How Much Money Should You Spend on Your Marketing Budget (and Why You’re Probably Underestimating It)

How much money should you spend on marketing? If your answer is “whatever’s left after everything else,” your marketing budget needs a glow-up. Your marketing isn’t a nice-to-have add-on, it’s part of the engine that grows your business.

How much should you actually spend?

A strong rule of thumb is to invest 5–10% of your total revenue in marketing, depending on your stage and your ambitions.

• If you’re in startup or growth mode, aiming for around 10–20% of revenue makes sense because you’re buying visibility, trust, and momentum from scratch.

• If you’re a more established business, 5–10% usually keeps you visible, relevant, and competitive.

• If you’re launching a new offer or entering a new market, increasing your marketing budget for a period can help you gain traction faster.

If this already feels overwhelming, this is exactly where a 360° marketing partner can help you connect the dots between your numbers, your goals, and your strategy. 

Why your marketing budget matters (aka why “word of mouth” alone is not a strategy)

Yes, referrals and word of mouth are amazing. But relying only on them is like relying on the Danish summer: occasionally warm, mostly unpredictable.

A real marketing budget matters because:

• It creates consistent visibility, so people don’t just hear about you once and forget you.

• It builds trust over time, through repeated, coherent messages and a professional presence.

• It gives you data, so you can see what actually works instead of guessing and wasting resources.

When you underinvest in marketing, you’re not “saving money.” You’re just making it harder and slower for clients to find you. 

If you want to turn your marketing into an actual growth engine, you may need a team that “just gets” creative, full-funnel marketing from strategy to execution. 

How to allocate your marketing budget smartly

Once you’ve decided on your percentage, the next question is: where does the money actually go? Here’s a practical breakdown you can adapt.

30% – Digital ads

Think Google Ads, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), or LinkedIn, where your ideal clients already scroll. Use this budget to test offers, drive traffic to your site, and fill your funnel. If you don’t feel like babysitting campaigns, this is where paid ads & campaigns management becomes your best friend: from strategy to A/B testing and optimization, a specialist can make sure your money is well put to use. 

25% – Content and SEO

Blog posts, website copy, videos, and SEO optimization are the “quiet compound interest” of your marketing: they work in the background 24/7 and keep bringing people in long after you hit publish. 

If SEO still feels like a mystery, our SEO optimization services can step in to handle keyword research, on-page improvements, and content optimization so your site is actually findable. 

20% – Social media and collaborations

Organic social content, collaborations, and possibly influencers or brand partners in your niche all live here. You’re building familiarity and personality, this is where people get to know you, not just your logo. 

If you’re tired of guessing what to post, our content creation and social media management services can help create consistent, on-brand content that matches your tone and goals. 

15% – Email and CRM

Newsletters, lead magnets, and nurturing sequences belong in this slice. Your email list is one of the few assets you truly own, so treat it like the VIP area of your marketing.

If writing those emails feels like pulling teeth, our copywriting service can turn ideas into sequences that sound like you and sell for you. 

10% – Brand and assets

Visual identity, website improvements, sales pages, updated copy, and photography all fall into this last bucket. When your brand looks sharp and consistent, people assume your work is, too. This is where things like web design, brand identity, and strategic copywriting come together to make your business look as good as it actually is. 

An example of “How To”

Imagine a small service-based business turning over 1,000,000 DKK a year:

• They decide to invest 8% of revenue into marketing:  80,000 DKK per year, about 6,700 DKK per month.

• They use that to run always-on Google and Meta ads, publish one strong SEO-driven blog post per month, maintain an email list, and keep their brand presence consistent and professional.

• Over time, they see that their blog posts are pulling in leads steadily, while one ad channel is underperforming, so they shift spend toward what’s working.

That’s the point: they’re not just “spending on marketing.” They’re investing, testing, and adjusting. Making sure that their money is put where it actually needs.

Don’t just spend: measure and adjust

If you’re going to put real money into marketing, you also need to act like a CEO.

Track basic metrics, like:

• How many leads or inquiries you get per month

• Where those leads actually come from

• Roughly how much it costs to acquire a customer

• Which channels bring in the best clients, not just the most clicks

Then adjust your budget every quarter. If your LinkedIn ads are a black hole but your SEO content and email list are converting beautifully, move your money accordingly. 

If that kind of analysis makes your brain hurt, this is exactly the kind of thing you can hand over to a full-stack marketing agency that lives and breathes data, experiments, and optimisation. You can get all the benefits from just one click. 

The bottom line: invisibility is more expensive

You don’t need a giant corporate budget, but you do need a serious one. When you treat marketing like optional decoration, your results will look exactly like that: pretty in theory, fragile in reality.

Give your marketing a real number, decide where it goes, and commit to reviewing it regularly. If you want help turning those numbers into a clear plan and real campaigns, you can book a free consultation and let ELSCEDRES map out your next moves.