Most new small businesses plan to spend under $200 a month on marketing, and more than a quarter plan to spend nothing at all. That is the small business marketing budget nobody writes guides for. We asked 7,413 people who had just started a business what they plan to spend each month in 2026, and 1,938 of them, 26.1%, said zero. No percentage-of-revenue rule can produce that answer.
Key takeaways
- Across 7,413 businesses answering at signup (UENI onboarding data, counted 10 August 2026), 26.1% plan to spend nothing at all on marketing in 2026.
- 64.3% plan to spend between $1 and $200 a month, and counting the zero group that is 90.5% under $200.
- Only 3.8% plan to spend $500 or more, so a typical small business marketing budget sits well below the figure a percent-of-revenue rule would produce.
- The benchmark those owners get compared against was measured on 308 marketing leaders, 97% of them VP-level or above. Of the 299 who reported revenue, 87.0% are at companies turning over $10 million or more.
- Meanwhile 83.5% of American businesses have no employees at all.
What is a realistic small business marketing budget in 2026?
Businesses signing up to UENI answer a short onboarding form, and one of its questions is how much you plan to spend each month on marketing. Single choice, five options. We counted 7,413 answers to it, one per business, as of 10 August 2026. That is the sample: recent signups who reached that question, not UENI’s whole customer base, which is far larger.
In counts rather than percentages: 2,918 businesses plan to spend $1 to $50 a month, 1,938 plan to spend nothing, 1,849 plan $51 to $200, 426 plan $201 to $500 and 282 plan $500 or more.
| Planned monthly marketing budget | Businesses | Share |
|---|---|---|
| $1 to $50 | 2,918 | 39.4% |
| Nothing at all | 1,938 | 26.1% |
| $51 to $200 | 1,849 | 24.9% |
| $201 to $500 | 426 | 5.7% |
| $500 or more | 282 | 3.8% |
| Total | 7,413 | 100% |
Rolled up, 64.3% plan to spend between $1 and $200 a month, and a further 26.1% plan to spend nothing. Together that is 90.5% under $200 a month. Fewer than one in twenty-five, 3.8%, plan to spend $500 or more.
The shorthand version of this statistic misleads, so it is worth killing here. Quoting the 64.3% on its own as the under-$200 figure is wrong twice over. That band starts at $1, so it leaves out everyone planning to spend zero, and counting them the real figure is nine in ten. And these are plans, not receipts. The question asks what owners intend at the moment they are setting up. Nobody went back afterwards to check what they did, so every figure here means “plan to spend”.
How much should a small business spend on marketing?
There is a short answer and an honest one. The short answer, from what 7,413 owners actually planned in 2026: between $1 and $200 a month, which is where 64.3% of them sit, and zero is a normal answer rather than a failure. The honest one is that the marketing budget for a small business is set by what the owner can spare, not by a formula, and every formula on offer was calibrated on companies a hundred times bigger.
If you want a starting point rather than a benchmark, work from the bottom up. Take what you can lose in a month without it hurting, spend it on the surfaces that compound (your Google Business Profile, your website, your reviews), and raise it only when something is measurably working. That is closer to how nine in ten of these owners behave than any percent-of-revenue rule is.
Where the small business marketing budget benchmark comes from
The number the industry quotes at itself has a source, and it is a good one. The CMO Survey topline report, run by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business with Deloitte and the American Marketing Association, has been asking senior marketers the same questions for over fifteen years. Its 35th edition was in the field from 7 to 29 January 2026.
It contacted 2,111 marketing leaders at US for-profit companies. 308 responded, a 14.6% response rate. Asked what percent of company revenue goes to marketing, the 154 who answered gave a mean of 8.96% and a median of 5%.
That is the benchmark, and it is honestly collected and clearly reported. Who it describes is another matter.
Of the 299 respondents who reported revenue, 13.0% work at companies turning over less than $10 million, which puts 87.0% at $10 million or more, and 39.8% at $1 billion or more. Of the 307 who reported headcount, 14.3% have fewer than fifty employees, so 85.7% have fifty or more, and 19.9% have ten thousand or more. 97% of the respondents are VP-level or above.
Who the benchmark does not describe
The US Census Bureau counted 29.8 million American businesses with no employees at all in 2022, turning over $1.7 trillion between them, out of 35.7 million US businesses in total. Those figures were published by the Census Bureau on 8 May 2025.
That means 83.5% of American businesses have no employees. No marketing department, and in most cases no second person.
So the standard that gets quoted at small business owners was measured on 308 senior marketers at companies that are overwhelmingly large. It was never wrong. It was answering a different question, about a different kind of company, and it got repeated until it sounded like a rule for everyone.
Which turns the usual framing around. Small business owners are not under-spending against a standard. The standard was never about them.
What happens if you scale the benchmark down
The fair objection is that a percentage should scale. A rule of 5% of revenue asks for less money from a smaller company, so perhaps there is no gap at all once you apply it properly.
So apply it properly. Average annual receipts across those 29.8 million businesses work out at $57,047. At the CMO Survey’s median of 5%, that is $2,852 a year, or $238 a month. At its mean of 8.96%, it is $426 a month.
Set against that, 90.5% of the owners we asked plan to spend below the scaled-down benchmark, and the 26.1% planning zero are not on the scale at all.
That calculation has two weaknesses we should own. It combines two separate sources, so it is arithmetic rather than a surveyed figure. And $57,047 is a mean across a very skewed distribution, so the typical business earns considerably less, which would pull the benchmark lower still. It is context, not a headline. The measured numbers are the ones above it.
What this study is and is not
This is a sample of UENI’s recent signups: 7,413 businesses that joined a website builder aimed at very small businesses, and a fraction of the customer base rather than all of it. They are self-selected toward small budgets, and nobody drew them at random from American business. The Census figures show this kind of company is the large majority rather than a fringe, but that does not make our 7,413 a representative sample, and this piece does not claim it is one.
It also does not claim these owners are right. Whether planning to spend nothing on marketing is sensible or self-defeating is a different study and we did not run it. This one reports what people intend.
The pull has no time dimension, so it cannot say whether intentions have shifted since 2024. Twenty-three of the 7,413 answers arrived in Spanish, Portuguese, French, German or Chinese and were mapped into the same five options by exact string.
Why this matters if you sell to small businesses
If your product is priced for a company with a marketing budget, and your buyer is one of the 29.8 million without employees, the mismatch is not in their ambition. It is in the assumption underneath your pricing page.
Nine in ten of these owners plan to spend under $200 a month on marketing. A quarter plan to spend nothing. That is the market, and it is the majority of American businesses, not the tail.
It is the reason UENI’s own plan starts at $24.99 a month. A tool that costs more than the budget it serves is not a tool that market can buy. It also shows up in what owners complain about: our study of website builder complaints found the top theme was support, not price. And our Google review response study found the cheapest win available to an owner costs nothing at all.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average small business marketing budget?
Among 7,413 businesses answering at signup in UENI’s data (counted 10 August 2026), the most common small business marketing budget is $1 to $50 a month, chosen by 39.4%. A further 26.1% plan to spend nothing, 24.9% plan $51 to $200, 5.7% plan $201 to $500 and 3.8% plan $500 or more. Nine in ten, 90.5%, plan to spend under $200 a month.
How much should a small business spend on marketing as a percent of revenue?
The percentage most often quoted comes from The CMO Survey, which put marketing spend at a mean of 8.96% and a median of 5% of revenue in January 2026, on 154 valid responses. That figure was collected from 308 marketing leaders, and of the 299 who reported revenue, 87.0% work at companies turning over $10 million or more. It describes enterprise marketing, so applying it to a one-person business is comparing two different kinds of company.
Do most small businesses have a marketing budget at all?
More than a quarter do not. In our data 26.1%, which is 1,938 of 7,413 businesses, plan to spend nothing on marketing in a typical month. That is the answer no percentage-of-revenue model can produce, because a rule based on a share of revenue cannot output zero.
Is a small business marketing budget under $200 a month enough?
We did not measure that, so we cannot tell you. This study reports what owners plan to spend, not what results they got. What it does establish is that a small business marketing budget under $200 a month is the normal case rather than the exception, so advice written for larger budgets is being aimed at the wrong audience most of the time.
Where does this data come from?
It comes from a single onboarding question shown to businesses signing up to UENI: how much do you plan to spend each month on marketing. We counted 7,413 answers, one per business, as of 10 August 2026. That is a sample of recent signups rather than UENI’s full customer base. The comparison figures come from The CMO Survey topline report for 2026 and the US Census Bureau’s nonemployer business release of 8 May 2025.
Sources
- UENI onboarding data, SmartForm question 80, “how much do you plan to spend each month on marketing”. 7,413 answers, one per business, as of 10 August 2026. A sample of recent signups, not UENI’s full customer base.
- The CMO Survey Topline Report, 35th edition, Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business with Deloitte and the American Marketing Association, fielded 7 to 29 January 2026. Read the topline report.
- US Census Bureau, nonemployer business characteristics, released 8 May 2025. Read the Census release.
- UENI pricing, read 17 August 2026. See current plans.
