What comes next — how do you actually grow? Topic 10.
Topic 10 — I'm ready to grow — what now?