How much should a small business spend on marketing?

A common guideline is 5% to 10% of revenue, or 7% to 12% if you're growing aggressively or new to a market. Mature businesses with strong referral flow may spend 2% to 5%. A better method: decide how many new customers you need, estimate what it costs to win one from each channel, and budget from that. Include your time, tools, content production and ads, not just agency fees. Commit a budget for at least six months; marketing judged after one month usually gets cut before it works. McCrawAI helps owners think this through: we work out what a customer is worth to you first, and we also tell you when a smaller budget or DIY makes more sense.