Small Business Digital
How Much Should a Small Business Spend on Digital Marketing?
1 March 2025
This is the question most small business owners ask eventually, usually after spending money on something that did not work. The answer they get from most marketing sources is a percentage of revenue: spend five to ten percent of turnover on marketing. The rule of thumb exists because it is simple. It is not particularly useful.
The right amount to spend on digital marketing for a small Irish trades or service business depends on what you are trying to achieve, what a customer is worth to your business, and what the return on each marketing channel actually is. None of those variables are the same for every business.
Start with what a customer is worth
Before deciding what to spend on marketing, understand what a customer is worth to your business over time.
A plumber who fixes a boiler for €350 and never sees that customer again has a different marketing economics calculation from a garden maintenance business that charges €150 per visit and sees the same customers monthly for years. The plumber’s lifetime value per customer might be €350. The gardener’s might be €3,600 over two years.
The amount it makes sense to spend acquiring each customer scales with that value. Spending €50 in advertising to acquire a customer worth €350 is a very different proposition from spending €50 to acquire a customer worth €3,600. The first is borderline. The second is a no-brainer.
Work out your approximate lifetime value per customer before you set any marketing budget. It changes every subsequent decision.
The channels and what they cost
Google Business Profile and local SEO: Free to set up, low ongoing cost if you manage it yourself, modest cost if someone manages it for you. Return is excellent over time because it generates enquiries from people actively searching for what you do. The investment pays back repeatedly once it is established.
Google Ads: You pay per click. In most Irish trades categories, clicks cost between €1 and €5. Converting those clicks to enquiries and then to jobs depends on your website and your response speed. For a business with a high job value and a good conversion rate, Google Ads can be the highest-return paid channel available. For a business with a low job value or a slow enquiry response, the economics are harder.
Facebook and Instagram advertising: Typically lower cost per click than Google but lower intent. Someone who sees your ad on Facebook was not necessarily looking for you. The conversion from click to enquiry to job is often lower than from Google search. Can work well for awareness and for retargeting people who have already visited your website.
Website subscription: A properly maintained website at website subscription cost of €49 per month is €588 per year. If it generates three additional jobs, the return is almost certainly positive. Most businesses that get this right generate considerably more than three jobs from it.
The honest answer
For most small Irish trades businesses at the beginning of their digital journey, the right sequence is:
First, fix the free stuff. Google Business Profile, reviews, basic website with phone number visible and clear service area. Zero or near-zero cost, significant impact.
Second, add the foundational cost. A properly built and maintained website at a reasonable monthly cost. This is infrastructure, not marketing spend. It should be live before anything else.
Third, test paid channels with a small budget. Understanding when to start Google Ads matters, and €200-300 per month is enough to test whether the economics work for your specific business, your specific category, and your specific location. If a job comes from it, increase the budget. If not, review the campaign before increasing spend.
The percentage-of-revenue rule comes later, once you know what each channel costs and what it returns.
Maebh Collins works with small and micro businesses in Ireland on digital presence, local SEO, and business process automation.
Maebh Collins is a Chartered Accountant (FCA, ICAEW), Big 4 trained, with twenty years of experience building and running international businesses. She specialises in finance transformation, ecommerce operations, and digital strategy.