What share of your marketing budget should social get?

Key takeaways

The percentage of marketing budget for social media should follow where your buyers find you. As a GBL rule of thumb, give social 30–50% when it is your main source of new customers, 15–30% when it shares the job with search, and 10–15% when it mainly reassures people sent by referrals.

• 30–50% when social media is your main source of new buyers.
• 15–30% when social shares the work with search and your website.
• 10–15% when social mainly backs up referrals and repeat business.
• Review the share every 90 days against where enquiries came from.

How do you find the right share for your business?

Ask your last 20 customers how they found you and what they checked before buying. If most saw you on Instagram or Facebook first, social earns a large share. If most searched Google and glanced at your profiles, social is a support channel and the website and search deserve more.

• Social media budget for a UK small business
• 'How did you hear about us?' Asking the question properly

Which businesses give social media the biggest share?

Visual, local and impulse businesses give social the most: salons, cafes, florists, gyms, venues and online shops selling under about £100. B2B firms, regulated advisers and emergency trades usually give it less, because buyers search when they have a problem or rely on recommendations from people they know.

• B2B vs B2C advertising: how the channel mix changes

What does the share look like in pounds?

On an illustrative £24,000 annual marketing budget, a 15% share is £300 a month and a 40% share is £800 a month. At £300, social is mostly organic posting with small tests. At £800, there is room for regular production plus £300–£500 of ad spend, the usual minimum for a readable test.

• Paid social budgets for UK small businesses

When is the social share too high?

It is too high when social takes most of the budget but brings few enquiries, while your website converts poorly or you rank nowhere in search. Spending more on social then sends people to a weak destination. Fix the website first, because every channel sends traffic through it.

• Do you need a website if you have social media?

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: a service business puts nearly all its marketing into social media because it is visible and easy to start, while most buyers actually search on Google. Moving part of the budget to the website and search often lifts enquiries without any increase in total spend.

• See client work
• Social Media Marketing for UK businesses

Marketing share checklist

• Ask recent customers where they first found you.
• Set social media's share from that answer, not habit.
• Make sure the website can convert the traffic social sends.
• Keep at least £300–£500 a month for any paid test.
• Move the share each quarter based on enquiries.

• Social media spend as a percentage of revenue
• Work out a social media budget from your sales target

Next step

List last quarter's enquiries by source. Compare that split with how your marketing money was spent. The gap between the two is where to move budget first.