How Much Should a Tradesman Spend on Marketing Per Month?

If you’ve ever Googled “how much should a tradesman spend on marketing,” you’ve probably found the same generic advice repeated everywhere: spend 5-10% of your revenue on marketing. Some say 7%. Some say 12%. They all act like it’s settled science.

It isn’t. And for most trades businesses, that percentage-of-revenue rule is about as useful as a chocolate fireguard.

Here’s why: if you’re a sole trader turning over £150k, 10% means £15,000 a year — £1,250 a month. That might be exactly right. Or it might be way too much. Or it might not be enough. The percentage tells you nothing about what you should actually do with the money, whether it’ll generate a return, or whether you’re at a stage where spending that amount even makes sense.

In this article, we’re going to bin the generic advice and give you real numbers based on where your business actually is. We’ll also show you what happens when a trades business gets its marketing budget right — with figures from a real company, not a made-up example.

Why the “Percentage of Revenue” Rule Doesn’t Work for Trades

The 5-10% rule comes from general business marketing textbooks. It was written for companies that sell products at scale — retail, tech, consumer goods. Businesses with predictable margins, repeat customers, and national reach.

That’s not you.

A trades business has a completely different model. Your margins vary job to job. Your capacity is limited by the number of people you’ve got. You operate in a specific local area. And most importantly, the gap between “not enough work” and “too much work” can be surprisingly narrow.

What actually matters when setting a marketing budget for a tradesman is:

• Where you are right now — turnover, team size, capacity
• Where you want to get to — and how quickly
• What’s already working — referrals, repeat customers, existing online presence
• What’s broken — no website, invisible on Google, feast-or-famine pipeline

A bloke turning over £120k as a one-man band needs a completely different approach to a business doing £500k with a team of four. Let’s break it down.

Stage 1: The Sole Operator (Under £200k Turnover)

Realistic marketing spend: £200-£500/month

If you’re on your own, doing everything yourself, and turning over under £200k, you don’t need a massive marketing budget. You need the basics done properly.

At this stage, your trades marketing spend per month should cover:

• A decent website — not a flashy one, but one that loads fast, looks professional, and makes it dead easy for people to call you or fill in a form. If you haven’t got one, budget £1,500-£3,000 for the build, then £50-£100/month for hosting and maintenance.
• Google Business Profile — free to set up, but you need to actively manage it. Post updates, upload photos of your work, and ask every happy customer for a review. This alone can generate a steady trickle of calls.
• A small Google Ads budget — even £300-£500/month in ad spend can get your phone ringing if the campaigns are set up properly and targeted at the right jobs in the right area.

At this level, the goal isn’t to build an empire. It’s to stop relying entirely on word of mouth and start generating some enquiries you can actually control. If you’re spending £300 a month and getting five or six leads that turn into two or three jobs, you’re laughing.

For a practical starting point, grab our free marketing playbook — it covers exactly what to prioritise when you’re at this stage.

Stage 2: The Growing Business (£200k-£500k Turnover)

Realistic marketing spend: £750-£1,500/month

This is where things get interesting — and where the small trades business marketing budget decisions start to have a real impact.

You’ve probably got one or two people working with you. Work’s coming in, but it’s inconsistent. Some months you’re turning jobs away; other months you’re wondering if the phone’s broken. You know you need to grow, but you don’t know how much to invest or where to put it.

At this stage, your budget should cover:

• Managed Google Ads — properly set up and optimised by someone who knows what they’re doing. Budget £500-£750/month in ad spend plus management fees.
• SEO — this is when you start investing in organic search. It takes three to six months to gain traction, but the leads it generates are essentially free once you’re ranking. Budget £500-£1,000/month.
• Better content — service pages for each thing you do, local area pages for each place you cover, maybe a blog that answers the questions your customers are actually asking.
• A CRM or lead management system — because there’s no point spending money to generate leads if half of them fall through the cracks because nobody followed up. Budget £50-£200/month.

The critical thing at this stage is that your marketing works as a system, not as a collection of random tactics. Your ads should send people to a website that converts. Your SEO should build long-term rankings while your ads deliver short-term leads. Everything should feed into a process that tracks enquiries and follows up properly.

This is also the stage where most trades businesses start working with an agency, because trying to manage all of this yourself while running a growing business is a recipe for burnout.

Stage 3: The Scaling Business (£500k+ Turnover)

Realistic marketing spend: £1,500-£3,000+/month

You’ve got a team. You’ve got vans on the road. You’re turning over half a million or more, and the question isn’t whether to invest in marketing — it’s how to invest smartly so you can keep growing without the wheels falling off.

At this level, you need integrated, full-service marketing. Everything working together, measured properly, and tied directly to revenue. That means:

• A conversion-optimised website that’s engineered to turn visitors into enquiries — not just a digital brochure
• Google Ads running at scale with proper tracking so you know exactly what each lead costs
• SEO building compounding organic traffic month after month
• Video content that builds trust and sets you apart from competitors
• Google Business Profile management driving calls and directions
• Regular reporting so you can see what’s working and what isn’t

This is also where you start to see the real power of marketing done well. Because at this level, the numbers get very compelling.

What This Actually Looks Like: Videtta Heating

Let’s put some real numbers on this.

Jordan at Videtta Heating started working with us when he was a one-man band turning over £223k a year. Good money, but he was grafting for every penny — stuck on the tools, chasing every quote, completely reliant on word of mouth.

His marketing investment: our Booked Solid System at £1,500+VAT per month.

Here’s what happened:

• Turnover grew from £223k to £1.3 million — that’s 486% growth
• Average cost per lead: £22
• Website conversion rate: 18.7% (the average trade website converts at about 2-3%)
• 134 phone calls from Google Business Profile alone in six months
• He’s now off the tools entirely, running a full team

You can read the full Videtta case study here.

Think about those numbers for a second. If your average job value is £2,000 and you’re generating leads at £22 each, even converting one in five of those leads into a paying job means you’re spending £110 to win a £2,000 job. That’s an 18x return.

That’s not theoretical. Those are real numbers from a real trades business.

The Hidden Cost of Underspending

Most tradesmen who ask about marketing budgets are worried about spending too much. That’s understandable. Nobody wants to throw money away.

But here’s what nobody talks about: the cost of spending too little.

If you spend £200 a month on marketing and get mediocre results, you haven’t saved £1,300 compared to spending £1,500. You’ve just spent £200 a month on nothing. And while you’re treading water, the business down the road that is investing properly is hoovering up the leads, ranking above you on Google, and building a brand that customers trust.

Underspending on marketing doesn’t mean you grow slowly. It usually means you don’t grow at all — or worse, you go backwards while your costs keep rising.

The question isn’t “can I afford to spend £1,000 a month on marketing?” It’s “can I afford not to, given what my competitors are doing?”

How to Set Your Budget Without Guessing

Here’s a practical framework that’s more useful than any percentage rule:

1. Work out your average job value. What’s a typical job worth to you? £500? £2,000? £5,000?
2. Decide how many new jobs you need per month. Be specific. Not “more work” — an actual number.
3. Work backwards from the cost per lead. A well-run campaign for a trades business can typically generate leads at £15-£40 each. If you convert one in four leads, and you need ten new jobs a month, you need forty leads. At £25 per lead, that’s £1,000 in ad spend alone.
4. Add the infrastructure costs. Website, SEO, content, management. This is usually £500-£1,500/month on top of your ad spend, depending on whether you’re doing it yourself or working with an agency.
5. Commit for at least six months. Marketing builds momentum. Pulling the plug after eight weeks because you haven’t seen a 10x return yet is the most expensive mistake you can make — because you’ve spent the money without giving it time to work.

What to Do Next

If you’ve read this far, you’re clearly serious about getting your marketing budget right. That’s a good sign. Most tradesmen either spend nothing and hope for the best, or throw money at random tactics and pray something sticks. The fact you’re thinking about this strategically puts you ahead of most.

If you want to talk through your specific situation — where your business is now, where you want it to be, and what a realistic budget looks like — we offer a free strategy call. No hard sell, no pressure. Just a straight conversation about what makes sense for your business.

Book a free call here and let’s figure out the right number for you.