Free calculator
Marketing Budget Calculator
Enter your revenue, your target and what a customer is worth. You get a monthly budget, a channel split and the CAC ceiling you can't go above.
- Free forever
- No signup
- Runs in your browser
Marketing Budget Calculator: what it does
Established small businesses spend 5–10% of revenue on marketing; companies chasing growth spend 15–20%. The number that matters more is your CAC ceiling: never pay more to acquire a customer than a third of what they're worth to you over their lifetime.
Last updated 3 August 2026
Worked example
Here's one we ran earlier.
£20,000/month revenue · early stage · 20 new customers a month · £600 lifetime value
Monthly budget — £3,000
15% of revenue15% of revenue, which is the early-growth band. That's the ceiling for media and tools combined, before any salaries.
CAC ceiling — £200
3:1 LTV:CACA third of £600 lifetime value. Above this, each new customer costs more than they'll ever return, no matter how good the channel looks.
Your target needs £150 per customer
Affordable£3,000 ÷ 20 customers. That's inside the £200 ceiling, so the target is affordable. If it had come out above £200, the target would need to drop.
The split — £1,800 / £750 / £450
60 / 25 / 15£1,800 into what already converts, £750 into compounding assets like SEO and email, £450 into one test a month you're prepared to write off entirely.
How it works
Three steps, no account.
Start from lifetime value, not revenue
Revenue percentages are a sanity check. The hard limit is what a customer is worth: spend more than a third of lifetime value to acquire one and you're buying revenue you can't afford.
Split it across horizons, not channels
Roughly 60% to things that work now, 25% to things that compound like SEO and email, 15% to tests. Channels change; that split doesn't.
Check the target is affordable
If your budget divided by your target customer count is under the going rate for a click in your market, the target is wrong, not the budget.
Questions
Common questions.
What percentage of revenue should go to marketing?
5–10% for an established business defending its position, 15–20% for one actively chasing growth, and for pre-revenue companies the question doesn't apply — size the budget from your customer target and your CAC ceiling instead.
What is a CAC ceiling?
The most you can pay to acquire one customer without the maths breaking. A common rule is a 3:1 ratio of lifetime value to acquisition cost, so a customer worth £600 gives you a £200 ceiling. Under 1:1 you lose money on every sale.
How should I split the budget between channels?
Put about 60% into whatever is already producing customers, 25% into compounding assets like SEO content and email that pay off in months not days, and hold 15% for tests you're willing to lose entirely.
What if I have no budget at all?
Then your budget is time, and it should go to channels that cost time rather than money: direct outreach, communities where your customers already are, partnerships, and content on questions people are searching for. Set a weekly hour count and treat it exactly like a budget.
Does this include salaries?
No. This is media and tool spend. If you're paying someone to run marketing, add their cost separately — it typically doubles the number.
More free tools
Use these next.
Market Size Calculator
Get your TAM, SAM and SOM in ten seconds
OpenFree toolMarketing Ideas Generator
Ten things you could do this week
OpenFree toolKeyword Generator
Thirty keyword ideas you could actually rank for
OpenGoing deeper? What small businesses actually spend on marketing — straight answers from the rest of the library.
Elsewhere on gtm.help
Keep exploring.
Free marketing tools
Calculators and generators that run without a signup.
BrowseGrowth playbooks
Step-by-step plans by industry and goal.
BrowseTool comparisons
Head-to-head picks for the calls people get stuck on.
BrowseMarketing checklists
Task lists by business type and competitive situation.
BrowseStraight answers
The growth questions founders ask, answered with numbers.
BrowseGet started
Ten free tools, or one plan that uses all of them.
Paste your URL and gtm.help ranks the moves that fit your business, one at a time, so you always know what's next.