● The short answer
Most small businesses land between roughly 3% and 10% of revenue on marketing, with growth-stage companies at the high end. The best-known benchmark, Gartner's CMO survey, puts 2026 budgets at 7.8% of revenue, but it mostly reflects billion-dollar companies. Set your number from your sales goal and what a customer is worth, then test it.
Key takeaways
- Gartner's CMO survey puts 2026 marketing budgets at 7.8% of revenue, but its respondents are mostly billion-dollar companies.
- The SBA itself says there is no hard and fast answer, so treat percentages as a sanity check.
- Build the budget backward from your revenue goal, customer value and an affordable cost per acquisition.
The short answer, and why the famous percentages are shaky
You will see "spend 7 to 8 percent of revenue" repeated everywhere, often credited to the SBA. The SBA's own blog is more careful: it says there is >no hard and fast answer. The most cited hard number is Gartner's annual CMO Spend Survey, which found marketing budgets averaged 7.8% of company revenue in 2026, up slightly from 7.7% in 2025. That is a real number from a real survey, but the respondents are mostly companies with more than $1 billion in revenue. A $2 million landscaping company is not that.
So treat percentages as a sanity check, not a target. A useful working range for small businesses is low single digits for a mature, referral-driven firm and high single digits or more for a business trying to grow fast, enter a new market or launch something.
The how is where we come in.
What we walk through with you, for your business:
- A better way to set the number
- How to split the dollars
- Our take
Every business is different, so the plan is too. Tell us where you want to show up and we will show you what it takes.
Talk to usMore questions
Should a new business spend more on marketing than an established one?
Usually, yes. A new business has no referral base, no reviews and no brand searches, so it has to buy attention that an established firm earns for free. Many owners plan a heavier first year and expect the percentage to fall as repeat customers and word of mouth grow. Just make sure the heavier spend is tracked so you know which channels to keep.
Does the marketing budget include salaries?
It depends on how you count, and the bigger surveys usually include labor, agencies and technology along with media. For a small business, it is clearer to track two numbers: working media (what goes to Google, Meta and other platforms) and everything else (people, tools, content, agency fees). Mixing them makes it hard to see what the ads themselves are returning.
Sources
- Gartner: 2026 CMO Spend Survey press release
- Gartner: 2025 CMO Spend Survey reveals marketing budgets have flatlined at 7.7% of company revenue
- U.S. Small Business Administration: How to get the most from your marketing budget
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