Marketing budget guide
How much should you be spending on marketing?
Most New Zealand business owners have never been given a straight answer. Tell us roughly where your business is at and we will give you a sensible range, based on published benchmarks, plus a suggested split across the things that actually move the needle.
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Get your full marketing plan
See where the money should go across the five things we help with, with dollar figures for each, and practical marketing ideas for a business like yours at this stage. We will show it on this page straight away and email you a link so you can come back to it.
A few things worth knowing
Where the benchmarks come from
The CMO Survey from Duke University (Spring 2025) reports marketing spend as a share of company revenue by business type, and Gartner’s 2025 CMO Spend Survey reports an average of 7.7% across mostly very large companies. Neither is New Zealand specific, so we temper them with what we see working here.
What counts as marketing spend
Strategy, branding, website, photography, video, copy, advertising, SEO, social media, print, events, and the time or people you put into it. If you do a lot yourself, your real spend is higher than your invoices suggest.
Why new businesses spend more
A launch pays for foundations that last for years: brand, website, photography and a plan. Once those are in place the ongoing figure settles down.
What the split is for
It is a way of seeing where the money does the most good for a business like yours, not a shopping list. In practice we start with one or two things and build from there.
Want to turn the figure into a plan?
Book a free Marketing Clarity Chat and we will work through where your budget should go first, based on your goals rather than averages.
