Marketing
Marketing Budget Calculator
Work out your annual and monthly marketing budget from revenue and a percent-of-revenue target, with presets from maintain to aggressive. Free, instant, no signup.
Enter your annual revenue and pick a percentage — 5–10% to maintain, 10–20% to grow.
All calculations happen in your browser. Nothing is stored.
✳ Free · No signup · Runs in your browser — we never store your numbers
Small business guide
What this tool helps you do
Use this free marketing budget calculator to turn "how much should I spend on marketing?" into an actual number. Enter your annual revenue and the percentage you want to commit, and it returns your annual and monthly marketing budget instantly.
The percent-of-revenue method is the standard because it scales with the business: established small businesses commonly commit 5–10% of revenue, while newer or growth-focused businesses push 10–20%. The right number depends on your goals and margins — the calculator makes it easy to test a few and see what they mean per month.
How to use this tool
- 1
Enter your annual revenue — last year's actual or this year's realistic projection.
- 2
Enter the percent of revenue to commit to marketing. As a starting point: 5–10% to maintain, 10–20% to grow.
- 3
Read the annual budget, then the monthly figure — the monthly number is the one you'll actually plan spend against.
- 4
Try two or three percentages to bracket a comfortable range before committing.
Formula
Annual marketing budget = annual revenue × percent ÷ 100. Monthly budget = annual budget ÷ 12.
- The convention uses revenue, not profit, as the base — that's how the common benchmarks are quoted.
- The percentage is a planning anchor, not a law; seasonal businesses may front-load the same annual budget unevenly.
- Marketing spend includes ads, tools, agencies or freelancers, content, and promotions — not just the ad bill.
- If cash is tight, start at the low end and raise the percentage only where measurement shows it's working.
Examples
Established local business
A landscaping company with steady revenue wants to defend its position.
Inputs
- Annual revenue: $250,000
- Percent for marketing: 8%
Result
$20,000 per year, or about $1,666.67 per month.
Eight percent keeps an established business visible without straining cash flow — enough for local ads, a maintained website, and seasonal promotions.
Newer business pushing growth
A one-year-old online shop wants to grow faster than word of mouth allows.
Inputs
- Annual revenue: $80,000
- Percent for marketing: 12%
Result
$9,600 per year, or $800 per month.
Twelve percent is an aggressive-but-sane commitment for a growth push. The discipline is spending the $800 every month on things you measure, not sporadically on things you don't.
Key terms
Percent-of-revenue method
Setting the marketing budget as a fixed share of revenue so spend scales with the size of the business.
Marketing spend
Everything it costs to attract customers: advertising, software and tools, agencies and freelancers, content production, and promotional discounts.
How to interpret the result
The percentage encodes your ambition
5–10% roughly maintains your current position; 10–20% buys growth at the cost of near-term profit. Pick the number that matches what you're trying to do this year, not a number that sounds respectable.
A budget is only half the system
Deciding to spend $800 a month means little without knowing what it returns. Pair the budget with per-channel measurement — the CAC Calculator tells you what each customer costs, and the ROAS Calculator whether each ad campaign pays for itself.
Common mistakes
- Budgeting off profit when the benchmarks are quoted against revenue, which makes the budget look artificially high.
- Setting an annual number and never breaking it into a monthly plan anyone follows.
- Counting only ads and forgetting tools, agencies, and content — then wondering why the "budget" always overruns.
- Copying another business's percentage without sharing its margins, goals, or industry.
- Cutting marketing to zero in a slow month, which usually makes the next month slower.
Frequently asked questions
Is this marketing budget calculator really free?+
Yes — free, no signup, no limits. Test as many revenue and percentage combinations as you like.
Do you store my data?+
No. The math runs entirely in your browser; nothing you enter is sent to a server or stored.
What percent of revenue should a small business spend on marketing?+
Common benchmarks: 5–10% for established businesses maintaining their position, 10–20% for newer or growth-focused businesses. Industry, margins, and goals move the number — start where cash allows and adjust with results.
Should the budget be based on revenue or profit?+
The standard benchmarks use revenue. If you prefer to plan from profit, do so deliberately — just don't compare a profit-based percentage against revenue-based benchmarks.
What counts as marketing spend?+
Ads, marketing software, agency and freelancer fees, content production, photography, promotional discounts, and sponsorships. If it exists to attract customers, it belongs in the budget.
How do I know whether the budget is working?+
Measure per channel: use the CAC Calculator to find your cost per new customer and the ROAS Calculator for ad campaigns. Raise spend where the numbers work; cut it where they don't.