How Much Should You Spend On Marketing?

Although it’s cliché, there is no right answer, it depends. It depends on your industry, your business, and your revenue. But one thing is for sure, if you’re thinking of marketing as eating into your profits, you’re thinking about it the wrong way. Marketing is an investment to drive awareness and sales for your business. 

Most businesses use a percent of total revenue. If you’re looking for baselines, according to the US Small Business Administration, B2B companies spend roughly 6.3-6.9% of their total revenue on marketing.  B2C companies spend a bit more, product based companies spend roughly 9.6% and service companies spend about 11.8%. 

If you’re a newer company you might need to spend more to build brand awareness, and if you’re established you might spend less. But even if you’re established, it doesn’t mean you should stop marketing, you still need to attract new customers to continue to grow.