How much should you, really, spend on marketing?

It’s a question every founder asks themselves, usually while staring at a spreadsheet and wondering if the logo really needs to cost that much. The short answer? It depends on where you are in your journey. The longer (but more helpful) answer: marketing budgets tend to follow a pattern. Newer firms spend a higher percentage of revenue on marketing to build traction. Established ones usually spend less, but not nothing.

Fear not, I promise by the end of this post, you’ll have a rough idea of where to start, based on best practice for businesses in financial and professional services, with the best available data. Whilst it’s not a magic wand, it will give you an idea of where to steer the ship, just remember to continuously monitor and course-correct as time goes on.

The rule of thumb (with numbers)

The most widely-touted figure is, currently, 7.7%. This number comes from the Gartner CMO Spend Survey. But it’s a lot more nuanced than that. As a percentage of revenue, marketing spend typically falls into these bands:

Business stage	Typical marketing spend
Early-stage (< £500k revenue)	12%–20% (even up to 25%)¹
Growing SME (£500k–£5M)	5%–12% (most spend ~7–10%)²
Established (£5M+)	3%–8%, occasionally lower in professional services³

Now this isn’t gospel and you really need to research this thoroughly, but it’s grounded in large-scale UK and global data. The exact figure depends on your growth goals, your sector, and how established your brand is.

If you’re early-stage (under £500k revenue)

You’ll probably need to spend more than you’re comfortable with. You don’t have the benefit of referral business or an established brand and you also need to wait for your first buying cycle to “come of age”,

which could be up to a year. As such, you need to get spending and building your brand.

Early-stage firms often spend between 12–20% of revenue (or projected revenue) on marketing¹. That’s because you’re starting from scratch: no brand awareness, no word-of-mouth, no inbound engine ticking along in the background.

Let’s say you’re a new firm aiming for £150k in year one, that means a marketing budget somewhere in the region of £18k–£30k. Yes, it’s a big chunk. But if you have big revenue goals, then you need big marketing goals. How you spend that marketing budget is down to you, there are plenty of good ways and bad ways to do it and, if you’re aiming for this kind of spend, you need a thorough strategy.

In financial and professional services, where many founders come from fee-earning roles with no marketing background, this can feel excessive. But remember, referrals don’t exist yet and you probably don’t have a BizDev function either. You’re paying to build momentum.

💡 Tip: This doesn’t mean splurging on everything. Be strategic. Prioritise foundational marketing materials (brand, website, content, outbound tools) and avoid vanity spend. No big adverts at the airport, tube station or glossy mags just yet (unless you’re running on PE money, of course).

If you’re growing (£500k–£5M revenue)

Once you’re buying cycle is in full-flow and you’re starting to see referred business, this is when you can start to dial things in a bit. At this stage, most firms settle into the typical 7–10% range². That’s enough to sustain growth and stay visible without blowing the budget. And based on the Gartner CMO Spend Survey, this is the sweet spot for a lot of businesses.

You’ve likely got a website, a brand that’s half-decent, maybe some content going out and a few warm referrals landing in your inbox. You’re not starting from zero anymore, which gives your marketing more leverage.

But don’t make the mistake of dropping to 2–3% too early. The firms that do often find themselves invisible within a year, and playing catch-up is more expensive than staying consistent.

💡 Tip: If you’re in a competitive niche or launching a new service, you might need to nudge back up toward 10–12% for a while.

If you’re well-established (£5M+)

The percentage will certainly drop considerably now, but the spend usually doesn’t. A £10M firm might only spend 4% of revenue on marketing, but that’s still £400k+ per year. And that figure covers more than just “marketing” in the traditional sense: it includes events, sponsorships, client experience, comms, and brand positioning work.

Professional services firms—especially law, consulting, and accountancy—tend to be conservative here. Budgets of 2–4% of revenue are common³. But that doesn’t mean marketing isn’t happening. It just looks different: more emphasis on thought leadership, relationships, client loyalty, and reputation management than big splashy campaigns.

And a little note on turning off the tap in times of economic uncertainty. Never, ever do it. When things get hard, marketing is always the first thing to go. You just need to tighten things up and start behaving like a start-up again, focusing on your owned and earned media, rather than spending on paid.

💡 Tip: Even if you’re in the “referrals” zone, a lean but strategic marketing function keeps you top-of-mind and futureproofs the brand. Eventually referrals dry-up and if you don’t pay attention, by the time you realise, it could take a year or two years to get back on top.

So… how do you decide what you should spend?

Now being really honest, you’re not going to get a magic number from a blog post, sorry.

Your ideal marketing budget depends on a dozen moving parts: your cashflow, goals, industry, reputation, growth stage, competitive landscape, and a lot more. That’s what strategic marketing consultations are for. Done properly, they align your budget with your business reality, not with some pie in the sky numbers you’ve plucked from select sources.

That said, if you’re just looking for a solid starting point, a yardstick to give you some direction, this is where most businesses can begin:

Maintain your current position: 5–7%⁴
Moderate growth: 8–10%⁴
Aggressive growth / expansion: 10–20%+⁴

For example, a £2M firm looking to expand nationally might reasonably invest 12% of revenue (£240k) into marketing for a year or two, then taper back once the brand is better established.

The important part isn’t the number, it’s the intention behind it. Too many firms default to “what we spent last year” or “whatever’s left over after salaries.” That’s not budgeting.

Set your budget proactively. Tie it to outcomes. And make sure your investment reflects what you’re trying to achieve, not what’s easiest to justify on a spreadsheet.

A final word: spend doesn’t equal success

There’s a dangerous myth that trips up a lot of founders: if you just throw enough money at marketing, the clients will come.

Unfortunately, that’s not how it works.

Marketing is not a light switch. It takes time. Especially in B2B, where the average buying cycle is anywhere from 3 to 9 months⁵ depending on the service, deal value, and decision-maker structure. So you need to plan your marketing spend with patience, not panic, in mind.

And crucially: marketing won’t save a bad business. If your delivery is sloppy, your service forgettable, or your clients never come back, no amount of PPC or LinkedIn content will fix that. You’ll just end up spending more and more to keep the pipeline full, because nobody’s coming back on their own, and worse, nobody’s referring you either.

The most effective marketing strategy you can ever have is this:

Be good at what you do. Under-promise, over-deliver.

If you get that right, marketing becomes cheaper and more effective over time. Your brand gains credibility. Your name carries weight. And you don’t need to shout as loud or spend as much to be heard.

TL;DR

Startups should expect to spend 12–20% of revenue on marketing to get traction.
Growing SMEs often sit around 7–10%, depending on growth goals.
Established firms can drop to 3–6%, especially in referral-heavy sectors.
Spend isn’t a shortcut. Make sure the foundations are solid first.

Sources

Startup/early-stage benchmarks: WordStream; Chatterbuzz Media; The Pitch (Alba SEO); Experian UK; Xander Marketing.
SME benchmarks: UK YouGov Survey (via JDR Group); Gartner; Aqueous Digital; SBA (US); HawkSEM.
Professional services data: Legal Futures; Sopro 2025 Sector Analysis; Chronicle Law; Law Firm Marketing Club Survey 2024.
Growth goal estimates: HawkSEM; Gartner CMO Spend Survey; MIT Sloan Review.
B2B buying cycle: Gartner; HubSpot; Harvard Business Review – typical 3–9 month cycle for B2B services.