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References & data sources

Every stat on this site has a source.

When the calculator says “CTV recall 60-70%” or “82% weekly local reach for radio,” we’re not making it up. Every claim links back to the study, publisher, or statute it came from. Verify the math yourself.

Tax-treatment notes throughout the site are general information, not legal or financial advice — talk to your CPA or attorney about how anything below applies to your specific situation.

A note on the links: each citation below links directly to the specific study, report, or statute it references. Statutes, IRS publications, FASB standards, and Census data have permanent URLs and won't move. Research publishers (Nielsen, eMarketer, Westwood One, HBR, McKinsey) occasionally reorganize their sites — if a link 404s, the report title is preserved so you can search for it on the publisher's site. Notify us if you find a broken link.

Section 1

Advertising cost benchmarks — public industry ranges (2026)

Third-party industry cost ranges we cite in our plain-English cost guides. They are starting points, not quotes — the calculator resolves the real number for your market, budget, and goal. (Our own rate-card pricing is applied privately inside the calculator, not published here.)

  • Local radio: a 30-second spot commonly runs ~$100-$300 in small markets, ~$300-$800 in mid-size cities, and ~$1,000-$5,000+ in major-metro drive time; weekly schedules range from under ~$1,000 in small towns to ~$8,000+ in large metros; radio CPM commonly ~$5-$15.
    Source
    Costs for Advertising on Radio: A 2026 Budget Guide
    Publisher
    SparkPod
    Date
    2026
    Notes
    Corroborated by The Marketing Juice (https://themarketingjuice.com/how-much-is-radio-advertising/) and Adwave 2026 Local Advertising Cost Guide (https://adwave.com/resources/local-advertising-cost-guide-2026). Rates are negotiable and vary by market, daypart, and station; committed schedules are typically discounted.
  • Geofencing display advertising commonly runs ~$3.50-$15 CPM (video ~$15-$25; CTV-geofencing ~$20-$50 CPM); most managed monthly budgets range ~$1,500-$10,000, with setup fees often ~$500-$2,000.
    Source
    How Much Does Geofencing Cost? Pricing & CPM Explained (2026)
    Publisher
    GetGeofencing
    Date
    2026
    Notes
    Range corroborated by Propellant Media (https://propellant.media/geofencing-marketing-costs-prices/) and WebFX geofencing pricing (https://www.webfx.com/digital-advertising/pricing/geofencing-cost/), reflecting GroundTruth industry CPM data. Honest caveats: iOS location-attribution limits, polygon targeting outperforms simple radius, and store-visit ROI typically takes several months to read.
  • CTV / OTT advertising commonly runs ~$25-$45 CPM (premium authenticated inventory can reach ~$55-$65); many platforms start at ~$500-$1,000/month, and some have no minimum.
    Source
    CTV Advertising Cost in 2026: Real CPM Data ($25-$45)
    Publisher
    DataLatte
    Date
    2026
    Notes
    Corroborated by MNTN (https://mountain.com/blog/ott-advertising-cost/) and Adwave CTV CPM data (https://adwave.com/resources/average-ctv-cpm-q4-2025). CPMs rise with targeting specificity and in Q4; FAST/mid-tier inventory typically prices lower than premium streamers.
  • Typical 2026 local CPM ranges by channel: streaming TV ~$15-$35, paid search ~$20-$80, paid social ~$8-$15, radio ~$5-$15, and out-of-home ~$3-$10 (cost per thousand people reached).
    Source
    Local Advertising Cost Guide: What to Expect in 2026
    Publisher
    Adwave
    Date
    2026
    Notes
    CPM = cost per thousand impressions/people reached. Channels price differently because they do different jobs (high-intent search vs. broad awareness); the right mix depends on goal, industry, market, and budget, which the calculator resolves.
  • Paid search (Google Ads) is billed per click, not per thousand impressions: the average cost per click across industries is $5.42 (2026). Cost per click and cost per lead vary widely by industry.
    Source
    Google Ads Benchmarks 2026: Competitive Data & Insights for Every Industry
    Publisher
    WordStream (LocaliQ)
    Date
    2026
    Notes
    WordStream's prior-year figure was $5.26 (2025 report: https://www.wordstream.com/blog/2025-google-ads-benchmarks). The spread by industry is large — the 2026 report shows Real Estate CPC up ~27% year over year while Apparel fell ~23%. Adwave's local guide expresses paid search as an equivalent ~$20-$80 CPM, but because search is bought per click, a "CPM" for search is a derived comparison rather than how it is actually billed.
  • LinkedIn: B2B cost per click commonly runs ~$10.48-$15.72 depending on the quarter (Q1 lowest, Q3 highest). LinkedIn is among the most expensive per-click channels because the targeting is job title, seniority, and company level.
    Source
    2025 LinkedIn Ads Benchmark Report for B2B Marketers
    Publisher
    HockeyStack Labs
    Date
    2025
    Notes
    Sample is 70+ B2B SaaS companies ($5M-$1B ARR) and roughly $28M of spend — directional for B2B advertisers, not a general or local-business benchmark. We deliberately do NOT publish a LinkedIn CPM: credible public sources disagree by roughly 5x, and none met our sourcing bar. Where a number cannot be sourced honestly, we leave it out rather than guess.
  • TikTok: platform minimum budgets are $50/day at campaign level and $20/day at ad-group level (the lifetime ad-group minimum is $20 x scheduled days). Average CPM ran ~$6.21 in June 2025, with heavy seasonal swing.
    Source
    About budgets for ads in TikTok Ads Manager
    Publisher
    TikTok Business Help Center
    Date
    Last updated August 2025
    Notes
    Minimums verified directly on TikTok's official help center: campaign daily budget must exceed $50, ad-group daily budget must exceed $20, and the lifetime ad-group minimum is $20 x scheduled days (e.g. $620 across 31 days). CPM figures come from Gupta Media's TikTok ads cost tracker (https://www.guptamedia.com/insights/tiktok-ads-cost), which reports ~$6.21 CPM as of June 2025 and shows large month-to-month movement (January 2025 ~$2.87).
  • Snapchat: average CPM ~$8.39 (June 2025), with high month-to-month volatility (January 2025 ~$6.01; April 2025 ~$12.04).
    Source
    How much do Snapchat ads cost in 2025?
    Publisher
    Gupta Media
    Date
    2025
    Notes
    Snapchat rates move faster month to month than most social platforms, so any single CPM is a snapshot rather than a stable rate. Snapchat's ad audience also skews heavily 13-34 (DataReportal / We Are Social), which makes it a demographic-fit question before it is a cost question — a cheap CPM against the wrong age band is not a bargain.
  • Streaming audio (Spotify / Pandora / iHeart): CPM commonly ~$10-$35, averaging ~$20. Podcast advertising commonly runs ~$20 CPM pre-roll and ~$25 CPM mid-roll.
    Source
    2026 U.S. Media CPM Benchmark Report (Version 1.0)
    Publisher
    Adsposure
    Date
    2026
    Notes
    Disclosure: Adsposure is a transit / out-of-home advertising company, so it has a directional interest in digital CPMs appearing high. Its figures are aggregated from 40+ cited third-party sources (Solomon Partners, IAB, eMarketer) rather than proprietary data — we cite it as an aggregated cross-media benchmark, not a neutral primary study. Podcast CPMs are corroborated independently by Ad Results Media, a major podcast buying agency publishing its own observed rates (~$20 pre-roll / ~$25 mid-roll): https://www.adresultsmedia.com/news-insights/how-much-do-podcast-ads-cost/. Host-read spots and large shows run materially higher.
  • Targeted display CPM depends on the inventory tier: the Google Display Network averages ~$3.12 CPM, open-exchange programmatic ~$5.85, and curated private-marketplace inventory ~$8.20 (2026 cross-industry averages). Standard static banners average ~$2.85 CPM. Cross-network display viewability averages 72% — meaning roughly 28% of display impressions never meet the industry standard of being half-visible for one second — and display converts at ~0.71% against ~4.40% for paid search.
    Source
    Display Advertising Benchmarks 2026: 150+ Data Points
    Publisher
    Digital Applied
    Date
    April 2026
    Notes
    Neutral ad-tech source — no out-of-home or media-owner conflict of interest. The report aggregates WordStream Display Industry Benchmarks Q1 2026, The Trade Desk and Amazon DSP platform reporting, IAB Tech Lab data, and MRC-audited viewability providers (IAS, DoubleVerify, MOAT). It also anchors our retargeting figures: display retargeting converts at ~1.42% vs ~0.34% for cold prospecting. Display is inexpensive per impression precisely because attention per impression is low — a support channel, not a closer (see also the IAB display-recall citation in the Channel effectiveness section).
  • YouTube: CPM commonly ~$5-$10 for most advertisers. YouTube is usually bought per view rather than per impression — see the TrueView cost-per-view citation (~$0.02-$0.04 CPV) in the Channel effectiveness section.
    Source
    YouTube Ads Benchmarks (2026)
    Publisher
    Store Growers
    Date
    2026
    Notes
    Corroborated independently by Gupta Media, which tracked YouTube CPM at $7.61 in October 2025 (https://www.guptamedia.com/social-media-ads-cost). US campaigns typically run above global averages, and December is the seasonal peak. Because TrueView only charges when a viewer actually watches, cost-per-view is the number that governs a YouTube budget in practice.
  • Paid search (Google + Microsoft Ads): average conversion rate 8.18% and average cost per lead $66.69 across all industries (2026). Average cost per click is $5.42 — more than double the $2.32 of ten years ago.
    Source
    Google Ads Benchmarks 2026: Competitive Data & Insights for Every Industry
    Publisher
    WordStream (LocaliQ)
    Date
    May 2026
    Notes
    Drawn from WordStream's analysis of accounts running April 2025 through March 2026 — the freshest comparable search benchmark available. This supersedes the older ~7% (2024) conversion-rate figure cited under Channel effectiveness; both are retained so the trend is visible. Notably, 2026 is the first year in five that average cost per lead in Google and Microsoft Ads has actually fallen.
  • Paid social (Meta lead campaigns): average conversion rate 7.72% and average cost per lead $27.66 across all industries. Cost per click is $1.92 for lead campaigns and $0.70 for traffic campaigns.
    Source
    Facebook Ads Benchmarks 2025: New Data, Trends & Insights for Your Industry
    Publisher
    WordStream (LocaliQ)
    Date
    September 2025
    Notes
    IMPORTANT CAVEAT ON COMPARING THIS WITH SEARCH: this is WordStream's 2025 Facebook report, while the search figures above come from its 2026 Google report. The two data sets cover different periods, so the cost-per-lead gap between them is directional, not precise. Where WordStream compares the two inside a single report, it puts Facebook lead-campaign cost per click at $1.92 against $5.26 for Google Ads. Meta cost per lead ranges enormously by industry — from $3.16 (restaurants and food) to $76.71 (dentists) — and Meta lead-campaign conversion rate fell year over year in 12 of 15 industries.
  • Advertising agency management fees run 10-20% of monthly ad spend as the industry standard, and 20-25% at the smallest spend levels ($1,000-$5,000/month). The median US agency retainer is about $3,000/month. A fee of 5% of spend or less is a red flag for set-and-forget management.
    Source
    Digital Marketing Pricing 2026: What Agencies Charge
    Publisher
    Digital Applied
    Date
    April 2026
    Notes
    CONFLICT OF INTEREST DISCLOSED: Digital Applied is itself a marketing agency, so a guide advising what agencies should charge is not a disinterested source — its "prices that are too low" section is self-serving. We cite it anyway because the 10-20% figure is the consistent public benchmark across independent pricing surveys, and because its own fee table is the fact that argues against hiring an agency at a small budget: at $1,000-$5,000/month in spend, management runs 20-25% of the money. We publish that number precisely because it cuts against us. We do not cite this source's marketing-budget-as-percent-of-revenue table (it recommends 12-20% for businesses under $1M, well above the SBA baseline we use) or its email-ROI figure.
Section 2

Search Advertising (Google Ads) Cost-Per-Click Benchmarks by Industry

What a click actually costs on Google Ads, by industry. Search is priced per click rather than per thousand impressions, so this is the benchmark that answers "what will a click cost me?" — the single most common question we get about search advertising. These are national medians, not quotes.

  • The average cost-per-click on Google Ads search is $5.42 across all industries, but the spread by industry is wide — from $1.63 (Arts & Entertainment) to $9.87 (Legal). High-consideration, high-customer-value categories cost the most per click; impulse and low-ticket categories cost the least.
    Median cost-per-click, Google Ads search, by industry (USD)
    IndustryMedian CPC
    Legal$9.87
    Home & Home Improvement$8.33
    Dentists & Dental Services$8.00
    Personal Services$7.17
    Health & Fitness$6.17
    Business Services$5.87
    Industrial & Commercial$5.87
    Career & Employment$5.81
    Education & Instruction$4.81
    Physicians & Surgeons$4.76
    Beauty & Personal Care$4.62
    Apparel / Fashion & Jewelry$4.44
    Automotive — Repair, Service & Parts$4.35
    Shopping, Collectibles & Gifts$4.14
    Animals & Pets$4.06
    Furniture$3.97
    Finance & Insurance$3.39
    Real Estate$3.22
    Sports & Recreation$2.77
    Automotive — For Sale$2.27
    Travel$2.14
    Restaurants & Food$2.05
    Arts & Entertainment$1.63
    All industries — overall average$5.42
    Source
    Google Ads Benchmarks 2026 (Susie Marino)
    Publisher
    WordStream / LocaliQ
    Date
    Updated May 19, 2026
    Notes
    Based on 13,474 US-based Google Ads and Microsoft Ads search campaigns running April 1, 2025 – March 31, 2026. Figures are medians, not averages of averages. IMPORTANT CAVEAT — these are national medians for Google Ads search: your actual cost-per-click varies substantially by local market, by keyword, by how many competitors are bidding, and by your Quality Score. Treat them as a sense of scale, not a quote. The calculator does not plan from these numbers — it sizes a specific search budget from real rate-card pricing for your market, budget, and goal.
Section 3

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) Benchmarks by Channel

ROAS is revenue divided by ad spend — a revenue metric, NOT profit. There is no universal "good" ROAS: what counts as good depends on your margin, your customer lifetime value, and your business model. A 3x ROAS is excellent on a 70%-margin service and a losing trade on a 20%-margin product. Read the numbers below with three caveats attached. First, they are cross-industry benchmarks drawn largely from ecommerce and DTC datasets, where every sale is tracked online. Second, local-service businesses — where much of the revenue arrives as a phone call, a form fill, or a walk-in — are genuinely harder to measure, and their real returns may differ from these figures in either direction. Third, the spread between industries is wide and sample-dependent, so a cross-industry median is a sense of scale, not a forecast for your business.

  • Meta (Facebook / Instagram) returns roughly 2.2x ROAS across all industries (2.19x, 2025).
    Source
    Average ROAS for Facebook Ads 2025
    Publisher
    Trendtrack
    Date
    2025
    Notes
    All-industry average. Meta is an interruption channel — it reaches people who were not looking for you — so a lower ROAS than search is expected and is not evidence the channel is failing.
  • TikTok returns roughly 1.4x ROAS (1.41x median, H2 2025).
    Source
    What Is a Good ROAS for Ecommerce
    Publisher
    Billo
    Date
    H2 2025
    Notes
    Median across Billo's dataset (80,000+ Meta ads, H2 2025, plus 5,000+ advertiser search data). TikTok's measured ROAS is the lowest of the major paid channels in this dataset; its strength sits earlier in the funnel than last-click revenue attribution captures.
  • The cross-industry ecommerce average across all paid channels is roughly 2.87x (2025). The commonly cited general benchmark range is 2:1 to 4:1, and Google's own stated baseline is 2:1.
    Reported ROAS by channel — cross-industry, national (revenue ÷ ad spend, not profit)
    ChannelReported ROASSource
    Google Search / SEM~4.5x - 5.2xFocus Digital 5.17x; Billo 4.52x
    Meta (Facebook / Instagram)~2.2xTrendtrack 2.19x
    TikTok~1.4xBillo 1.41x
    All paid channels — ecommerce average~2.87x2025 cross-industry
    General benchmark range2:1 - 4:1Google baseline 2:1
    Source
    What Is a Good ROAS for Ecommerce
    Publisher
    Billo
    Date
    2025
    Notes
    This table reports what these publishers measured. It is NOT the model the calculator plans from — the campaign planner allocates by measured channel effectiveness, real vendor minimums, and real rate-card pricing for your specific market, goal, and budget. No figure in this table is used to size a channel.
  • The spread between industries is very wide and sample-dependent — roughly 0.7x (financial services) to about 6.9x (heavy equipment) on paid search.
    Source
    ROAS Benchmarks 2026: Average ROAS by Industry
    Publisher
    WebFX
    Date
    2025
    Notes
    The size of this spread is the point: a cross-industry average conceals a nearly 10x range between the weakest and strongest verticals. Any single "average ROAS" number should be treated as a sense of scale, never as a forecast for a specific business.
  • ROAS is harder to measure honestly than it looks — particularly for businesses whose revenue arrives offline, and particularly where platform-reported figures are taken at face value.
    Source
    What Is a Good ROAS in 2025
    Publisher
    WhatConverts
    Date
    April 2025
    Notes
    Varos data, April 2025. The measurement problem is structural, not a detail: platform-reported ROAS credits the platform for conversions it may not have caused (see the branded-search and retargeting incrementality citations elsewhere on this page), and revenue that lands as a phone call or a walk-in is invisible to the ad platform unless it is deliberately tracked back. This is why we treat any ROAS figure — including the ones on this page — as a benchmark to reason with, not a promise to make.
Section 4

Channel effectiveness — measured performance data

The calculator on this site ranks channels by statistically measured effectiveness for each goal. These are the studies and reports that anchor those rankings.

  • AM/FM radio reaches ~82% of US adults weekly (2023, down from ~92% in 2018).
    Source
    Nielsen Audio Today — How America Listens (June 2023)
    Publisher
    Nielsen
    Date
    2023
    Notes
    Weekly cume reach across all AM/FM radio listeners aged 12+. Nielsen publishes ongoing audio-listening updates through its Insights portal; this is the most recent comparable report. Westwood One has also published the underlying Nielsen 18-49 weekly-reach figure (81%) at: https://www.westwoodone.com/blog/2023/10/23/nielsen-total-audience-am-fm-radio-ratings-continue-to-beat-tv-among-persons-18-49/
  • Of all the time Americans spend each day with ad-supported audio, 82% goes to AM/FM radio and podcasts, while 16% goes to ad-supported streaming music services. US consumers spend nearly four hours a day with audio in total.
    Source
    The Record: Q1 U.S. audio listening trends
    Publisher
    Nielsen (with Edison Research Share of Ear)
    Date
    June 2026
    Notes
    This is a share-of-listening-TIME measure, not a reach measure — do not confuse it with the separate ~82% weekly-reach figure above, which happens to share the same number by coincidence. The 82% here is AM/FM radio (over-the-air and station streams) PLUS podcasts combined; it is not a claim about broadcast radio alone. Nielsen's framing: "if you are not building audio campaigns around a combined radio and podcast strategy, you are missing the vast majority of the daily ad supported audio audience." Note the direction of the bias check — this figure is favourable to a medium we own, so it is stated here at exactly the scope the source states it, and we do not extend it into an ROI or effectiveness claim.
  • Connected TV reaches ~87% of US households; ad recall 60-70%, completion rate ~95% on non-skippable inventory.
    Source
    Nielsen: U.S. TV household data reveals shifting trends
    Publisher
    Nielsen
    Date
    2024
    Notes
    Nielsen tracks CTV household penetration and ad-recall benchmarks through its Insights portal; current The Gauge dashboard tracks streaming share live at https://www.nielsen.com/data-center/the-gauge/
  • AM/FM radio drives an incremental 20-24% reach lift on top of TV-only campaigns.
    Source
    Nielsen: AM/FM Radio Elevates The Media Plan With Dramatic Lifts In Incremental Reach
    Publisher
    Nielsen + Westwood One
    Date
    2024
    Notes
    Across five Nielsen Media Impact case studies commissioned by Westwood One, AM/FM radio generated a +20% lift in incremental reach; in a separate retailer ROI study Nielsen reported +24% incremental reach to TV media plans.
  • AM/FM radio delivers stronger ROAS than commonly perceived, with AM/FM and streaming audio both top-tier in Nielsen MMM rankings.
    Source
    The Business Case for AM/FM Radio Advertising: Be Known Before You're Needed
    Publisher
    Westwood One Audio Active Group
    Date
    2025
    Notes
    Westwood One's aggregated audio ROI research finds $1 invested in audio generates ~$3.12 of profit within 1-13 weeks and ~$6.29 over a two-year period; Nielsen MMM analysis of 2,857 campaigns consistently ranks AM/FM radio as a top-tier ROI medium.
  • Streaming audio reaches 67%+ of US adults monthly; ad recall 35-45%.
    Source
    US Digital Audio Listeners and Penetration Forecasts
    Publisher
    eMarketer / Insider Intelligence
    Date
    2024
    Notes
    eMarketer forecast tracks monthly US digital-audio listener penetration; current figure exceeds 70% per topic-page summary at https://www.emarketer.com/topics/category/digital%20audio
  • Geofencing campaigns drive 10-30% measurable foot traffic lift in attributed visits.
    Source
    Foursquare Attribution — Omnichannel Store Visit Measurement
    Publisher
    Foursquare
    Date
    2023
    Notes
    Foursquare Attribution case studies report foot-traffic lifts from 2.5% (broad reach) to 23% (QSR mobile-app campaigns) to 30%+ (competitor-conquest targeting); methodology detailed at https://foursquare.com/resources/blog/ad-tech/location-foursquares-attribution-methodology-takes-your-media-dollars-further/
  • Geofencing campaigns drive measurable foot traffic and store-visit attribution.
    Source
    Foot Traffic Attribution & Analytics — Comprehensive Guide
    Publisher
    Reveal Mobile
    Date
    2023
  • Meta (Facebook + Instagram) brand-lift studies report 8-15% ad recall lift on awareness campaigns.
    Source
    About Brand Lift Tests — Meta Business Help Center
    Publisher
    Meta for Business
    Date
    2023-2024
    Notes
    Meta's Brand Lift Studies use randomized control trial methodology and report ad recall lift as the primary awareness-objective metric; methodology guide at https://www.facebook.com/business/m/brand-lift-questions-guide
  • YouTube is the world's second-most-visited website (Similarweb, 2025) and is widely cited as the second-largest search engine after Google.
    Source
    Search Engine Land — YouTube SEO
    Publisher
    Search Engine Land
    Date
    2025
    Notes
    YouTube draws tens of billions of monthly visits and processes billions of searches. The "second-largest search engine" framing is common in industry sources, though strict search-engine query-volume rankings vary. Secondary source: Similarweb global website rankings — https://proxidize.com/research/most-popular-websites/
  • Brands that stop advertising ("go dark") tend to lose sales and market share, and recovery costs more than the pause saved.
    Source
    Ehrenberg-Bass Institute — Scientific proof that going dark kills brands
    Publisher
    Ehrenberg-Bass Institute
    Date
    2023
    Notes
    Ehrenberg-Bass Institute research (Journal of Advertising Research; Hartnett et al. 2021, Phua et al. 2023) found ~16% average sales decline after a year without advertising, with market share down ~10% / 20% / 28% after one / two / three years; rebuilding brand memories requires greater investment than was cut. Secondary source: Journal of Advertising Research (2023) — https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2501/JAR-2023-009
  • Retargeting display delivers significantly higher CTR than cold prospecting (~0.7% vs ~0.07%) and 3-10x ROAS lift.
    Source
    How to Establish Marketing KPIs That Work for Your Business
    Publisher
    Criteo
    Date
    2023
    Notes
    Industry benchmarks consistently show retargeting CTR at ~10x the prospecting rate (0.7% vs 0.07%) and Meta retargeting ROAS at 5-8x vs 2-4x for prospecting.
  • New ad campaigns typically deliver 70-80% of benchmark ROAS during the first 3 months; peak performance lands months 4-9 as conversion data accumulates, retargeting pools mature, and search/social bidding stabilizes.
    Source
    State of Marketing Report 2024 + Google Ads optimization timelines
    Publisher
    HubSpot / WordStream / Meta Business
    Date
    2024
    Notes
    Multiple sources confirm: Google Ads requires a "learning period" of 7+ conversions per ad group before bidding stabilizes (Google Ads Help). Meta's machine-learning phase needs ~50 conversions in 7 days before audience optimization plateaus (Meta Business: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/433385333434831). WordStream benchmark studies show conversion-rate improvement of 25-40% from month 1 to month 6 as account history accumulates. HubSpot finds median time-to-peak-ROAS across paid channels is 4-9 months for accounts that maintain consistent budget and structure.
  • YouTube TrueView view rate ~31-32% cross-industry average; CPV $0.02-0.04 typical range.
    Source
    About YouTube ads and view metrics
    Publisher
    Google Ads Help / Think with Google
    Date
    2024
    Notes
    Q1 2026 data shows skippable in-stream cross-network CPV at $0.024, YouTube-only range $0.029-$0.039. Above 35% view rate is good, 45%+ is excellent.
  • Display advertising ad recall 5-15%; banner blindness limits awareness lift.
    Source
    IAB Research & Insights
    Publisher
    IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau)
    Date
    2023
    Notes
    IAB/Dynamic Logic studies (originally 2001) plus subsequent eye-tracking research from Lumen and Nielsen consistently show display banners deliver lower attention and recall than other digital formats; 56% of display impressions per Google measurement data are never seen by a human.
  • 5-to-7 brand exposures typically required before a consumer takes action.
    Source
    "Why Three Exposures May Be Enough" — Krugman 1972
    Publisher
    Journal of Advertising Research (Taylor & Francis)
    Date
    1972 (foundational); extended by Schmidt & Eisend 2015 meta-analysis
    Notes
    Original Krugman paper at the Tandfonline link. The Schmidt & Eisend (2015) meta-analysis in Journal of Advertising — https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00913367.2015.1018460 — finds attitude maxes around 10 exposures and recall increases linearly through 8 exposures, supporting the modern 5-7 (awareness) / 6-9 (conversion) ranges over the original 3-exposure rule.
  • ~70% of US adults use Facebook; ~30% engage daily.
    Source
    Social Media Fact Sheet
    Publisher
    Pew Research Center
    Date
    2024
  • Approximately 85% of US adults use Google for search-driven decisions.
    Source
    Search Engine Market Share (US)
    Publisher
    StatCounter Global Stats
    Date
    2024
  • 88% of US households have at least one streaming video service; pay-TV penetration now at 64%.
    Source
    Major Pay-TV Providers Lost ~5,000,000 Subscribers in 2023 (LRG Press Release)
    Publisher
    Leichtman Research Group
    Date
    2024
    Notes
    LRG's research tracks both pay-TV and streaming household penetration; additional reports at https://leichtmanresearch.com/research/
Section 5

Tax & accounting — advertising as a deductible investment

When we say "advertising is 100% deductible" or "brand equity becomes goodwill at sale," these are the underlying statutes and accounting standards.

  • Advertising is an "ordinary and necessary" business expense, fully deductible in the year incurred.
    Source
    Internal Revenue Code Section 162
    Publisher
    US Code via Cornell LII
    Date
    Current
    Notes
    At a typical 20–30% combined effective tax rate, the effective after-tax cost is roughly 70–80% of the amount spent.
  • IRS guidance confirming advertising as a deductible business expense.
    Source
    IRS Publication 535 — Business Expenses (and successors Pub 334 / Pub 463)
    Publisher
    Internal Revenue Service
    Date
    Final Pub 535 published 2022; current guidance in Pub 334 (sole proprietors) and Pub 463 (business expenses)
    Notes
    Pub 535 was retired after the 2022 tax year. Equivalent advertising-deduction guidance is now in IRS Publication 334 (chapter on business expenses) and Publication 463. The underlying statute — IRC §162 — has not changed.
  • Acquired goodwill and intangible assets are amortized over 15 years as Section 197 intangibles.
    Source
    Internal Revenue Code Section 197
    Publisher
    US Code via Cornell LII
    Date
    Current
  • Advertising costs are expensed as incurred under generally accepted accounting principles.
    Source
    FASB ASC 720-35 — Advertising Costs
    Publisher
    Financial Accounting Standards Board
    Date
    Current
  • Vehicles depreciate over 5 years; office furniture / equipment over 7 years.
    Source
    MACRS Depreciation Schedules (IRC Section 168)
    Publisher
    Internal Revenue Service
    Date
    Current
Section 6

Industry advertising-spend benchmarks

The "5-10% of revenue" rule of thumb and the industry-specific multipliers in Step 1 of the calculator come from these benchmarks.

  • Average small-business marketing spend is 5-10% of revenue; aggressive growth or new-market entry typically requires 12-20%.
    Source
    SBA Small Business Marketing Guidance
    Publisher
    US Small Business Administration
    Date
    Current
  • CMO survey data on marketing spend as a percentage of revenue, by industry.
    Source
    Gartner Annual CMO Spend Survey
    Publisher
    Gartner Research
    Date
    2023-2024
  • Industry-specific advertising-to-revenue ratios (legal, healthcare, restaurants, home services, etc.).
    Source
    Deloitte CMO Survey
    Publisher
    Deloitte / Duke Fuqua / AMA
    Date
    2023-2024
  • Lifetime customer value vs customer acquisition cost benchmarks across local-service categories.
    Source
    HubSpot State of Marketing Report
    Publisher
    HubSpot
    Date
    2024
  • Industry-specific advertising spend as a percentage of revenue (used directly in Step 1 of the Budget Size Advisor):
    Source
    Composite of SBA + Gartner CMO Spend Survey + Deloitte CMO Survey + industry trade reports
    Publisher
    SBA / Gartner / Deloitte / Statista
    Date
    2023-2024
    Notes
    Home services / contractors 10% · Real estate brokerage / office 10% · Retail / e-commerce 9% · B2C services (local) 8% · Tourism / events 8% · Addiction recovery / behavioral 7% · Other business 7% · Legal / professional services 6% · Healthcare / clinics 5% · Financial / insurance 5% · B2B services 5% · Nonprofit 5% · Restaurants / bars / hospitality 4% · Real estate — agent / team 4% · Manufacturing / industrial 3% · Auto dealers 2% · SaaS / tech 15%. Real estate is split in two: an individual agent or team is rated at 4% because their "revenue" is gross commission income, most of which goes to broker splits, tax and expenses, while a brokerage or office keeps its commissions and can sustain the textbook 10%. Retail / e-commerce is rated at 9% as a mid-range across retail sizes — see the retail-baseline citation below for the full CMO Survey spread (enterprise retail ~5-6%, mid-market omnichannel ~9-12%, small DTC e-commerce 15-20%+). These percentages are the industry baseline only; the stage multiplier and the growth-goal multiplier adjust from there. IMPORTANT: these percentages are a MARKETING budget (they cover website, SEO, content, tools and staff as well as ads). Only a portion of a marketing budget buys paid media — see the paid-media-share citation below, which is the fraction the calculator applies before it plans your channels.
Section 7

Budget Size Advisor — stage and growth multipliers

The Step 1 calculator applies a stage multiplier and a growth-goal multiplier on top of the industry baseline. The multipliers are not pulled out of thin air — each one comes from established growth-stage theory and marketing-funnel research.

  • Launching businesses typically need 1.5-2x the industry baseline to build initial awareness; growth-stage 1.2-1.4x; established 1.0x; mature 0.6-0.8x.
    Source
    Making the Business Case for Your Marketing Budget
    Publisher
    Harvard Business Review
    Date
    2018-2024
    Notes
    Calculator uses: Launching 1.7x, Growing 1.3x, Established 1.0x, Mature 0.7x. Anchored on HBR research and McKinsey marketing-effectiveness studies; HBR's analysis of 4,700 companies across recessions also found companies maintaining or increasing marketing spend grew up to 17% faster post-downturn.
  • Aggressive growth targets typically require 1.3-1.5x the maintenance budget; major expansion 1.6-2x.
    Source
    The Multiplier Effect: How B2B Winners Grow
    Publisher
    McKinsey & Company
    Date
    2023
    Notes
    Calculator uses: Maintain 0.8x, Steady 1.0x, Aggressive 1.4x, Major expand 1.8x. McKinsey finds B2B winners pursuing 5 simultaneous growth strategies (advanced sales tech, hybrid sales, hyperpersonalization, marketplaces, e-commerce excellence) are 2x more likely to capture 10%+ market share growth — and that level of acquisition requires above-baseline marketing investment.
  • Goal-mode (target-revenue) campaigns require ~1.25x the baseline maintenance spend because acquiring new revenue costs more than retaining existing.
    Source
    The Value of Keeping the Right Customers
    Publisher
    Harvard Business Review (Reichheld / Bain & Company)
    Date
    2014 (foundational); reaffirmed 2020-2024
    Notes
    Reichheld's Bain research finds acquiring a new customer is 5-25x more expensive than retaining one, and a 5% retention improvement increases profits by 25-95%. The 1.25x boost in goal-mode reflects the additional acquisition investment required to grow into a target revenue number rather than maintain current.
  • 5-10% of revenue rule of thumb anchored on SBA guidance for small business marketing budgets.
    Source
    How Much Should I Spend on Marketing?
    Publisher
    US Small Business Administration
    Date
    Current
    Notes
    SBA recommends 7-8% for B2C, 2-5% for B2B, with newer or aggressively-growing businesses spending 12-20%.
  • CMO Survey industry-rate data: marketing budget as % of revenue, by sector. (General citation linked from every industry baseline in Step 1.)
    Source
    The CMO Survey (biannual cross-industry data)
    Publisher
    Duke Fuqua School of Business / Deloitte / AMA
    Date
    2024 H2
    Notes
    Publishes biannual cross-industry data on marketing budget as % of revenue. Latest report shows wide variation by sector (consumer services 12.4%, B2B services 6.2%, B2B products 4.3%, healthcare 4.2%, retail 9-12% mid-market, SaaS 12-20%, restaurants 3-5%, home services 8-12%, etc.). Calculator baselines pick a working mid-point per industry; stage and growth multipliers adjust from there.
  • Retail and e-commerce baseline of 9% of revenue spent on advertising. Anchor for the calculator's "Retail / e-commerce" industry preset.
    Source
    The CMO Survey — Marketing Spending by Industry Sector (B2C product 11.7% / B2C services 12.4% / large retail anchors 5-6% / DTC e-com 15-20%)
    Publisher
    Duke Fuqua School of Business / Deloitte / AMA
    Date
    2024 H2
    Notes
    CMO Survey reports a wide retail/e-commerce range across business size and channel mix: enterprise retail anchors around 5-6% of revenue, mid-market omnichannel retail around 9-12%, and small DTC e-commerce brands often run 15-20%+ of revenue on paid acquisition. The calculator uses 9% as a mid-range default; the stage and growth-goal multipliers adjust from there.
  • Effective-frequency theory: most consumers need 5-7 brand exposures before they take action.
    Source
    The 5 Key Learnings From The Attention Stage (Lumen Research)
    Publisher
    Lumen Research (with original Krugman 1972 foundation)
    Date
    1972-present (2025 attention update)
    Notes
    Lumen's eye-tracking research finds an ad seen once delivers ~9% spontaneous recall; five exposures raises recall to 56%. Original Krugman 1972 paper at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00218499.1972.12519370 and Schmidt & Eisend 2015 meta-analysis at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00913367.2015.1018460 extend the 3-exposure threshold into the modern 5-7 (awareness) / 6-9 (conversion) range.
Section 8

Local market data — Rapid City & the Black Hills

Audience figures and station details for the Rapid City DMA and the four Black Hills stations referenced on this site.

  • Rapid City DMA market size, demographic composition, and household totals.
    Source
    Nielsen Data Center — The Gauge (live US TV viewing share)
    Publisher
    Nielsen
    Date
    2023-2024
  • KICK 104 (KIQK-FM), 95.1 KSKY (KSQY-FM), HITS 102.7 (KXMZ-FM), and ESPN Rapid City (KTOQ AM/FM) station-level reach, coverage, and audience composition.
    Source
    Internal station summary sheet (Haugo Broadcasting) + FCC station data
    Publisher
    FCC station database
    Date
    Current
  • Mount Rushmore National Memorial draws roughly 2.4–3 million recreation visits a year and Badlands National Park about 1 million (National Park Service); combined with Custer State Park, regional attraction visitation exceeds four million.
    Source
    National Park Service — Visitor Use Statistics
    Publisher
    National Park Service
    Date
    2024
    Notes
    South Dakota hosts roughly 14 million visitors annually, with the Black Hills the state's primary draw. NPS recreation-visit statistics are published via the NPS Visitor Use Statistics portal. Secondary source: South Dakota tourism visitation (Reader's Digest, 2024) — https://www.rd.com/article/mount-rushmore-road-trip/
Section 9

Methodology notes

How the calculator computes recommended budget, effective frequency, and channel-mix allocation.

  • Effective frequency target of 3+ exposures for awareness, 4-6+ for conversion-stage campaigns.
    Source
    Advertising Repetition: A Meta-Analysis on Effective Frequency in Advertising (Schmidt & Eisend, 2015)
    Publisher
    Journal of Advertising (Taylor & Francis)
    Date
    2015 meta-analysis (extending Krugman 1972)
    Notes
    Meta-analysis finds attitude peaks around ten exposures and recall increases linearly through eight exposures, supporting the repetitionist school over the minimalist school. Original Krugman 1972 paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00218499.1972.12519370
  • Frequency sweet-spot and saturation thresholds by campaign goal — Leads 4× min / 6-10× sweet / 12-20× heavy / 20×+ saturation; Foot traffic 5× / 7-12× / 15-25× / 25×+; Awareness 3× / 5-10× / 15-25× / 30×+; Recruit 3× / 5-8× / 10-15× / 15×+. Past saturation, additional impressions produce diminishing returns and risk ad fatigue.
    Source
    Schmidt & Eisend (2015) meta-analysis of advertising-repetition studies; Tellis "Effective Frequency" (Journal of Advertising Research) and the IAB Programmatic Standards on effective reach & frequency
    Publisher
    Journal of Advertising (Taylor & Francis), Journal of Advertising Research (ARF/JAR), Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)
    Date
    1997 (Tellis); 2015 (Schmidt & Eisend); IAB current
    Notes
    Schmidt & Eisend (2015) is the modern definitive meta-analysis (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00913367.2015.1018460) showing attitude peaks around 10 exposures and recall plateaus past ~8. Gerard J. Tellis "Effective Frequency: One Exposure or Three Factors?" Journal of Advertising Research (https://www.journalofadvertisingresearch.com/content/37/4/75) establishes the diminishing-returns curve and saturation point. IAB Programmatic Standards on reach and frequency: https://www.iab.com/topics/programmatic-advertising/. Foot-traffic and B2B-recruit upper bounds are anchored on Foursquare attribution studies (https://foursquare.com/business/) and LinkedIn Marketing Solutions audience reach benchmarks (https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/insights/reach).
  • Channel CPMs and minimums on the calculator anchored on real digital rate-card data (Haugo Digital rate card) and current market averages.
    Source
    Haugo Digital programmatic rate card
    Publisher
    Haugo Broadcasting Digital
    Date
    Current
  • Targeted email deployment carries vendor-guaranteed performance minimums of a 15% open rate and 1.7% click-through rate (floors — actual performance meets or exceeds), at a $25 CPM with a 40,000-email ($1,000) minimum send. At the guaranteed floor, cost per click is at most $1.47 ($25 ÷ 1,000 emails ÷ 1.7%).
    Source
    Marketron Broadcast Solutions spec sheet + owner first-party data
    Publisher
    Marketron Broadcast Solutions
    Date
    2026
    Notes
    Owner-attested: this agency is an authorized Marketron reseller; vendor materials on file (same first-party standing as the Haugo Broadcasting rate-card citations). The audience is rented, double-opt-in third-party data — people who researched the service category within the last 24-48 hours — not a list the advertiser owns. Guarantee figures are the vendor's stated minimums, not an agency performance promise.
  • Audience-size estimates per region (Local ~75K, Area ~300K, Region ~1.5M, State ~5M) are working approximations derived from Census-block-level US adult population in the Rapid City DMA and surrounding DMAs, scaled to the geographic radius of each tier.
    Source
    US Census ACS 5-Year Estimates
    Publisher
    US Census Bureau
    Date
    2022 5-year ACS
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