What percentage of revenue should marketing generate. And…

Flip the common question: mature service businesses typically SPEND 5–10% of revenue on marketing; what marketing should GENERATE depends on how much growth you're buying. A useful frame: new-customer revenue ÷ marketing spend should comfortably exceed 3:1 on margin. Below that, marketing is a treadmill, not an engine.

Free · no signup · last reviewed August 29, 2026

Flip the common question: mature service businesses typically SPEND 5–10% of revenue on marketing; what marketing should GENERATE depends on how much growth you're buying. A useful frame: new-customer revenue ÷ marketing spend should comfortably exceed 3:1 on margin. Below that, marketing is a treadmill, not an engine.

The budget audit is an afternoon: pull twelve months of marketing charges (cards, invoices, tools), bucket by channel, then set attributed customers beside each bucket. Every business that does this finds a zombie. A subscription or retainer producing nothing that nobody remembered to kill.

Make it annual: the audit-then-reallocate cycle is how budgets evolve from history ('we've always paid for that') to strategy.

This is the work. Want it done?

Everything here is free to use yourself. That’s the point. If you’d rather a senior marketer just handle it, in your accounts and your name: 20-minute call, no pitch deck.

Contact