How Much Should I Spend On Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is not a new term, but it is evolving. It is evolving because of the speed at which technology and consumer behavior are changing.

The expectations of consumers have also changed and they want brands to be more personal with their engagement strategies. So how much should you spend on digital marketing? Well, it depends on your business model and what you want to achieve through digital marketing channels.

How Much Should I Spend on Digital Marketing?

Takeaway
Determine your business size and revenue to set an appropriate digital marketing budget.
Consider various factors, including target audience, competition, and marketing objectives, when allocating your budget.
There’s no one-size-fits-all formula for budget allocation, but a balanced approach across different marketing channels can be effective.
Measure the ROI of your digital marketing efforts using relevant KPIs and analytics tools like Google Analytics.
Regularly review and adjust your digital marketing budget based on performance data and changing market conditions to optimize results.

Table of Contents

How Proactive Are You?

Do you update your website regularly? If so, how often? Do you have a blog that is updated at least once a week or more often? Do you post on social media at least once a day or more often than that?

Are your email marketing campaigns as active as they could be, with good deliverability and open rates in addition to click-throughs and conversions (if applicable)? Do long emails work best for your audience or are shorter ones better received by them?

Figuring out the appropriate budget for digital marketing is crucial for small businesses. Dive into our comprehensive guide on how much a small business should spend on digital marketing to make informed decisions and maximize your marketing efforts.

What Is Your Margin?

Margin is the difference between your revenue and your cost. It’s a measure of profitability and it helps you understand how much money you are making from each customer.

It helps to know how much margin you have because it tells you if you can afford to spend more on marketing, or if there are other ways to grow your business that might not cost as much.

Where Is Your Traffic Coming From?

When you look at the traffic sources on your site, it’s important to think about where that traffic comes from. Is it search engines? Social media? Direct traffic? Referral traffic? Or some other source?

Once you’ve figured out where your audience is coming from, you can make decisions based on that information.

For example: if most of your visitors are coming from search engines, then maybe you don’t need a detailed email marketing strategy and instead should focus on writing great content (which will help attract organic links) or improving the experience for people who visit via Google searches (with schema markup).

How Much Are You Earning From Each Visitor?

Now that you have your total traffic, you need to figure out how much money each visitor is bringing in.

To do this, look at the amount of revenue generated by each visitor. This can be done by dividing the total number of sales by the number of visitors (or another metric).

For example, if you make $10,000 per month and 1 million people visit your website in a month:

$10,000 / 1 million = $0.001 per visitor

Digital marketing costs can vary significantly depending on the strategies and platforms you choose. Get a clear picture of the expenses involved by checking out our in-depth article on how much do digital marketing services cost, and make the most out of your marketing investments.

Do You Have A Digital Marketing Team In-House Or Do You Outsource It?

If you have a digital marketing team in-house, they will be able to help you with all aspects of digital marketing. However, if outsourcing is more your style, then make sure that the company you choose has experience working with businesses like yours.

Are You Sure About Your Target Audience?

Before you make any major investments, you need to know who your target audience is. Know if they are male or female, what age group they belong to, where they live, and what language they speak. If you don’t have this information at hand, there are two ways of getting it:

Survey your existing customers or website visitors

Use a tool like Google Analytics to find out how many people visit your website from different locations around the world

What are the Other Businesses in Your Niche Doing for Their Digital Marketing Strategies?

Another great way to get an idea of what your budget should be is to look at other businesses in your niche.

If you’re a dentist, for example, compare yourself to other dentists who are doing well. Are they using Facebook ads? What kind of keywords do they use? How much traffic is coming from their website? What’s their conversion rate? Do they have a blog?

You can do this with any type of business and compare yourself to the top 10% or 20%. You’ll quickly learn what works and what doesn’t when it comes to digital marketing strategies.

How Much Do You Know About Seo And Digital Marketing Tools?

If you’re not familiar with SEO or don’t know what it is, then it’s likely that your website isn’t optimized for search engines. If this is the case, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to get more traffic and leads from people searching online.

Can You Afford To Test Ads And Web Landing Pages?

Testing ads and landing pages is key to your digital marketing success. But you should also be able to afford to test them regularly, and at different times of the week, month and year.

You’ll want to test different types of ads in each market Facebook vs Google Ads; Instagram ads vs Snapchat; YouTube channel promotion etc. So if you have a limited budget, this may not be possible unless you can find ways to scale down your spending or increase your profits so that it is affordable for you.

To see examples of how this works in practice, check out our guide on How To Test Your Ad Campaigns On Facebook Ads Manager

Setting a monthly budget for digital marketing requires careful planning and analysis. Explore our expert insights on how to calculate digital marketing costs per month to ensure efficient spending and achieve optimal results.

Is Your Website Coding Stable Or In Need Of Repair/Rebuild?

There are two main reasons why a website might not rank well:

Poor coding on the site

Bad content on the site

If your website is coded poorly, it’s difficult for search engines to crawl through it and find what they’re looking for. If you want to rank highly in Google, for example, you need to have a good structure in place so that when users search for something specific, they will be able to find your page easily.

On the flip side of that coin is poor content; if you publish lots of low-quality blog posts or forum comments but don’t link back to them from another page on your site (say…the homepage), then those pages won’t get any attention from Google either.

How Many People Use Adblockers On Your Site?

The first thing you should do before spending any money on digital marketing is to find out how many people are seeing your ads.

Because most sites run ads to make money, they have a vested interest in making sure that as many people see them as possible. It’s also important for advertisers because they want their ads shown to people who don’t use adblockers so they can get a better return on their investment.

If you want to know what percentage of visitors are using adblockers, there are two ways you can go about it:

You can ask Google Analytics or another analytics tool if there’s an option for detecting whether someone has an ad blocker installed (there usually isn’t) or

You can check manually by looking at the source code of your website and seeing if there’s anything suspicious about how it looks when viewed through an ad blocker (there probably will be).

Digital marketing plays a pivotal role in driving business growth and success. Unleash the full potential of digital marketing with our comprehensive guide on how digital marketing helps in business growth, and propel your business towards new heights of prosperity.

What Is The Conversion Rate Of Your Website (Visitors To Customers)?

The next step in determining how much you should spend is to figure out your conversion rate. I’ll explain what this means below, but first, let’s look at some basic statistics you can use to determine where you stand in comparison to other companies and websites in your industry.

First off, what is a conversion rate? A conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who become customers or clients for a company. For example, if 1/4th of visitors become customers then their conversion rate would be 25%.

So how do we calculate it? To calculate it divide the number of visitors who become customers by all visitors or visitors that landed on your website through whatever channel (advertising etc.) divided by 100 = the total number of shysters, who got deleted by google because had 2 words together when they shouldn’t have been (even though they’re still running ads).

In challenging times like a pandemic, digital marketing becomes a lifeline for many small businesses. Discover the power of digital marketing in our article on how it helps small businesses during a pandemic, and equip your business for success even in uncertain circumstances.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many factors to consider before deciding how much to spend on digital marketing. Every business is unique, and every digital strategy should be too. We hope this post has helped you think about how much you should be spending on digital marketing for your business or startup!

FAQs

How much should I allocate to digital marketing based on my business size?

Answer: The ideal allocation for digital marketing varies depending on your business size, industry, and growth goals. It’s recommended to dedicate a percentage of your total revenue, such as 5-10% for small businesses and 10-20% for medium-sized businesses.

What factors should I consider when determining my digital marketing budget?

Answer: Several factors influence your digital marketing budget, including your target audience, competition, marketing objectives, and the effectiveness of past campaigns. Analyze these factors to create a data-driven budget plan.

Is there a standard budget formula for digital marketing?

Answer: While there’s no one-size-fits-all formula, a common approach is to allocate 40% of the budget to content creation and promotion, 30% to paid advertising, 20% to social media, and 10% to other marketing activities.

How can I measure the ROI of my digital marketing efforts?

Answer: To measure ROI, track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as website traffic, lead generation, conversion rates, and customer acquisition cost. Use tools like Google Analytics to monitor the success of your digital marketing campaigns.

Should I adjust my digital marketing budget over time?

Answer: Yes, it’s crucial to regularly review and adjust your budget based on performance data, market trends, and business objectives. Flexibility allows you to optimize your marketing spend and achieve better results.

Costantine Edward

Costantine Edward is a digital marketing expert, freelance writer, and entrepreneur who helps people attain financial freedom. I’ve been working in marketing since I was 18 years old and have managed to build a successful career doing what I love.