Packages
Sike!.
If you can't tell by now, we think brands should have a personality — and ours has a little clever sass to it. We don't sell pre-packaged marketing plans because no two businesses need the same thing. Instead, we figure out what's actually worth doing for you and price accordingly. Check out who we are on the About page.
We take your business seriously — that doesn't mean we have to be so serious about it. Laughing is good for the soul.
Marketing budget
So, how much should you be spending on marketing?.
There's no universal number. A business launching from scratch may need to invest more aggressively upfront. An established business with strong organic demand may need less. Your industry, margins, competition, growth goals and capacity all matter.
But for established businesses, 6 to 10 percent of annual revenue can be a useful benchmark for total marketing investment. Research from LocalImpact found the largest group of surveyed small businesses allocated roughly 6 to 10 percent of revenue to marketing. Intuit's 2025 Small Business Advertising Trends Report found an estimated $78,000 average annual advertising budget among surveyed small businesses, with advertising accounting for an average 37 percent of total marketing budgets.
- Paid media
- Brand and creative
- Website and SEO
- Email and CRM
- Technology
- Events and sponsorships
- Print and signage
- Freelancers and agencies
It is not a recommendation to spend 10 percent of your revenue with Mettle. The point is that marketing becomes a meaningful investment surprisingly quickly, and when it does, somebody should be making sure all of those dollars work together.
Conservative, 6%
$60K
about $5K per month
Aggressive, 10%
$100K
about $8K per month
That is total marketing investment, not a Mettle fee. It covers media, creative, site, tech, events, signage and outside help. Benchmarks are directional, not prescriptions.
References
- LocalImpact, State of Small Business Marketing.
- Intuit SMB MediaLabs, 2025 Small Business Advertising Trends Report.
Marketing benchmarks are directional, not prescriptions. Appropriate investment varies based on industry, margins, stage of business, market conditions, available capacity and growth objectives.