With the 2025/26 financial year just around the corner, some business owners and marketers will turn their attention to planning their marketing efforts for the year ahead. And what a joy that is. Wading through past expenditures, searching for price lists, or using finger-in-the-air science to pull some figures together.
Rather than focus on the strategic components of planning, which we’ve written about previously, this blog aims to help guide you through the fiscal elements of your marketing plan. Whether you’re staring at a blank spreadsheet or unsure how much marketing can cost, we’ll take you through everything you need to know to prioritise your marketing budget successfully.
First things first – know your numbers
You need to know your current numbers alongside your strategic marketing objectives (take over the world, grow sales by 40%, diversify into orange fake tan – that kind of stuff). Or at least you need to know how your current or historic marketing efforts have performed.
- Track and measure – wherever possible, ensure you are tracking and measuring the performance of your marketing activities. If you can see how each channel, campaign or ad is performing, then you need tracking in place to help validate that activity.
For example, if you can’t see how many sales social media campaigns or Google ads are generating, then act now to capture some data before the year is out.
- Current marketing expenditure – What are you currently spending?
Review how you’ve spent your marketing budget and break it down by channel, product/service and campaign.
- What is your return on investment (ROI) – Did it work? Overlay your expenditure with your measurements to see how each channel, campaign or activity performed. Being able to sort those things that performed and those things that underperformed will help determine what makes the cut and what is banished to the chopping block.
Unable to get that close to the data? A more straightforward question to ask yourself is, did it impact the bottom line? However, it’s important not to make the same mistakes twice.
If you’re starting from scratch, some fundamentals can guide you. It is often parroted that Australian SME’s spend roughly between 5 and 15% of revenue on marketing (Source: Business Queensland). Naturally, the more ambitious your plans are, the closer you’d get to the scale’s higher end.Working with a marketing professional can help you reduce some of the guesswork. With access to hundreds and potentially thousands of campaigns, they can fill the gaps in knowledge, what is working and what isn’t work for clients like you, and already have the expertise to help you execute what you need.
In addition, having an estimate of what things can cost will also help you pull together a realistic budget.
Average costs for digital marketing services
Here’s a disclaimer. The costs of any marketing activities really depend on many factors, and you’d be better to talk to a marketing professional directly to get an accurate cost based on your business, objectives, market size, current position and product offering.
Equally you may just need some ballpark figures, in which case, knock yourself out with the following:
- Social Media Management – This can range from $1,500 to $5,000 monthly. If you need fresh reels, stories and posts, or if you feature influencers or high-frequency campaigns, costs will be on the higher end.
- Social Media Advertising – We’ve seen great results from a modest $1,000 budget for niche or small audience campaigns. But as your audience and creativity grow, your budget has to follow. Some of the campaigns can easily reach $10,000 per month.
We’ll come to frequency and the importance of that later.
- SEO – You should expect to pay at least $1,000 to $2,500 monthly. There are many facets to SEO and to do it properly means you often need a few different skill sets – an SEO expert, web developer, copywriter. Be careful of super cheap options that rely on AI or poorly written content, that stuff will come back to bite you.
- Lead Generation Web Pages – Most forms of online advertising require a user/customer to do something of value. The problem with your current web pages is that they are not optimised to ensure that action occurs.
Lead generation pages increase conversions and relevancy to the ad campaign. Reducing costs as well as enhancing performance. Unfortunately, it’s often something that isn’t budgeted for. Expect to pay around $1,000 per landing page.
- Online Advertising – You could expect to pay anywhere from $1,000 monthly to $infinity. There are many variables to consider here. Costs range from a few cents to $100s per click. We’ve also seen clients consistently increase their spending well into six figures because the results are there. Equally, for smaller budgets, amazing results can be achieved.
Google’s keyword planner or performance planner tools will help you understand the volume, competition, estimated costs and results for your business, product or service. They’re free to use and can give your budgeting a head start.
- Traditional Advertising – Again, this ranges massively depending on the channel, frequency and regions. But expect to pay at least $2,500 monthly for a very basic, one channel, one region broadcast campaign, and then go up from there. Billboards typically start at around $1,000 per week per site. Naturally, these costs are based on regional areas, with media placement fees increasing for more densely populated cities.
- Content Creation – Highly visual content is more important than ever, especially in FMCG, lifestyle, fashion and beauty industries. While personal branding is often more organic in nature. A well-written blog or press release could be anywhere from $750 to $1,500 depending on the required length, research and assets. Photography sessions start at $600 but can increase to thousands, especially when considering post-editing. Videography can range from $1,000 to $20,000 or more depending on what you are producing.
Piecing your marketing budget together
Armed with some pricing, experience and performance, it’s time to begin piecing together your marketing budget.
Here are some approaches for you to consider:
- The 70-20-10 rule – If you know what works, use 70% of your budget for proven strategies. 20% of your budget can then be used for emerging activities with a moderate risk (i.e., if it’s worked for other businesses like yours or is starting to gain traction). The final 10% can be used for experimental activities… because marketing shouldn’t be boring.
I would also consider branding exercises and performance marketing activities too. Having an equal balance of both will help generate results today but nurture results tomorrow as well.
- Customer lifecycle allocation – This requires allocating budget based on the different stages of a customer’s lifecycle, such as acquisition, retention, engagement or expansion.
Typically, the cost to retain and upsell an existing client or customer is far less than acquisition but is so often ignored.
- Don’t spread yourself too thinly – While there are many channels or tactics, you don’t and shouldn’t do them all. Especially if your budget is limited. Focus on doing some exceptionally well, and then build from there.
- Rule of 7 – a common marketing rule that states that a customer has to see a brand at least 7 times before making a purchase. This means frequency and reach need to be key considerations when configuring your marketing budget at a campaign level.
Your campaigns need to ensure your audiences are specifically aligned with your budget to avoid spreading yourself too thinly.
Avoid digital advertising campaigns with massive audiences. At least find ways to segment to provide more relevant messaging, but also ensure you can afford to reach your audience enough times to convince them to buy.
- Consider seasonality – if there are quiet times of year, you may want to consider increasing your marketing activity to bolster demand. Similarly, if your current product offering is seasonal, you may need to diversify your product range to be able to capture sales in other parts of the year.
- Flexibility – While it definitely pays to plan ahead, there’s no harm in shifting budget allocations or priorities based on performance data or the business’s needs.
Budget like a pro
If the idea of budgets scares the living daylights out of you, or your business objectives are too important to miss, working with a marketing professional will help. Not only do you have the insights gained through millions of dollars of marketing activities, but you avoid wasting money on things that simply do not work.
If you want to ensure your marketing is a success, talk to us to see how we can help.
