Marketing budget calculator, phased by month
Turn a revenue target into a marketing budget. Enter your target, the share from new customers, order value, margin and funnel numbers, and pick the peaks to reserve for. Add your work email to see total, media and monthly budgets, with an AI analysis for your market.
- Total marketing budget and its share of your revenue target
- Media budget with the test budget inside it, plus non-media and 5% contingency
- New customers needed and maximum CAC
- A funnel check and a month-by-month media plan
- An AI analysis with next steps
This marketing budget calculator builds your budget from the bottom up. It works out how many new customers your revenue target needs and the most you can pay for each, turns that into media, non-media and contingency budgets, checks the result against your funnel, and phases media by month around the peaks you pick.
How the calculator works
You enter your revenue target for the year, the share of revenue from new customers, first order or first-year contract value, gross margin, how many orders a new customer may take to pay back CAC (1 means the first order), website conversion rate, average cost per click, a test budget (share of media for new channels and creative), non-media costs (creative, tools and agencies, as a % of media) and peaks to reserve for. Business type, market and currency give the AI analysis context.
The example column uses the default values (illustrative): an AED 8,000,000 target, 50% from new customers, a AED 400 first order, 50% margin, payback on the first order, 2.5% conversion, AED 2.50 CPC, 10% test budget, 20% non-media and three peaks: Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, White Friday, Black Friday and 11.11, and national days.
| Result | Formula | Example |
|---|---|---|
| New customers needed | Revenue target × new-customer share ÷ first order value | 8,000,000 × 50% ÷ 400 = 10,000 |
| Maximum CAC | First order value × gross margin × payback orders | 400 × 50% × 1 = AED 200 |
| Media budget | New customers × maximum CAC | 10,000 × 200 = AED 2,000,000 |
| Test budget (inside media) | Media × test % | AED 200,000 |
| Non-media and 5% contingency | Media × non-media %, plus (media + non-media) × 5% | 400,000 + 120,000 = AED 520,000 |
| Total marketing budget | Media + non-media + contingency | AED 2,520,000, 31.5% of target |
| Media cost implied by your funnel | New customers ÷ conversion rate × CPC | 400,000 sessions × 2.50 = AED 1,000,000 |
The verdict compares the two media figures: within 20%, the budget holds together; a costlier funnel means raising conversion, cutting CPC or accepting a longer payback; a cheaper one leaves room to test. In the example: "Your funnel costs 50% less than your CAC limit, so there is room to test more channels or lower prices."
For the monthly plan, 75% of media is spread evenly and 25% is split equally across the months of the peaks you select; with none selected, media is split evenly. A month in two selected peaks gets two shares.
| Peak | Months |
|---|---|
| Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr | February, March |
| Eid al-Adha | May |
| Summer | June, July, August |
| Back to school | August, September |
| National days | September, December |
| White Friday, Black Friday and 11.11 | November |
| Christmas and Boxing Day | December |
Those peaks cover five months, so the AED 500,000 reserve adds AED 100,000 each to February, March, September, November and December (AED 225,000 each); other months get AED 125,000. An analysis with next steps follows, written by AI from your numbers (or rule-based if the AI is unavailable).
How to read your result
Know what drives the total. Media equals new-customer revenue × gross margin × payback orders; order value cancels out, though it still sets the funnel cost. A one-order payback spends the whole first-order gross profit on acquisition, which is why the example reaches 31.5% of target, three to four times the survey averages in the questions below. At 0.5 orders, media halves to AED 1,000,000, the total falls to AED 1,260,000 and the CAC limit matches the funnel.
Planning around GCC and UK peaks
Ramadan 2027 is expected to begin around 8 February, with Eid al-Fitr on 9 or 10 March and Eid al-Adha on 16 or 17 May, per UAE Astronomy Centre forecasts, subject to moon sighting. National days fall on 23 September in Saudi Arabia, 2 December in the UAE and 18 December in Qatar. White Friday begins the Friday after US Thanksgiving and typically lasts four days.
How Grower helps
Grower's Plan module holds budgets by month, quarter or year and by campaign group, compares them with live spend from connected channels and generates budget insights every month. The calendar puts campaigns from every channel on one timeline.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate a marketing budget from a revenue target?
Work back from customers: divide new-customer revenue by first order value, then multiply by the most you can pay per customer. AED 4,000,000 at AED 400 an order is 10,000 customers, and at a AED 200 maximum CAC that is a AED 2,000,000 media budget. The marketing budget guide has a template.
What percentage of revenue should go to marketing?
There is no single right share. Gartner's 2026 CMO Spend Survey put budgets at 7.8% of company revenue, mostly at companies with over $1 billion in revenue in North America, the UK and Europe. The CMO Survey 2026 found an average of 8.96% at US companies: 11.99% for B2C product and 7.02% for B2B product companies.
What does the funnel check mean?
It prices the same customers a second way: customers needed ÷ conversion rate gives paid sessions, and sessions × CPC gives media cost. Within 20% of the CAC-based media budget, the two agree. Otherwise, the gap points to the assumption to test first: conversion, CPC, order value or payback.
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