Short answer
- There's no universal right amount. Set it from your goals and what a customer is worth, then test.
- Split spending into one-time foundations (website, Google profile) and monthly growth (SEO, ads, social).
- Fund the foundation first. It makes every later dollar more effective.
- Commit to one channel for at least three months before judging it.
Three ways to set a budget
1. A share of revenue
Pick a percentage of yearly revenue and divide by 12. It's simple and keeps marketing in proportion to the business. The weakness is that it ignores your goals: a new business needs to be found, while an established one with a waiting list may need very little. Use it as a ceiling, not a target. My Marketing budget calculator does the maths.
2. Work back from a goal
Decide how many new customers you want, how many enquiries that takes, and what each enquiry tends to cost. A made-up example: you want 8 new customers a month, about 1 in 4 enquiries books, so you need 32 enquiries. If each costs around $20 through ads, that's roughly $640 a month in ad budget. This is the method I prefer, because it ties spending to results.
3. What you can afford to lose while testing
For a brand-new business with unpredictable revenue, start with an amount that won't hurt if the first test fails, learn from it, then scale what works.
Pay once vs pay monthly
A lot of wasted marketing money is monthly spending on things that should be one-off, or one-off spending on things that need upkeep.
| Usually one-time | Usually monthly |
|---|---|
| Website build | Ad budget and ad management |
| Google Business Profile setup | Local SEO and SEO |
| Logo and brand basics | Social media management |
| Review request kit | Email and SMS campaigns |
| A landing page for an offer | Website care and updates |
With my prices, the one-time foundation is a $397 website that includes Google profile setup, a review kit and ads account setup. Monthly services start at $149.
What different budgets can do
These are illustrations of what's realistic at each level, using my prices, not recommendations for your specific business.
| Monthly budget | What fits | What to skip |
|---|---|---|
| Under $150 | The one-time foundation, then your own Google posts and review requests | Paid ads, SEO retainers |
| $150 to $400 | Website care and Google activity ($149) or local SEO ($199) | Running ads on a tiny budget |
| $400 to $900 | Local SEO plus a first ads test (management + ad budget) | Spreading across many platforms |
| $900+ | Local SEO or SEO, steady ads, and email or social | Anything you can't measure |
How to tell if it's working
Pick the one number that matters for each channel and check it monthly:
- Website: calls, form fills and bookings, not just visits.
- Google profile and local SEO: calls, direction requests and website clicks from your profile.
- Ads: cost per lead or booking.
- Email and SMS: bookings or sales that follow each send.
Ask every new customer how they found you. It's free, and it often reveals that word of mouth and Google are doing more than you thought. If a channel can't show results after about three months of honest effort, move the money.
Five budget mistakes I see often
- Paying monthly for a website that's never updated. If nothing changes month to month, a one-time build is usually better value.
- Splitting a small budget across too many channels. $100 on each of five platforms rarely beats $500 on the one where your customers are.
- Forgetting the ad budget. A "$300 a month ads package" usually means $300 plus whatever you spend on the ads themselves.
- Stopping too soon. Pulling ads or SEO after two weeks wastes the learning you've paid for.
- Never asking customers where they came from. It's the cheapest data you'll ever get.
For how agency prices compare, see Marketing agency costs.