1. Why flat ratios are of little help
The best-known metric for marketing budgets comes from Gartner’s annual CMO Spend Survey. According to a press release dated 11 May 2026, marketing budgets in 2026 average 7.8 per cent of company revenue, after 7.7 per cent in 2025. The survey covered 401 marketing leaders in North America, the UK and Europe, the vast majority from companies with annual revenue of more than one billion US dollars.
For a mid-sized company with 20 million euros in turnover, this figure is hardly transferable. Large corporations finance brand building, their own teams and expensive technology. A mid-sized B2B company, on the other hand, above all needs an answer to the question: how many new customers do I want to win, and how much may each one cost me? No industry ratio answers this question; only your own calculation does.
The revenue ratio provides an order of magnitude; customer value provides a justified figure.
2. Step 1: determine customer value
Customer value describes how much gross profit a new customer brings over the entire relationship. For this, you need four figures from your company: the average order value, the number of orders per year, the average length of the customer relationship in years and your gross margin.
In the following example, we calculate with a fictitious consultancy. The figures are for illustration only:
- average order value: 2,500 euros
- orders per customer per year: 4
- length of customer relationship: 2 years
- gross margin: 70 per cent
Customer value on a gross profit basis: 2,500 × 4 × 2 × 0.7 = 14,000 euros.
It is important to calculate with gross profit, not with turnover. Anyone who calculates with turnover allows themselves acquisition costs that are too high and only notices at the end of the year.
3. Step 2: set the permissible cost per new customer
Now you decide what share of customer value you want to spend on acquisition. This is a business decision, not a rule of calculation. It depends on how much profit should remain after acquisition and how certain your assumptions about customer duration are.
In the example, the management sets a maximum of 20 per cent of customer value. This results in a permissible cost per new customer of 2,800 euros.
Using the closing rate from sales, you break this down to a single enquiry. If, in the example, one in five qualified enquiries becomes an order, i.e. 20 per cent, an enquiry may cost no more than 560 euros.
Each step builds on a figure of its own from your company.
4. Step 3: derive the number of enquiries needed from the new-customer target
The example company wants to win twelve new customers in 2027. With a closing rate of 20 per cent, it needs 60 qualified enquiries a year for this, i.e. five per month.
This figure is the core of the planning. It forces you to ask which channel can realistically deliver how many of these enquiries. If you have not yet recorded your enquiries by source, you should do so before budget planning. How to recognise faulty measurement is described in our article Tracking analysis: when the figures are wrong.
5. Step 4: allocate the budget to channels
For each channel, you need the actual cost per enquiry, ideally from the last twelve months. In the example, we calculate for Google Ads with a cost per click of 3.50 euros and a conversion rate of 3 per cent. This results in a cost per enquiry of around 117 euros. That is well below the limit of 560 euros. Google Ads is therefore economical in this example.
Suppose the company plans to win half of the 60 enquiries via Google Ads: 30 enquiries × 117 euros come to around 3,500 euros of media budget per year. The remaining enquiries are to come from referrals, LinkedIn and the company’s own website. These channels cost less media budget, but require working time for content and maintenance. Plan this time in with an internal hourly rate, otherwise these channels appear free and are underestimated.
With Google Ads, there is an additional practical point: according to Google Ads Help, a campaign can spend up to twice the average daily budget on individual days, but no more than 30.4 times it in a month. For monthly planning, the daily budget times 30.4 is therefore the right figure. How much is possible with small budgets is shown in our article Google Ads with a monthly budget of 500 euros.
6. Step 5: plan a test share and reserve
A budget that merely carries existing channels forward learns nothing new. You should therefore set a test share with which you try out new channels or formats, such as ads on LinkedIn or a new landing page. There is no robust general ratio for the amount. In the example, the management sets 10 per cent of the media budget and defines in advance what cost per enquiry a test must achieve in order to be continued.
In addition, a reserve for unplanned opportunities and risks is worthwhile: rising click prices, a trade fair, a competitor suddenly advertising heavily. Here too, the amount is a matter of choice, in the example also 10 per cent. If the reserve is not needed by the autumn, it flows into the channel with the lowest cost per new customer.
For the example, this gives: 3,500 euros for Google Ads, 350 euros for tests, 350 euros reserve, around 4,200 euros of media budget in total. Tools and service providers come on top. What a typical toolkit costs is calculated in our article What does an AI marketing stack cost.
7. Checklist
- Order value, orders per year, customer duration and gross margin determined from your own data
- Permissible share of customer value for acquisition consciously set
- Closing rate obtained from sales
- 2027 new-customer target converted into enquiries needed
- Cost per enquiry per channel determined from the last twelve months
- Working time for unpaid channels valued at an internal hourly rate
- Test share set with clear stop criteria
- Reserve planned in and date for reallocation set
8. Conclusion
Calculating from customer value to budget takes more effort than a flat ratio, but delivers a figure that you can justify and check over the course of the year. It also shows which channel is worthwhile and which is not. The limitation: the calculation is only as good as your starting figures. If closing rate or customer duration are estimated, you should recalculate the plan with real values after the first quarter of 2027. If you would like your own figures reviewed, you can get a second opinion in a fixed-price analysis or an initial consultation.
9. Frequently asked questions
What percentage of turnover should you spend on marketing?
There is no universally valid ratio. The Gartner CMO Spend Survey 2026 cites 7.8 per cent of revenue, but it mainly surveyed companies with more than one billion US dollars in revenue. For mid-sized businesses, calculating via customer value is more meaningful.
How do I calculate customer value in B2B?
Multiply the average order value by the number of orders per year, the length of the customer relationship in years and your gross margin. The result is the gross profit a new customer brings over the entire relationship.
How much may a new customer cost?
You decide that yourself, as a share of customer value. What matters is how much profit should remain after acquisition costs and how certain your assumptions are. In the example in this article, it is 20 per cent.
How large should the test share of the marketing budget be?
There is no evidence-based standard ratio for this. More important than the amount is that you define in advance what result a test must achieve in order to be continued. In the example in this article, it is 10 per cent of the media budget.
When should you plan the marketing budget for the following year?
The fourth quarter makes sense, when the figures for the first three quarters are available. That way, you calculate with current values for closing rate and cost per enquiry. A recalculation is worthwhile after the first quarter of the new year.
