Budget
"How much should I spend?" with no answer
The number comes from what's left over at month end, or from what a salesperson suggested.
Budget · KPIs · reporting
Marketing budget
Marketing budget
and KPIs
A marketing budget and KPIs worked out backwards from your margins: what a customer is worth, what you can pay to get one, how many you need, and how to split the money between channels. Then five numbers to check every month instead of fifty.
Free: a 30-minute call, an action plan and a price range in writing.
Familiar?Spending without
Spending without
a yardstick
Reports
Clicks, reach, impressions
Reports full of numbers that don't connect to calls, bookings or revenue.
Decisions
No point to cut or scale
Without targets, a channel keeps running because nobody knows whether it's good or bad.
How I set it
From one customer's
From one customer's
value to a
monthly budget
You don't need perfect accounting. Average order value, approximate margin and how often customers come back are enough to start. We refine as data comes in.
01
Value
What a customer brings in margin over a year, not just the first sale.
02
Ceiling
The most you can pay to win one and still make money.
03
Volume
How many new customers you need, and can handle, each month.
04
Split
Budget per channel, starting with the one closest to the sale.
05
KPIs
Targets and the dates when each channel gets reviewed.
PricingPlan the budget,
Plan the budget,
then measure it
Final prices in Canadian dollars.
■ Audit and strategy[01]
$2,400 CAD
Budget model, channel split and KPIs as part of the full marketing plan.
- Customer value and cost ceilings
- Monthly budget by channel
- KPI targets and review dates
- Presentation on Zoom
Analytics setup[02]
$650 CAD
GA4, Tag Manager and pixels, so the KPIs come from real data.
- Forms, calls and purchases tracked
- Google and Meta pixels
Consultation[03]
$70 CAD/h
A quarterly budget review on Zoom, if you run the marketing yourself.
- First 30 minutes free
How to set a marketing budget and KPIs that mean something
A marketing budget and KPIs only work if they come from your own business: your margins, your customers, your capacity. Generic advice like "spend 5% of revenue" ignores whether you sell a $40 haircut every month or a $40,000 kitchen once in a decade. So I work the other way around, starting from what one customer is worth.
Step one: what a customer is worth
Take the average sale, subtract the direct cost of delivering it, and multiply by how many times a typical customer buys from you in a year or two. That's the value of a customer in margin, not revenue. A cleaning company with a client who books every two weeks has a very different number from a contractor who builds one deck per customer.
From there, the ceiling is simple: the most you can pay to win a customer and still make money. Most businesses aim well below that ceiling, to keep a healthy profit. You can read more about the logic in my articles on customer lifetime value and customer acquisition cost.
Step two: how many customers you need
Next comes volume. How many new customers a month do you want, and how many can you actually serve? There's no point paying for 40 leads if your crew can take 10 jobs. Multiply the target by the cost you're willing to pay, and you have a first monthly budget. Then I check it against reality: what clicks typically cost in your industry and city, how well your website converts, how many enquiries turn into sales.
Step three: splitting the money
The budget goes first to the channels closest to the sale. For most local businesses that means Google search and Maps, where people already look for the service. Then remarketing, then Meta ads to reach new audiences, then content and SEO for long-term growth. A typical split for a service business starting out might look like this:
| Item | Share | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Google search ads | Largest share | Main services, best margins |
| Meta ads | Smaller share | Remarketing first, then new audiences |
| SEO and Google profile | Fixed monthly | Slower, builds free traffic |
| Email to past customers | Small | Cheap repeat business |
The plan also accounts for seasons. Many Canadian businesses have strong months and dead months, and a flat monthly budget wastes money in the quiet period and runs short when demand peaks.
The KPIs I actually use
I keep the owner's dashboard to five numbers:
- Enquiries: forms, calls, messages and bookings.
- Cost per enquiry: total spend divided by enquiries.
- Close rate: how many enquiries become customers.
- Cost per customer: the number that matters most.
- Revenue from new customers: to check the math against reality.
To get these, tracking has to work. That means GA4 and Tag Manager, call tracking where phones matter, and a CRM or at least a spreadsheet that records which enquiries turned into sales. Without the last step, the most important KPI stays a guess.
Reviewing and adjusting
Every channel in the plan has a review date. On that date we compare the numbers with the targets and decide: keep, grow, fix or stop. If I run your ads, the review is part of the monthly report; ad reports come every two weeks. If you run things yourself, a short consultation every quarter keeps the budget honest.
Price
The budget model and KPIs are part of the marketing strategy at $2,400 CAD, final. Analytics setup is $650. Your ad budget is separate and goes straight to the platforms, never through me.
RelatedBudgets and
Budgets and
numbers
FAQ
Budget and
Budget and
KPI questions
What percentage of revenue should I spend on marketing?
Rules of thumb exist, but they ignore your margins and goals. A business with high margins and repeat customers can afford far more per new customer than one selling a low-margin item once. I prefer to work from what a customer is worth and how many you need. The percentage then falls out of the math.
What's a sensible minimum ad budget?
I recommend about $1,000 a month per platform as a starting point, paid by you directly to Google or Meta. With less, campaigns gather data slowly and it takes months to know what works. If that's too much right now, it's usually better to start with one platform properly than two half-funded.
Which KPIs should a small business track?
Usually five: number of enquiries, cost per enquiry, how many enquiries become customers, cost per customer, and revenue from those customers. Clicks and impressions are useful for whoever runs the ads, but for the owner these five tell you whether marketing pays.
How soon can I judge whether the budget is working?
For search ads, often within one to three months. For SEO, longer, typically several months. For Meta ads, a few weeks to see early signals. The plan sets a review date for each channel in advance, so you don't cut something too early or keep paying for something too long.
Is my ad budget included in your fees?
No. My fees cover my work: the strategy, setup and management. The ad budget is paid by you directly to Google or Meta with your own card, in accounts registered in your name. That way you always see exactly what was spent and nothing is marked up.
Spend with
a target, not
a hope
Tell me roughly what you sell, your average order and what you spend today. I'll reply within one business day, or we can start with a free 30-minute call.