About the Marketing Budget Calculator
This marketing budget calculator sets your annual marketing spend as a percentage of revenue, then splits it across channels — paid search and ads, social media, content and SEO, email, events and PR, with anything left over shown as “other”. You see the yearly and monthly figure for each channel, and how many new customers the budget can buy at your cost per acquisition.
Setting the budget as a share of revenue is the most common method for small and mid-size businesses because it scales with the company. A frequently quoted rule of thumb is about 5–10% of revenue for established businesses, with growth-stage companies and startups often spending considerably more to win market share.
Use it during annual planning, when pitching a budget to leadership, or when re-balancing channels after a quarter of results. If your allocations add up to more than 100%, they are scaled down proportionally so the total always equals the budget.
With the default inputs, the annual marketing budget is $160,000.00. Change any value above to recalculate instantly.
How to use the marketing budget calculator
- 1Enter annual revenue — last year’s actual or next year’s target.
- 2Choose the share of revenue to invest in marketing.
- 3Set a percentage for each channel; leave some unallocated for experiments.
- 4Enter your cost per acquired customer to see how many customers the plan buys.
- 5Use the monthly column to set spending limits in each ad platform.
Formula and method
The annual budget is revenue multiplied by the chosen percentage, and the monthly figure is one-twelfth of that. Each channel receives its percentage of the budget; any percentage not assigned becomes “other/unallocated”, a useful reserve for testing new channels. If the channel percentages add up to more than 100%, they are all scaled by 100 ÷ total.
Dividing the budget by your blended customer acquisition cost gives a rough count of new customers the plan can deliver, which is the easiest way to check that the budget and revenue goals are consistent.
- b%
- Marketing budget as a percentage of revenue
- CAC
- Average cost to acquire one customer
Worked examples
$2M business spending 8% of revenue
8% of $2 million is $160,000 a year, or $13,333 a month. Paid ads get 30% ($48,000), social and content 20% each ($32,000), email and events 10% each, leaving $16,000 (10%) unallocated. At a $200 CAC that buys about 800 customers.
Small business, 10% of $500k, no events
10% of $500,000 is $50,000. It is fully allocated: $20,000 paid, $15,000 social and $7,500 each to content and email. At $150 per customer that funds roughly 333 new customers.
Over-allocated plan gets scaled
The shares add up to 140%, so each is multiplied by 100 ÷ 140. Paid ads get 40 ÷ 140 of the $600,000 budget ($171,429) and content 20 ÷ 140 ($85,714). At $500 CAC the budget buys about 1,200 customers.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of revenue should go to marketing?+
A widely used rule of thumb is roughly 5–10% of revenue for established small and mid-size businesses. Companies launching products or chasing fast growth often spend 10–20% or more, while mature businesses in stable markets can spend less.
How should I split my marketing budget across channels?+
Put most of the budget into the channels with proven returns, measured by cost per acquisition or ROAS, and keep around 10–20% for testing new channels. Re-balance every quarter based on results.
Should the marketing budget include salaries?+
Conventions differ. Many small businesses count only external spend such as ads, tools, agencies and events; larger companies often include marketing staff. Be consistent when comparing against benchmarks.
How do I know if my budget is enough?+
Divide the budget by your customer acquisition cost to get the number of customers it can buy, then multiply by revenue per customer. If that falls short of your growth target, either the budget or the CAC has to change.
Results are estimates for educational purposes and are not financial advice. Rates, fees and terms vary — confirm with your lender or a licensed advisor before making decisions.