Ask ten agencies how much a small business should spend on marketing and you will get ten versions of “it depends”. It does depend. But you still need a number to plan around, so here is the one we use.
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SEO
How much should a small business spend on marketing?
JP
Jordan Park, marketer at Budgetize
6 minute read
Updated October 2026
A local business doing $400,000 a year should expect to spend $1,700 to $2,700 a month on marketing in total. That includes ad spend, the person or company doing the work, and any software. If you are growing, the top of the range. If you are full, the bottom.
$200K A YEAR
$830 to $1,330
a month, all in
$400K A YEAR
$1,670 to $2,670
a month, all in
$800K A YEAR
$3,330 to $5,330
a month, all in
For a local business, the order is almost always the same. First, be findable: your Google listing and your website, so the people already looking for you can find you. Second, be chosen: reviews and a site that loads on a phone. Third, and only third, be seen by people who were not looking: ads.
Most small businesses do it backwards. They buy ads first, send the clicks to a slow site with three reviews, and conclude that marketing does not work. It does. The order was wrong.
Be findable. Then be chosen. Then, and only then, pay to be seen.
Our SEO Essentials box covers the first two steps for $299 a month: your listing, your site, two articles like this one, and a report you can read in five minutes. That leaves most of a normal budget for ad spend when you are ready for it. It is the order we would follow with our own money, which is the only honest test.
JP
Jordan Park
Does SEO for 14 small businesses at Budgetize. Writes one of these a month.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
SEO Essentials
$299
/mo
Listing, site fixes, two articles a month, one-page report. Steps one and two from this article, done for you.
No contract. No sales call. Work starts within two business days.
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