A marketing budget that fits your business

The budget question is usually asked too early. Before a number makes sense, you need a goal. Which offer should become better known, to whom, and over what period? The goal determines the channel, and the channel determines what a month realistically costs.

This post shows how to split a budget, how to compare offers and why part of the money should stay reserved for tests.

One goal to start with

What should improve first: your overall presence, awareness of a specific offer or your local visibility? Set a clear priority. Three goals at once spread a small budget so thin that none of them becomes measurable.

Phrase the goal so that you can check it in three months. "More enquiries for afternoon appointments" can be checked. "More presence" cannot.

Separate production, support and ad spend

Keep the three items cleanly apart. Your offer should show one-off and ongoing costs clearly.

This separation is the most important point in the whole post. A monthly price that mixes all three items can be neither checked nor compared, and it makes it impossible to cut a single part.

Example

Agree on the scope in concrete terms

Agree on channels, number of pieces of content, approvals and reports. Compare offers by these services, not by the monthly price alone. Two offers for the same amount can contain completely different work.

Questions an offer should answer:

1. Which channels are covered, and how many pieces of content are produced per month?
2. Who approves content, and how long does a round of feedback take?
3. What happens if you end the contract: who owns the accounts, data and logins?
4. Which report do you receive, and how often?

Know your fixed costs before you advertise

A budget also includes the items that arise regardless of advertising. These include hosting, the domain and the ongoing maintenance of your website. At bown a website starts from EUR 499 excl. VAT, hosting and maintenance from EUR 39 per month excl. VAT. What maintenance includes is explained in What ongoing maintenance covers for your website.

There is a practical reason to settle these items first. Advertising that leads to a slow or outdated website loses part of its effect before anyone has read your offer.

Leave room for learning

Plan time and budget for tests. The first version of an ad is rarely the best, and which landing page works only becomes clear in practice. Discuss the results and then decide what to continue or adjust.

A usable framework: decide which part of the monthly budget counts as an experiment, and review that part together after three months. If you reserve nothing for experiments, you end up keeping the first idea only because it was the first.

Example