Ad Budget Calculator

Set ad budget based on your CAC target and unit economics: if you need 100 customers at $50 CAC, budget $5,000. B2B companies typically spend 2-5% of revenue on advertising per the Deloitte CMO Survey. Start with a single proven channel and scale only after achieving consistent ROAS above 3:1.

Apply the 70/20/10 rule: put 70% on proven channels with known ROAS, 20% on scaling emerging channels, and 10% on experiments. Review channel-level ROAS monthly and reallocate away from underperformers. Most businesses find 80% of results come from 2-3 channels, do not spread budget across five or more platforms.

B2B companies typically spend 2-5% of revenue on advertising, B2C companies 5-12% according to Deloitte CMO Survey data. SaaS startups may invest 20-40% of revenue in growth-stage marketing. The right amount depends on your growth targets and CAC payback period.

Start with $500-2,000/month on a single proven channel (usually Google Ads for B2B or Meta Ads for B2C). Scale spend only when ROAS is consistently above 3:1. Never scale a campaign that is not yet profitable, you will just lose money faster.

Put 70% of budget on proven channels with known ROAS, 20% on scaling emerging channels, and 10% on experimental channels. Review allocation monthly. Most businesses find 80% of their results come from 2-3 channels, don't spread budget across 5+ platforms.

Review campaign-level spend weekly, channel allocation monthly, and total budget quarterly. Increase budget on channels exceeding ROAS targets and decrease on underperformers. Seasonal businesses should adjust budgets monthly to match demand patterns.

Ad budget planning is the process of allocating advertising spend across channels, campaigns, and time periods to maximize ROI. It matters because unplanned ad spending is the fastest way to burn cash, systematic budget allocation ensures every dollar works toward measurable business goals.

Marketing ROI is the revenue generated relative to marketing spend, calculated as ((Revenue minus Marketing Cost) divided by Marketing Cost) times 100. A 5:1 ratio (500% ROI) is considered strong across channels per HubSpot benchmarks.

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) is revenue generated divided by ad spend. A 4:1 ROAS means you earned $4 for every $1 spent on advertising.

Social media ROI equals (revenue attributed to social plus lead value) minus (ad spend plus content creation time cost plus tool costs), divided by total costs.

Click-Through Rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who click after seeing your ad, email, or search result. Google Search averages 3.17% CTR and display averages 0.46% per WordStream data.

Goals, current marketing state, the decision making structure, the success metric the client cares about most, the timeline, the budget range, the access and integrations needed, the brand assets available, and the single biggest concern about the engagement.