Free Calculator

Spend It
Somewhere Real.

Most Indian businesses either underfund marketing until it cannot work, or split a small budget across five channels until none of them do. This works out what you should spend, and where it should go, based on your revenue, industry and what you are actually trying to achieve.

01 — The Planner

Build Your
Allocation.

Four inputs. Updates live. Nothing leaves your browser unless you choose to email yourself the plan.

Revenue, not profit. A rough figure is fine — this is about the order of magnitude, not precision.

Industries differ in how much marketing it takes to win a customer. D2C and real estate run hot; professional services run leaner because referrals carry more weight.

Pick one. The most expensive mistake in this whole exercise is trying to do all four at once with one budget.

Enter your revenue on the left and your plan appears here.
02 — The Benchmarks

What Others
Actually Spend.

Share of monthly revenue reinvested in marketing, before industry adjustment.

Marketing spend benchmarks by business stage
Stage Share of revenue Why
New / pre-launch~18%No existing demand to harvest. You are paying to create awareness that does not yet exist.
Growing~12%Balancing acquisition against reinvestment. The most common stage, and the hardest to budget.
Established~8%Existing awareness and referrals carry part of the load. Spend defends share rather than creating it.
Two thresholds worth knowing.
  • Below roughly ₹15,000/month, splitting across five channels produces five efforts too small to gather data. Concentrate on one or two.
  • Below roughly ₹6,000/month, paid marketing is not the lever at all. Google Business Profile, reviews and consistent organic posting will outperform any ad budget that small.
03 — Questions

Straight
Answers.

As a working benchmark: new businesses around 18% of monthly revenue, growth-stage around 12%, established around 8%. Industry adjusts this materially — D2C and real estate run higher, professional services and healthcare lower because referral and reputation carry more of the load.
By goal, not by channel. For leads, paid ads and SEO take the largest shares because they capture existing intent. For awareness, social and content lead. For footfall, local search dominates. Splitting evenly regardless of goal is the most common and most expensive mistake in Indian SMB marketing.
Below roughly ₹15,000/month, spreading across five channels produces five things too small to generate data or momentum — concentrate on one or two instead. Below roughly ₹6,000/month, paid marketing is not the right lever and the return is far higher from free actions like completing your Google Business Profile and collecting reviews.
Quarterly. Review against what actually produced enquiries, not what looked strategic when you set the plan. Move money toward what is working and cut what is not, rather than defending an allocation because it was agreed in advance.

Now make
it work.

A number is the easy part. Tell us your goal and we will show you what that budget actually buys.

Talk To Us →