How Much Should You Spend on Marketing? Try Our Free Budget Calculator
You know your business needs marketing. Figuring out how much to spend can be the harder part.
Between social media, advertising, a website, and content creation, the options can add up quickly. You want a budget that supports your goals and makes sense for your business.
At The Jared Dalton Agency, we recommend starting with a revenue-based benchmark, then adjusting for your industry, growth goals, competition, and available resources. To help you take that first step, we’ve added a free Marketing Budget Calculator to our website.
Select Budget Calculator in our website menu to jump to the tool.
What percentage of revenue should go toward marketing?
There is no single percentage that works for every business.
For context, the 2026 CMO Survey’s Firm and Industry Breakout Report shows a mean marketing spend of 8.96% of company revenue among the 154 respondents who answered that question. Spending also varies across industries and customer types. Source: The CMO Survey, printed pages 124–125.
That figure describes surveyed companies. It isn’t a requirement for your business, and it doesn’t mean every small business should immediately commit roughly 9% of revenue to marketing.
Your budget should also reflect your profit margins, cash flow, current results, and capacity to serve new customers. A business focused on maintaining its customer base may need a different plan from one opening a new location or introducing a new service.
Start with what you want marketing to accomplish
Before choosing a dollar amount, get specific about the outcome you want.
Are you trying to generate more qualified inquiries, increase online sales, fill appointments, reach a new market, or stay connected with existing customers?
“Get more exposure” can be part of the goal, but it helps to connect that exposure to a business outcome. For example, a service business might focus on increasing qualified consultation requests. A retailer might focus on driving purchases of a particular product line.
We recommend planning the work around that goal, estimating its cost, and choosing a level of spending you can sustain while you measure results.
Include the full cost of marketing
A marketing budget can cover much more than paid ads. Depending on your plan, it may include:
Social media management and content creation
Photography, graphic design, and video production
Website improvements and search engine optimization
Digital advertising, radio, TV, and streaming placements
Email marketing and customer communication
Marketing software, agency services, and internal staff time
Account for these costs together. If you budget for advertising but leave out the creative work, landing page, or follow-up needed to support it, your plan may be incomplete.
Also separate one-time projects from ongoing expenses. A website build and a monthly advertising campaign have different costs and timelines.
Use our calculator to explore a planning range
Our Marketing Budget Calculator gives you an estimated monthly and annual range based on:
Your estimated annual gross revenue
Your industry
Your growth goal
The competitiveness of your market
Whether you’re launching a new business or major new product
For industries with small survey samples, the calculator asks about your customer type to establish the baseline.
It uses 2026 CMO Survey benchmarks alongside our stated planning assumptions. The growth, competition, and launch adjustments are calculator assumptions—not survey-prescribed percentages or a prediction of results.
For example, with $500,000 in annual revenue, “All industries / not sure,” a goal of maintaining current business, and typical competition, the calculator estimates $2,792–$4,667 per month, or $33,500–$56,000 per year.
This represents total marketing spending, including creative, advertising, services, and internal costs. It is a planning example, not an agency quote or a minimum required to work with us.
Try the free Marketing Budget Calculator, then compare the range with your actual expenses and goals.
Turn your budget into a focused plan
Once you have a starting range, choose the activities most closely connected to your goals. We recommend giving each expense a purpose and defining how you’ll evaluate it.
Track qualified leads, booked appointments, sales, and customer retention where relevant. Review those outcomes alongside your costs, rather than judging performance only by views or follower counts.
We also suggest setting review dates that fit the work. A paid campaign, a website project, and an SEO plan may need different timelines before you can fairly assess their progress.
At The Jared Dalton Agency, we help businesses connect their marketing goals with services such as social media management, website design, video production, and paid advertising. We can help you use your calculator results as the starting point for a conversation about priorities, scope, and budget.
Ready to plan your next step? Explore our Marketing Budget Calculator and book a free discovery call to talk through what makes sense for your business.
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