Advertising Budget Calculator — free media mix planner.
Tell us your revenue and goals — get a recommended monthly budget and a real channel mix across Search, Meta, LinkedIn, Display, Geofencing, Pre-Roll, Geo Video, OTT, CTV, Streaming Audio, YouTube, and Radio. Real rate-card pricing. No signup. No email gate.
Used by small businesses sizing their first paid plan and by marketing managers stress-testing their current spend. Every channel-effectiveness figure is sourced.
How much should you spend on advertising?
The 5–10% rule of thumb is too generic. The advisor below applies an industry-specific advertising-to-revenue rate, multiplied by your business stage (launching businesses spend more aggressively to build awareness before search demand exists) and your growth goal (aggressive growth requires above-baseline acquisition spend). The output is a realistic monthly range, not a flat percentage.
Channel-mix calculator with real rate-card pricing.
Twelve channels, real CPMs and minimum monthly spends from the Haugo Digital programmatic rate card. Choose your goal — leads, foot traffic, awareness, or recruiting — and your region tier. The calculator allocates by channel effectiveness for that goal (anchored on Nielsen, Westwood One, Foursquare, eMarketer, and IAB performance data), shows you which channels lock at your budget, and computes year-one media plus optional one-time video creative production.
10% baseline (SBA / Gartner industry %) × 1.30× (Growing) × 1.00× (Steady) = 13.0% of revenue/year · $65,000/yr annualized.
3–7 years in, actively scaling
Loads the channel mix below
Industry baselines anchored on SBA + Gartner + Deloitte CMO surveys · Stage and growth multipliers from established growth-stage theory · Adjust budget manually anytime
Click the dollar amount to type any budget · Slider visualizes $350–$50K (no upper cap on typed budgets)
Real rate-card minimums, real radio plan rates, real production tiers — not guesses. Send the configuration and we'll come back with a tuned plan for your market.
Get this plan reviewed & launched →It is not just a percentage estimator.
Most calculators answer either “what should I spend?” or “where should it go?” This one answers both, in order, with the budget output of Step 1 feeding directly into Step 2.
Real CPMs and minimums — not theoretical numbers. SEM and social have 3-month commits. CTV starts at $1,500/mo. Radio starts at $350/mo. Video creative production is a separate one-time cost with three tiers ($2,750 / $5,000 / $7,000) only triggered when the recommended mix actually includes video.
Sixteen distinct channel priority orderings — four goals × four region tiers — backed by Nielsen, Foursquare, Westwood One, eMarketer, and IAB performance data. A foot-traffic plan in a local market does not look like a lead-gen plan at national scale, and the calculator reflects that.
Most agency calculators ignore radio. This one integrates Local Radio at $350/mo into the same channel-mix math — useful because radio + digital pairings outperform either alone in Nielsen MMM analysis (radio delivers an incremental 20–24% reach lift on top of TV-only plans).
Every effectiveness figure on the calculator and on this page is sourced on the references page — direct links to Nielsen Insights, Westwood One blog posts, the Krugman 1972 effective-frequency paper, IRC §162, IRS Publication 334, FASB ASC 720-35, and the Schmidt & Eisend 2015 meta-analysis.
Five steps. About three minutes.
- 1Tell the advisor about your business
Enter your annual revenue (or the revenue you are targeting), your industry, your business stage (launching / growing / established / mature), and your growth goal (maintain / steady / aggressive / major expansion). The advisor multiplies an industry-specific advertising-to-revenue rate by stage and growth multipliers to recommend a realistic monthly budget range — not a flat percentage.
- 2Hand off to the channel-mix calculator
Click "Apply" to send the recommended monthly budget to the channel-mix calculator below. Choose your primary goal (leads, foot traffic, awareness, or recruiting) and region tier (Local, Regional, Nationwide-Regional, Nationwide-Local).
- 3Review the recommended channel mix
The calculator allocates your monthly budget across the channels that are most effective for your goal and region — Search, Meta, LinkedIn, Display, Geofencing, Pre-Roll Video, Geo Video, OTT, CTV, Streaming Audio, YouTube TrueView, and Radio. Channels that do not fit at your budget show as locked, with the minimum spend needed to unlock them.
- 4Adjust and lock in your plan
Add or remove channels manually. Enter existing "Other" spend (billboards, print, an agency retainer) so it is recognized but not competing. Toggle video creative production if you do not already have a commercial. The year-one media total and optional production cost update live.
- 5Get the plan reviewed (optional)
Click "Get this plan reviewed" at the bottom of the calculator to send the exact plan to an advertising specialist for confirmation, refinement, and launch — no retyping. Reply turnaround is typically same day.
The calculator covers 16 industries.
Step 1 above includes industry-specific advertising-to-revenue rates for restaurants, home services, auto dealers, healthcare, real estate, contractors, retail, addiction recovery, legal, financial, B2B services, B2C services, SaaS, nonprofits, tourism, and manufacturing. See how we approach each industry →
Calculator questions, answered.
- How much should a small business spend on advertising?
- Industry benchmarks range from 2% of revenue (auto dealers) to 15% (SaaS), with most local-service businesses landing at 5–10%. The Step 1 advisor on this page applies an industry rate × business stage multiplier × growth-goal multiplier so the recommendation actually reflects whether you are launching (1.7×), growing (1.3×), established (1.0×), or mature (0.7×) — not a flat percentage.
- Is the calculator really free?
- Yes. No signup, no email gate, no trial. The calculator runs entirely in your browser. If you want us to review your plan and turn it into an actual launch, that conversation is also free — and the click is only there because plenty of visitors ask for it.
- What channels does the calculator allocate across?
- Search/SEM, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), LinkedIn, Targeted Display, Geofencing, Pre-Roll Video, Geo Video, OTT, Connected TV, Streaming Audio, YouTube TrueView, and Local Radio. You can also enter existing "Other" spend (billboards, print, an agency retainer) so the channel-mix math accounts for it instead of competing against it.
- Where do the rate-card numbers come from?
- Real Haugo Digital programmatic rate-card minimums and CPMs — not industry averages or theoretical pricing. Radio rates start at $350/mo for entry-level local schedules and $650+/mo for a 52-week long-term plan. Channel effectiveness ordering is anchored on Nielsen, Westwood One, Foursquare, eMarketer, and IAB studies (every figure is sourced on the references page).
- Can I save or share the plan?
- Yes. The "Get this plan reviewed" button at the bottom of the calculator sends the exact plan you built — channel split, dollar allocation, year-one totals, optional video creative production — straight to us. You do not have to retype anything. You can also screenshot the calculator and email it yourself; the URL is shareable.
- Does the calculator work for businesses outside Rapid City and the Black Hills?
- Yes. The four region tiers — Local, Regional, Nationwide-Regional, and Nationwide-Local — adjust the channel mix and audience scale to fit any U.S. market. Digital channels (SEM, social, display, geofencing, CTV/OTT, audio, YouTube) work anywhere. Radio is the only channel that is location-specific to the Black Hills audiences we cover.
- How is this different from agency proposals or "marketing budget" rules of thumb?
- Agency proposals usually anchor on what the agency wants to sell. "Spend 5–10% of revenue" is a rule of thumb, not a plan. This calculator works backwards from your business stage and goal, then forwards into a specific channel split with real rate-card minimums — so you see exactly what a 5-channel plan costs at a given budget, what channels lock until your budget grows, and what production costs (one-time video creative) actually run.
- Is advertising tax-deductible?
- Yes — advertising is "ordinary and necessary" business expense under IRC §162 and IRS Publication 334, fully deductible in the year incurred. Unlike a vehicle (5-year depreciation) or equipment (7+ year depreciation), advertising deducts in full immediately. The tax callout on the calculator page links the underlying statute and FASB ASC 720-35 accounting standard if you need it for your CPA.
Want this plan reviewed by an advertising specialist?
Click the button below the calculator and your exact plan lands in our inbox — channel split, dollar allocation, year-one totals. We respond same day. Free. No commitment.
Black Hills · South Dakota · Local digital anywhere in the U.S.