Ask the internet how much a small business should spend on marketing and you’ll get the same tired answer: 7–10% of revenue. It sounds precise. It’s almost useless. Here’s the honest version, owner-to-owner, with real numbers — and why the better question isn’t how much but which model.
The problem with the “10% of revenue” rule
The rule says: take your revenue, multiply by 10%, and that’s your marketing budget. Simple. The trouble is it tells you a number without telling you what that number buys — or whether it’s even enough to buy anything useful.
A business doing $500k in revenue lands on a $50k budget. Is that a full-time marketer? No — not even close. An agency retainer? Only for one discipline. A pile of software subscriptions and your own evenings? Maybe. The percentage tells you what you can afford to spend. It says nothing about what you’ll actually get for it.
And the percentage breaks at both ends. Early-stage businesses with little revenue would barely scrape together a budget — yet they need marketing the most. Established businesses can technically afford a big number but still waste it if it’s spread across the wrong model. The percentage is a ceiling, not a plan.
The real cost of your marketing isn’t a slice of revenue. It’s whichever delivery model you choose. So let’s price the models.
The four realistic options — and what each actually costs
There are four ways to get marketing done. Each has a real, knowable cost — in money, and in your time.
In-house hire. A full-time marketing generalist costs $152,000+ per year before you add payroll taxes, benefits, equipment, and tools (per Glassdoor). That’s the headline cost. The hidden one: marketing isn’t a single skill. Brand, website, social, email, ads, and collateral are different disciplines, and one generalist can’t cover them all to a high standard. You pay six figures and still don’t get the whole stack.
Traditional agency. Agencies do quality work — but they’re priced for bigger budgets than most small businesses have. Expect $3,000–$15,000+ per month per discipline. That’s the part most comparisons skip. The number isn’t for “your marketing” — it’s for one service. Need brand, website, and social covered? Stack the retainers and watch the figure multiply, each with its own multi-month lock-in.
DIY tools. The website builder, the email tool, the scheduler — call it $0–$500/month in software. Cheap, on paper. But software doesn’t do marketing; you do. Every tool you add is one more thing on your plate. It’s not really a marketing budget — it’s a time tax you pay in evenings and weekends.
Managed marketing service. A done-for-you team that runs the full stack — brand, website, awareness, and collateral — for a flat monthly fee. (Here’s exactly what a managed marketing service includes if the model is new to you.) Gameplan, for example, covers all four from $3,750/month. One number, the whole operation, no recruiting and no per-channel retainer stacking.
The question nobody asks: money AND time
Every cost comparison stops at the dollar figure. That’s only half the bill. The other half is your time — and for a small business owner, that’s the scarcer resource.
DIY tools look cheapest in cash. They’re the most expensive in hours. Every post, every page edit, every campaign is yours to build. The agency route flips it: expensive in cash, and you’re still the project manager — briefing, chasing, and stitching disciplines together yourself. A full-time hire eats both a salary and your time managing them.
A managed service is the one model that trades both away for a flat fee. You’re not doing the work, and you’re not coordinating five freelancers or a junior agency team. You get the output and your evenings back. When you price marketing, price the hours too. The cheapest invoice is rarely the cheapest option.
So what should you actually spend?
Forget the percentage. Start with the model that fits where you are — then the number follows.
If you just need a website managed — built properly, kept fast, updated when things change — that’s Ring 1. At Gameplan, website management (Ring 1 only) starts from $299/month.
If you need the full operation — brand strategy (Core), website (Ring 1), awareness including social, email and ads (Ring 2), and sales collateral like decks and one-pagers (Ring 3) — all built and run for you — the full managed service starts from $3,750/month. One flat fee, the whole stack, no six-figure salary and no per-channel retainer stacking.
Gameplan is an AI-powered managed marketing service for small businesses without a marketing team. The full service covers brand, website, awareness, and collateral for a flat $3,750/month — kickoff in 48 hours, no contracts, cancel any time.
Most owners don’t need the most expensive option. They need the one that covers what’s actually missing, without making marketing a second job. The honest test: who owns your marketing end to end, and what does that actually cost in money and time?
If you want help working out which model fits your stage, talk to us — we’ll give you the honest answer, even if it isn’t us. You can also compare the options side by side before you decide.
Gameplan is a managed marketing service built for small businesses without a marketing team. We handle brand, website, awareness, and collateral on a flat monthly fee — agency quality at a fraction of the cost, kickoff in 48 hours, cancel any time. Talk to us and we’ll honestly tell you if we’re the right fit.