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There is no single marketing-spend percentage that fits every small business. Build your budget from your goals, audience, cash position and expected costs, then track results and adjust. The result should be an operating plan—not just a number or a list of channels.
What belongs in a small-business marketing budget?
A marketing budget is the cost plan inside a broader marketing plan. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) says that plan should define your target market, competitive advantage, sales plan, goals and action plan, with a complete breakdown of costs. See the SBA’s marketing and sales guide.
Decide what you count as marketing before adding figures. Advertising is one part of marketing; other costs can include website production, creative work, agencies, software and labor. Intuit SMB MediaLabs’ 2025 survey asked respondents to exclude labor from their reported annual marketing and advertising budgets, illustrating why figures from different sources may not be directly comparable. Use one consistent accounting boundary for your own plan and avoid counting the same cost twice.
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List only activities you intend to carry out, and estimate their full costs for a clear period—monthly and annual totals are useful. Include relevant items such as:
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- Paid advertising and media placements
- Content, design, photography, video and other creative production
- Website creation, maintenance or other planned website work
- Agency and contractor fees, plus staff time if your budget includes labor
- Software subscriptions used for marketing or measurement
- Events, print materials, direct mail and other offline tactics
For each item, record whether the amount is a one-time setup cost or recurring expense. The SBA recommends breaking down costs and tracking actual spending after implementation.
How much should you budget?
Start with the amount the business can responsibly commit, then test it against the growth goal and the work required to reach it. A percentage of revenue can help you model a scenario, but it is not a universal answer: industry, business model, stage, objectives and resources all matter. The SBA says startups may use projected revenue as their base and recommends seeking industry-specific benchmarks.
A Google-hosted guide attributed to the SBA and SCORE gives a broad range of 2%–10% of sales, but its publication date is not established. Treat it as general historical guidance, not a current SBA prescription. Likewise, the SBA’s July 2019 article cites Web Strategies’ 2018 average of 7.9% of revenue; that is a dated, secondhand benchmark, not a current target. Read the SBA’s 2019 discussion of marketing spend.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsWhen a benchmark would help, look for data from your trade association or relevant industry publications, as the SBA suggests. Compare like with like: the figure may cover advertising alone or broader marketing, and may include or exclude labor. For a startup, using projected revenue can make a percentage-based scenario possible, but the projection itself should be realistic and compatible with available cash.
Read survey numbers in context
Intuit SMB MediaLabs’ 2025 Small Business Advertising Trends Report is based on an online survey of 1,006 business owners and marketing leaders conducted in March 2025. The businesses represented ranged from 0 to 100+ employees. Its figures describe that report’s sample or methodology—not what an individual firm should spend.
| Reported figure | What it means |
|---|---|
| $78,000 estimated average small-business advertising budget | The report’s estimate, not a recommended budget. Its national market estimate extrapolates from Census receipts for firms with less than $9.9 million in receipts using the survey’s reported marketing-spend midpoint and advertising share. The sample includes businesses up to 100+ employees, so this is not a target for a typical sole proprietor. |
| 37% average share of marketing budgets allocated to advertising | A survey average; respondents excluded labor when reporting annual marketing and advertising budgets. It is not a suggested split for every business. |
| 96% planned to advertise in 2025; 92% expected to maintain or increase advertising spend | Respondents’ stated plans and expectations for 2025, not proof of what any one business should do. |
| 75% said social media advertising was effective | Respondents’ reported perception, not a controlled comparison of channel return on investment. |
| 81% reported using marketing technology to check return on investment regularly | A survey finding about reported practice; it does not establish that a particular tool or method will suit your business. |
The report also found social media was the most commonly used and most often described as effective in its respondent group; search advertising and referrals were also common, while paid search was used by a minority. Those findings can prompt questions about your own audience, but they do not show that social media is best for every business. Read Intuit SMB MediaLabs’ 2025 report.
How to outline the budget
1. Record the business context
Write down your current stage, revenue outlook, margins or cash constraints, growth target, customer type and geography. Decide whether actual or projected revenue is the more useful base for planning. These assumptions explain why the budget is the size it is and make it easier to revisit when conditions change.
2. Define goals and audience
State what the spending needs to accomplish: reach prospective customers, generate inquiries, support sales, retain customers or increase awareness, for example. Name the people you need to reach and connect each planned expense to one or more goals. This keeps familiar channels from becoming a budget simply because they are familiar.
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3. Set the time period and itemize costs
Choose a period you can manage, such as a monthly operating budget with an annual total. For every activity, include an expected cost, frequency and whether it recurs. Keep marketing and advertising categories distinct if that helps your accounting, and use the same definitions when comparing planned costs with actual spending.
4. Test the total against your constraints
Use a revenue-based percentage only as a starting scenario. Check whether it can support the goals you set, fits cash and margin constraints, and reflects the business’s stage and industry. If the plan does not fit, revise the goals, timing, activities or total rather than treating a broad benchmark as a rule.
5. Choose channels for a reason
Compare possible activities by audience fit, role in the customer journey, full cost, time to learn, ability to measure, past performance and your capacity to execute. A mix can make sense when the methods reach your target customer in complementary ways; avoid concentrating everything in one tactic without a reason. If cash is tight, the SBA points to word of mouth, social marketing and community volunteering as examples of virtually free methods. “Free” media still takes time and effort, so account for that if your budget includes labor.
Reserve a modest amount for clearly defined experiments only if the business has room for them. Give each experiment a question to answer, a spending limit and a review date; it is a planning choice, not a benchmark. Do not assume there is a standard online/offline allocation: the balance depends on the business model and how customers shop.
6. Choose measures before spending
For each activity, record the goal, budget, owner, time window and outcome measure. The SBA suggests practical ways to identify sources, including asking customers how they heard about you, using unique codes for offline advertising and reviewing platform analytics where available. Select a measure that matches the goal: an awareness activity and a lead-generation activity do not necessarily have the same useful outcome.
Compare marketing and sales costs with revenue, but do not assume every effect can be attributed neatly. Word of mouth can be difficult to measure directly, and last-click attribution does not necessarily capture every influence on a purchase. Measurement helps guide decisions; it does not guarantee a positive return.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to review and adjust the budget
Schedule regular check-ins to compare planned and actual costs, activity results and business outcomes. The SBA advises tracking costs after implementation, comparing marketing and sales costs with generated revenue, and maintaining the marketing plan at least annually. The SBA guide explains its planning and review advice.
- Carry forward activities that are working for the intended goal.
- Improve or continue uncertain activities only when the next review can resolve a useful question.
- Stop ineffective spending when the evidence supports that decision.
- Revisit assumptions if the audience, cash position, goals or business conditions have changed.
A sales decline is not, by itself, proof that marketing should be cut. The SBA’s 2019 article warns that reducing marketing during a downturn can reinforce declining sales; that is contextual advice, not a promise that spending more will fix the problem. Review what the activity is doing, what it costs and what the business can sustain before changing the plan.
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