How small is this startup or small business? I've operated on equivalent budgets, and budgets for startups that are >$1m/month No right answer here, especially when you haven't given ANY information about the business, your goals, etc, etc, etc. Answer from Greedy-Gap-7822 on reddit.com
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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 - This includes the cost of marketing and sales efforts. You can calculate your CAC by dividing your total marketing and sales expenses by the number of new customers acquired. Understanding your CAC will help you determine how much you can afford to spend on marketing. Determining your startup’s marketing budget requires thoroughly understanding your company’s growth stage and the specific goals you aim to achieve.
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BDC
bdc.ca › home › articles and tools › marketing, sales and export › marketing › what is the average marketing budget for a small business?
What is an average marketing budget for a small business?
A 2019 BDC survey of more than 1,400 Canadian businesses found that Canadian small business marketing costs average just over $30,000 a year, while those with 20 to 49 employees spend twice that amount.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/entrepreneur › what’s typical marketing budget for startups and small businesses? i was offered 500€ - is that even realistic??
r/Entrepreneur on Reddit: What’s typical marketing budget for startups and small businesses? I was offered 500€ - is that even realistic??
August 12, 2024 -

What’s typical marketing budget for companies like small businesses and startups? - I was offered 500€ only for marketing like doesn’t sound even realistic

Hey everyone

I would like to hear more about budgeting on marketing in companies like in your business or company how do you budget in marketing?

I Start up wants work with me just 500 on marketing and it feels incredibly low for marketing but understandable that its just starting from stratch but still … this seems incredibly low to be, specially considering the costs associated with digital advertising, content creation and other marketing strategies specially that company wants work with models..

For those of you with experience in startups or in small or big businesses:

  • what’s the typical marketing budget you have seen in these settings?

  • have you ever worked in budgets this small? If so how did you make it work??

  • what are some creative , low- cost marketing strategies that could stretch this 500€ ?

Any advice or insights would be greatly appreciated! Or any advice

Thank you

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Taylorscherseo
taylorscherseo.com › blog › startup-marketing-budgets
Startup Marketing Budgets: How Much Should a Startup Spend on Marketing?
You can get people to sign up for a waitlist, but again, it will be expensive until you can start bringing in recurring revenue. Focus on product development first and then move to marketing once you have the right product-market fit and go-to-market strategy. As mentioned, 15-20% of total revenue ...
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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.
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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 - BDC: Marketing budget benchmark by the number of employees · In a 2019 survey of 1400 Canadian businesses, the Business Development Bank of Canada found that small business marketing costs average just over $30,000 annually.
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HubSpot
blog.hubspot.com › marketing › startup-marketing-budget
Startup Marketing Budget: How to Write an Incredible Budget
November 22, 2022 - So, how much of your gross revenue will you need? The average marketing budget for startups should be 11.2% of overall revenue. This percentage gives marketers enough resources to build brand awareness and start attracting leads.
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Stripe
stripe.com › resources › more › how-to-make-a-marketing-budget-for-your-startup
How to make a marketing budget for your startup | Stripe
April 22, 2024 - As a general rule, making $5 for every $1 you spend on marketing is considered a good ROI. Flexibility in strategy Digital marketing is constantly evolving. Startups need to be responsive to changes, which might mean shifting budget allocations ...
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
Research shows that startups should allocate 5 to 10 percent of their revenue to marketing. Yet, revenue can take a lot of work for a new business. So, when you’re just starting, how do you get the word about your products and services?
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SCORE
score.org › resource › article › how-create-a-marketing-budget-startups
How to Create a Marketing Budget for Startups | SCORE
Based on the key marketing channels below, the estimate for an initial marketing budget for a startup is $50 to $385 per month, plus a one-time cost for logo design.
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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 18, 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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Scratchdisk
scratchdisk.biz › post › marketing-startups-breaking-down-costs
Marketing for Startups 2025: Breaking Down the Costs | Scratchdisk Creative (SCr)
April 3, 2025 - A: Startups typically allocate 12-20% of gross revenue to marketing. Early-stage startups often need to invest at the higher end of this range (15-20%) to build brand awareness, while more established startups might reduce to 12-15% as they ...
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Volopa
volopa.com › home › marketing expenses budget for startups
Marketing expenses budget for startups - Volopa
August 7, 2024 - For an established business with historical data to draw on, calculating your marketing budget should be quite easy. Work out your customer acquisition cost (CAC), multiply by the number of customers you seek to acquire in the next year (based on your growth targets), divide by twelve to get a monthly budget. Easy. ... But if you’re a startup, you might not know what acquisition cost is for a new customer, and you might not know what forms of advertising are going to allow you to reach your growth goals. To find how much to spend on marketing, startups should use market research, but they might also want to use a rule of thumb.
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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 - Individual campaign costs: Variable costs associated with launching and executing campaigns.. The last of these three is the big variable. A big summer or holiday marketing push will mean a big spike in expenditure versus a quieter month. But the first two are likely to remain relatively stable throughout the year, especially when dealing with figures like wages for full-time staff. You just need to make sure that you keep on top of them. In a busy startup environment, that’s easier said than done…
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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 - While there is no set rule to establishing your marketing budget, founder and CEO of Elevate My Brand, Laurel Mintz, recommends that startups set their initial budget to 12 to 20 percent of gross or projected revenue.
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Angelfish-marketing
info.angelfish-marketing.com › blog › how-much-should-marketing-costs-be-for-my-startup
How much should marketing costs be for my startup?
As a startup, this will inevitably revolve around your financial situation and how much investment you have secured. For instance, if you need to reach a certain customer or user benchmark before qualifying for your next round of funding, then that should be your short-to-medium-term objective. While using more channels means higher marketing costs, it also means faster and more consistent results.
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Quora
quora.com › What-is-a-marketing-budget-for-a-small-startup
What is a marketing budget for a small startup? - Quora
Answer (1 of 20): Bob is definitely on the right track with what he said. I would go one further at least in your case - While I clearly don't know what you have done besides what you listed here, you are doing everything backwards and it could (not will) come back to bite you. First off, you d...
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uSERP
userp.io › organic-growth › startup-marketing-budget
Startup Marketing Budget: A Founder’s Perspective
October 17, 2025 - It helps with tracking business ... costs, and optimizing your ROI for better efficiency. However, marketing isn’t free. It requires time, money, and effort. You need a marketing budget to spend your marketing money wisely and effectively. So, how do you create a marketing budget for your startup? How do you decide how much to spend on ...
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Founderscpa
blog.founderscpa.com › how-should-you-calculate-your-startup-marketing-budget
How Should You Calculate Your Startup Marketing Budget?
June 13, 2024 - However, experts suggest marketing expenses average around 10-20% of your total projected revenue, and this is a significant amount that can help generate leads and establish brand awareness.
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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 - Divide expenses into these three categories to boost your startup capital and cut costs." It sounds simple, but having a clear line for necessary expenses helps ensure you only spend when appropriate. To be sure that you optimise your budget, it's always handy to have the help of smart tracking tools. That could be spend tracking software, but more importantly for marketers are the range of traffic, conversion, and lead monitoring tools available.