How Much Should I Spend on Marketing Each Month?

Most local service businesses should spend roughly 7–10% of gross revenue on marketing each month, and a bit more if you're new or trying to grow quickly. That's a starting point, not a rule. Here's how to turn it into a number that fits your business.

The Common Benchmarks

The U.S. Small Business Administration has long pointed small businesses toward spending around 7–8% of gross revenue on marketing and advertising. Many growth-minded owners go higher. Here's how that tends to break down:

These are guidelines, not promises. Your margins, your competition, and how much of your work comes from referrals all change the right answer.

Why Revenue Percentage Isn't the Whole Story

A percentage is a good sanity check, but it hides the real question: what does it cost you to get a customer, and what is that customer worth?

If a typical job brings in a few hundred dollars and a customer comes back or refers others, you can afford to spend more to win them. If your jobs are large, one extra customer a month can cover a lot of marketing.

A Simple Way to Set Your Budget

1. Know your average job value. Use the number you actually see, not the best month you've had.
2. Estimate how many new customers you want per month. Be realistic about your crew's capacity.
3. Work out what you can pay per customer. Many owners aim for acquisition costs well below the profit on the first job.
4. Multiply it out. New customers wanted × what you can pay per customer gives you a monthly budget.
5. Compare it to the revenue percentage. If the two numbers are far apart, revisit your assumptions.

What a Marketing Budget Actually Has to Cover

For local service businesses, a complete marketing setup usually includes four pieces:

• A website that converts visitors into calls and form fills
• Local SEO so you show up when people search for your service
• Google Business Profile management, including posts and reviews
• Google Ads for customers searching right now

Piecing these together from separate freelancers is where budgets leak. Each person bills separately, nobody owns the whole picture, and reporting is a mess.

The Hidden Cost of Doing It In-House

When owners ask what to spend, they often forget to compare the budget against the cost of one hire. A single marketing employee means salary, benefits, software, and training, and that one person still can't be a web developer, SEO specialist, ad manager, and content writer all at once.

A full marketing team for a fraction of the cost of hiring one is the whole idea behind how we work. Our published plans look like this:

Every plan starts with a free custom website build, so you're not paying up front for the foundation. Even the Complete plan costs less than one in-house hire, and you get a team instead of one set of hands.

Don't Forget Ad Spend

Management fees and ad spend are separate things. If you run Google Ads, the money paid to Google for clicks is on top of the plan. When you plan your monthly budget, count both so you aren't surprised.

Signs You Should Spend More

• Your phone is quiet in slow seasons and you want it steadier
• Competitors are showing up above you on Google Maps
• You're turning away zero jobs but your schedule has gaps
• You rely on one referral source and it's drying up

Signs You Might Be Spending Poorly

• You can't say which channel produced your last ten customers
• You pay several vendors who never talk to each other
• Your reports are about impressions, not calls and booked jobs

Tracking matters as much as the amount. A smaller budget with clear attribution beats a bigger one you can't measure.

The Bottom Line

Start with 7–10% of revenue as a reference, adjust for your growth goals and job value, and make sure every dollar can be traced to a lead. We work as a partner, not a vendor, so our incentives line up with yours: when your phone rings more, we've done our job.

If you'd like to talk through what a realistic monthly number looks like for your business, we're happy to walk through it with you.