Free marketing calculators for smarter decisions

Results are estimates for planning only, based on the numbers you enter. Calculations run in your browser and nothing is sent to us.

There is no single correct marketing budget, but there are sensible ranges. Many businesses invest somewhere between 5% and 15% of revenue in marketing, with early-stage and fast-growing companies often investing more and established businesses with strong brands and referral flow investing less. The right figure depends on your margins, growth goals, competition and how quickly marketing pays back.

Our budget calculator starts from revenue and your stage, then shifts the recommended share up or down for your main goal. It also splits the total into channels using a typical mix for that goal. Treat it as a starting point for planning, then adjust using real performance data: channels that hit their targets earn more budget, channels that don't get fixed or cut.

Three ways to set a budget

Whichever method you use, separate working spend (media, tools, production) from people costs, keep 10% to 15% aside for experiments, and review allocation monthly.

Return on ad spend (ROAS) is revenue divided by advertising cost. A ROAS of 4 means every dollar of ads produced four dollars of revenue. It is easy to measure, which is why ad platforms report it, but it ignores the cost of the product, fulfilment and everything else.

Marketing ROI goes further by looking at profit. Our calculator uses gross profit (revenue multiplied by your gross margin) minus marketing cost, divided by marketing cost. A campaign can have an impressive ROAS and still lose money if margins are thin.

Break-even ROAS is the ROAS at which ads exactly cover product costs: one divided by gross margin. With a 40% margin, break-even ROAS is 2.5. Anything below that loses money on the first order; anything above it contributes profit. This single number is one of the most useful guardrails an e-commerce or lead-generation business can set.

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is total sales and marketing cost divided by new customers acquired in the same period. Include salaries, agency fees and tools, not just media, for a true figure.

Customer lifetime value (LTV) estimates the gross profit a customer generates over the relationship: average order or monthly revenue, multiplied by gross margin, multiplied by how many purchases or months they stay.

The LTV to CAC ratio shows whether acquisition is sustainable. A commonly used rule of thumb is around 3:1: each customer is worth about three times what it cost to win them. Below 1:1, growth destroys value. Far above 3:1 can mean you're under-investing and leaving growth on the table.

CAC payback period is how many months of gross profit it takes to recover the acquisition cost. Shorter payback means you can reinvest faster, which matters for cash-constrained and venture-backed businesses alike.

The health check scores ten foundations that we review in every marketing audit. Each unchecked item is a likely bottleneck. A score under 50% usually means the basics need attention before more spend will pay back; 50% to 80% means you have a working system with clear gaps; above 80% means you're ready to optimise and scale.

The most common gaps we see are missing conversion tracking, no documented positioning, and no retention programme. Fixing those three often improves results across every channel at once.

Marketing budget calculator

Enter annual revenue, choose your growth stage and pick your main goal. The calculator suggests a share of revenue to invest, converts it to annual and monthly budgets, and splits it across channels using a typical mix for that goal. Use the split as a starting allocation, then move money towards channels that beat their targets.

ROI and ROAS calculator

Enter what you spent on a campaign, the revenue it generated and your gross margin. You'll see ROAS, profit-based ROI, profit after marketing and your break-even ROAS, with a verdict on whether the campaign is profitable on the first order.

Break-even ROAS and max CPA

Enter average order value, gross margin and the profit you want per order. The calculator shows the minimum ROAS and maximum cost per acquisition to break even, plus target CPA and ROAS that protect your profit goal. These are the guardrails to give your media buyer or agency.

CAC and LTV calculator

Enter total sales and marketing cost for a period, new customers won in the same period, monthly revenue per customer, gross margin and average lifetime in months. You'll see CAC, lifetime value, the LTV to CAC ratio and how many months it takes to recover acquisition cost.

Marketing health check

Tick each statement that's true for your business today. The score shows how strong your foundations are; the unticked items are your priority list.

Example 1: is this campaign profitable?

An online store spends $5,000 on ads and generates $20,000 in revenue. ROAS is 4.0. With a 40% gross margin, gross profit is $8,000, so profit after marketing is $3,000 and ROI is 60%. Break-even ROAS is 1 / 0.4 = 2.5, so a ROAS of 4.0 is comfortably profitable on the first order.

Example 2: the same ROAS, a different answer

A second store also achieves a ROAS of 4.0, but its gross margin is only 20%. Break-even ROAS is 5.0, so every sale loses money on the first order. The platform dashboard looks identical for both stores; only margin-aware maths shows the difference.

Example 3: how much can we pay for a customer?

A subscription business earns $150 a month per customer at a 70% gross margin, and customers stay 24 months on average. Lifetime value is $150 x 0.7 x 24 = $2,520. To keep a 3:1 LTV to CAC ratio, acquisition cost should stay under about $840. If CAC is $500, payback takes $500 / $105 = about 4.8 months.

Whatever your type, protect a small experimentation budget. Without it, you only ever scale what worked last year.

Every calculator is only as good as the data you feed it. Before making big budget decisions, check that:

• Conversions such as leads, bookings and purchases are tracked once, not duplicated.
• Revenue in your analytics matches revenue in your finance or e-commerce system within a reasonable margin.
• Offline sales from leads are fed back into your CRM and ad platforms.
• Spend data includes every platform, agency fee and tool.
• You compare like-for-like periods and allow for your sales cycle.

Our analytics and CRO consulting helps teams fix tracking and build dashboards they trust.

• Using revenue instead of profit. ROAS without margin can make losing campaigns look like winners.
• Counting media only in CAC. Salaries, agency fees and tools are part of acquisition cost.
• Mixing periods. Spend and customers should come from the same period, allowing for your sales cycle.
• Trusting one attribution model. Compare platform data with total marketing efficiency and holdout tests.
• Averaging everything. Break results down by channel, product and customer segment to find where profit really comes from.
• Ignoring retention. A higher CAC can be fine if customers stay longer and spend more.

Want to go deeper? Read our guides on how much digital marketing costs, how to create a marketing strategy and SEO vs PPC, or explore marketing playbooks for your industry.

Calculators become most useful when they turn into targets. Once you know your break-even ROAS and maximum CPA, give your media buyer or agency three numbers: the floor (break-even), the target (break-even plus your profit goal) and the scale threshold (the level at which you'll happily increase budget).

For example, with a 50% gross margin, break-even ROAS is 2.0. You might set a target of 2.5 for profitable growth and a scale threshold of 3.0. Campaigns between 2.0 and 2.5 are reviewed and improved; campaigns above 3.0 earn more budget; campaigns below 2.0 for several weeks are paused or rebuilt.

For lead generation, do the same with cost per qualified lead, using your lead-to-customer conversion rate and customer value to set the limits. Review targets every quarter as margins, prices and conversion rates change.

Monthly numbers can mislead when demand is seasonal or sales cycles are long. A B2B company may spend heavily in one quarter and close the resulting deals in the next; an e-commerce brand may accept a lower ROAS before a peak to build audiences. Compare results across equivalent periods, such as the same month last year, and attribute revenue to the period when the marketing happened where you can.

Calculators show where you stand; a strategy shows what to do next. If the numbers raise questions, such as a ROAS below break-even, a CAC that has crept up or a weak health score, book a free strategy call. A senior consultant will review your results with you and suggest the changes likely to make the biggest difference first.

You can also estimate the cost of consulting support with our pricing planner, read how we work, or browse our marketing resources.