Most small businesses don’t set a marketing budget. They set a number that feels safe, spend it in dribs and drabs across the year, and hope something works. Then they can’t tell you what did.
The start of a new financial year is the natural moment to fix that. You don’t need a finance degree or a 40-tab spreadsheet, you need to answer four honest questions.
First, look at what last year actually did
Before you decide where money goes, work out where it went and what it got you.
Pull up last year and separate your spend into two piles: things you can point to a result from, and things you can’t. The ad campaign that brought in twelve enquiries goes in the first pile. The boosted posts you did because it was Friday and you felt guilty go in the second.
You’re looking for three things: what earned its keep, what quietly drained money, and where the gaps were — the months you went silent, or the questions customers kept asking that your marketing never answered. That’s your starting map.
Set goals you can actually measure
“Grow the business” isn’t a goal, it’s a wish. A goal has a number and a deadline attached: fifteen more qualified enquiries a month, a 20% lift in website traffic by December, ten new customers from Google before the end of the quarter.
The reason this matters isn’t neatness. It’s that a measurable goal tells you how much to spend and when to stop. If you don’t know what a good outcome looks like, every dollar feels equally justified, which is exactly how budgets leak.
Decide where the money goes on purpose
Now split the budget. A simple, honest way to do it:
The bulk goes to what already works. If Google Ads brought you real customers last year, that’s where your reliable money sits. Keep a smaller slice, think 10 to 20%, for testing something new: a channel you haven’t tried, a different offer, a new audience. And leave a little unallocated, because opportunities and problems both turn up unannounced.
One line item people forget: the tools and people that make the work actually happen. A cheaper year where nothing gets done isn’t a saving.
Track it, or you’re just guessing again
A budget you don’t check is a New Year’s resolution, good intentions, quietly abandoned by March.
Set up basic tracking so you can see which spend turns into enquiries and sales. Google Analytics and your platform’s own reporting will tell you most of what you need. Then work out, roughly, what it costs you to win one customer through each channel. Once you know that, the decisions make themselves: put more into what’s cheap and working, pull back from what’s expensive and isn’t.
Marketing isn’t a set-and-forget purchase. It’s a handful of small corrections made regularly, which is a lot less painful than one big panicked overhaul when the numbers come in flat.
If you’d rather not do this alone
Working out where your marketing money should go and proving it’s working is exactly the kind of thing we help business owners with. No lock-in contracts, no jargon, just a clear plan you can actually follow.
Book a free 20-minute call. You’ll leave with at least one thing you can act on this week, whether you work with us or not.
