We target no more than 15% of gross rev, but if your gross margins are healthy overspend for growth while it makes sense to do so Answer from Strategic_Finance_ on reddit.com
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BDC
bdc.ca › en › articles-tools › marketing-sales-export › marketing › what-average-marketing-budget-for-small-business
What is an average marketing budget for a small business?
In the simplest terms, your marketing budget should be a percentage of your revenue. A common rule of thumb is that B2B companies should spend between 2 and 5% of their revenue on marketing.
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HubSpot
blog.hubspot.com › marketing › marketing-budget-percentage
Marketing Budget: How Much Should Your Team Spend in 2025? [By Industry]
March 4, 2025 - I’ve found that for companies that prioritize digital ads, for instance, breaking down target spending by different types of online ads can be helpful. For example, the marketing budget below outlines target spending for Google Ads and Instagram Ads:
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Transcend Digital
transcenddigital.com › home › what is a good marketing budget for a startup?
What is a Good Marketing Budget for a Startup? - Transcend Digital
July 15, 2025 - During this stage, marketing budgets increase significantly, with companies dedicating 25%-50% of their budget on marketing efforts. For SaaS businesses, marketing and sales expenses should be from 80% to 120% of annual revenue.
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HubSpot
blog.hubspot.com › marketing › startup-marketing-budget
Startup Marketing Budget: How to Write an Incredible Budget
November 22, 2022 - Generally, startups should spend around 11% of their revenue on marketing. To identify your gross revenue, calculate your total number of sales/increases. If you don't have a gross revenue estimate yet, determine how much you are projecting ...
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/startups › how much do u spend each month on marketing?
r/startups on Reddit: How much do u spend each month on marketing?
October 16, 2023 -

Hi all, I’m looking to get some benchmarks around how much each startup spends on marketing.

TLDR; we decided to bootstrap and forgo the VC route a few months back so this means our numbers need to make sense. I’m in charge of sales and on average, we do approx $30k usd each month at 40% margins.

Right now, we spend approx $1k a month on google ads which is working but most of the revenue is also coming from existing customers who expanded their work with us.

We are not profitable at the moment but on track to do so. Our business is saas+service.

I see many business or startup spending 8-30k a month just on marketing. How do you decide the budget? Is it revenue-based?

Note that we are bootstrapping at the moment so growth at all cost is not possible since we won’t have VC money.

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Taylorscherseo
taylorscherseo.com › home › saas marketing › startup marketing budgets: how much should a startup spend on marketing?
Startup Marketing Budgets: How Much Should a Startup Spend on Marketing? - Taylor Scher Consulting, LLC
November 3, 2024 - As mentioned, 15-20% of total revenue will be the ideal starting range for your startup’s marketing budget. Where this budget goes will depend mostly on your marketing goals. There will be plenty of variables that will affect how much you’ll ...
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uSERP
userp.io › organic-growth › startup-marketing-budget
Startup Marketing Budget: A Founder’s Perspective
October 17, 2025 - While no two startups are the same, you can use the average marketing budget of around 9% of your yearly revenue as a starting point and optimize your marketing spending from there.
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Growth-division
growth-division.com › growth-marketing › how-much-startup-spend-marketing
How Much Should A Startup Budget for Marketing? | Growth Division
The 70:20:10 rule recommends allocating 70% of your marketing budget to proven tactics, 20% to innovation strategies, and 10% to experiments. There are a few variations of this ratio circulating, with a similar split of recommendations. It’s a good rule of thumb for larger businesses, but ...
Find elsewhere
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Foundersarm
foundersarm.com › blog › how-much-does-marketing-cost-for-a-startup
How Much Does Marketing Cost For A Startup? Managing Your Budget - Founders Arm | Virtual Growth Assistants for Hire
In short, marketing for startups can cost anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars per month, depending on the approach and how long it takes to achieve results. Startups should allocate 12 to 20 percent of their revenue to marketing. ...
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Mesh Payments
meshpayments.com › home › how to best manage your startup’s marketing budget
Manage Your Startup's Marketing Budget | Mesh
January 15, 2025 - Some sources suggest a minimum monthly spend of $5,000 for a startup wanting to have some form of visibility, although that does not take into account the size of the startup or the market it is operating in.
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Forbes
forbes.com › forbes homepage › small business › entrepreneurs
Council Post: How Much Should You Spend On Marketing
August 12, 2024 - A startup business should commit to a fixed number for their advertising spend as their revenue may be too low to utilize a percentage of sales as a gauge. For many small businesses, $1,000 per month is a reasonable minimum advertising spend. ...
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Rasmal
rasmal.com › home › how much should a startup spend on marketing?
How Much Should a Startup Spend on Marketing? - Rasmal
January 15, 2025 - This flexible approach helps adapt to market trends and shifts in customer behaviour, ensuring ongoing relevance and effectiveness. When determining how much a startup should spend on marketing, it’s vital to balance immediate needs with long-term goals. Adequate funding for each aspect of the marketing strategy ensures optimal growth and success.
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Spendesk
spendesk.com › blog › startup-marketing-budget
Startup marketing budget: How to allocate and manage your expenses | Spendesk
July 23, 2023 - Older companies (assuming you’ve established some level of market share) should commit 6-12%. Marketing agency WebStrategies puts the average at 11.4%, although it has B2C budgets considerably higher than for B2B businesses.
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Spendesk
spendesk.com › blog › marketing-budget-examples
5 excellent marketing budget examples to copy | Spendesk
March 19, 2024 - A company with moderate growth should be willing to scale its marketing budget upwards to keep up with the competition in the industry. Though the budget depends on the particular sector, 10%-15% of total revenue is usually a safe bet to spend ...
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Mailchimp
mailchimp.com › resources › marketing-budget-for-small-business
Making Every Dollar Count: Marketing Budget for Small Business | Mailchimp
B2B companies should allocate 2-5% of their total revenue towards marketing expenses. ... So what's the average marketing budget for small businesses? It depends on revenue. Many small businesses aim to spend 2% to 5% of their total revenue ...
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Baremetrics
baremetrics.com › academy › how-to-create-a-marketing-budget-for-your-startup
How to create a marketing budget for your startup - Baremetrics
May 3, 2024 - If, like most startups, you don’t have any revenue yet, plan on keeping your marketing expenditures to less than $1,000 per month and tie that spending to concrete, measurable deliverables.
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Sifted
sifted.eu › articles › b2b-software-startup-marketing
How much should a B2B SaaS startup spend on marketing? | Sifted
December 11, 2023 - “Startups are expected to grow fast and disrupt while lacking the brand visibility more established businesses have.” ... She estimates that a pre-Series B startup should anticipate spending between 15% and 20% of gross revenue on marketing.
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TBDC
tbdc.com › home › setting a marketing budget for your startup
Setting a Marketing Budget for Your Startup - TBDC
April 3, 2025 - CMO Survey: Marketing budget benchmark by type of business ... Service-based B2C companies spend 15% of their revenue on marketing, and their marketing budgets are 14.9% of their overall budgets
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Agilie
agilie.com › blog › how much money do startups need for digital marketing?
How Much Money Do Startups Need for Digital Marketing?
August 7, 2025 - ... companies around the world, ... been on the market for a while, its total budget for marketing should be from 5 to 15% of the profit value....
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Digitalfirst
digitalfirst.ai › blog › start-up-marketing-budget
One Year, $500 Monthly Start-Up Marketing Budget: How Would You Spend It?
You can market your business effectively with $500 per month If you know what you're doing and have clear goals of what you need.