Average Online Marketing Allocations for Small Businesses

Small busi­ness­es rely on mar­ket­ing today more than ever before as it is the most effec­tive way to reach tar­get con­sumers and out­pace com­peti­tors. So, how much should a start­up spend on marketing?

As you plan your marketing budget, be sure to consider allocations to the following marketing efforts:

Online Marketing

Mar­ket­ing trends have shift­ed online, and firms are spend­ing 40 per­cent of their mar­ket­ing bud­gets on online mar­ket­ing endeav­ors. The online tran­si­tion will only con­tin­ue to unfold, and we can expect to see the same reflect­ed in mar­ket­ing bud­get allo­ca­tions, increas­ing the per­cent­age of bud­get ded­i­cat­ed to online efforts. 

Search Engine Marketing

Search engine mar­ket­ing includes all efforts toward mak­ing sure your brand shows up toward the top or at least on the first page of search engine rank­ing when con­sumers type in key­words rel­e­vant to your prod­ucts, ser­vices or brand. 

Online Display

Online dis­play ads such as ban­ner ads, online video and oth­er search engine results page tac­tics can be cost­ly in their cre­ation and place­ment. The cost is typ­i­cal­ly worth the result, grab­bing the atten­tion of con­sumers and direct­ing them via mixed media to your website. 

Social Media

Social media keeps on mak­ing its way into the cozi­est parts of our lives, and it hasn’t shown signs of back­ing down in the realm of adver­tis­ing, either. Mar­keters cur­rent­ly spend about 25 per­cent of their mar­ket­ing bud­gets on social media adver­tis­ing. Mar­ket­ing spend for social will con­tin­ue to increase as algo­rithms shift away from brand con­tent, trig­ger­ing a spike in adver­tis­ing demand. 

Mobile Marketing

Mar­ket­ing on mobile devices should not actu­al­ly make up its own por­tion of the bud­get. Instead, mobile should be includ­ed as a pri­or­i­ty chan­nel for all mar­ket­ing and adver­tis­ing efforts, always allo­cat­ing bud­get to this extension.

Digital Marketing

Dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing is pick­ing up its demand for mar­ket­ing bud­get allo­ca­tion as online video sur­pass­es all oth­er forms of media con­sump­tion by audi­ences on most platforms. 

Online Advertising

Online adver­tis­ing includes dis­play adver­tis­ing, paid search, email mar­ket­ing and social media adver­tis­ing. By 2021, experts pre­dict that over 45% of adver­tis­ing bud­gets will be allo­cat­ed toward online advertising. 

To learn more about the typ­i­cal mar­ket­ing bud­get for a start­up or which mar­ket­ing strate­gies are the most effec­tive for your brand devel­op­ment and busi­ness goals, reach out to our team at Rosy Strate­gies.