No matter if you’re an enterprise-level company, a solo entrepreneur, or a startup that’s about to launch the next big thing, you need to ensure that you’re seeing a return on your social marketing investment. This is where a social media budget can help.
A social media budget is a document that specifies how much you plan to spend on social media over a specific time, e.g., a month, a quarter, or a year, and creates a clear understanding of the costs associated with running your social media campaigns.
Budget information is typically presented in a spreadsheet, but it’s not uncommon to see social media budgets in other tools such as Notion or Airtable. Whatever tool you use, make sure that the data is clearly presented, easy to understand, and helps you analyze where you’re spending money and if you see a return on investment.
There’s no hard and fast rule for how much to spend on marketing or social media specifically because every business is different. How much company budget you allocate to marketing and social media will depend on your company size, team size, industry, revenue, and business goals.
A recent survey of 270 chief marketing officers (CMOs) indicated that marketing budgets have grown 10.4% over the last year due to the “growing importance of marketing in organizations, which has increased in more than half of all companies during the pandemic.” So how much does this equate to in dollars?
CMO Survey’s research shows that marketing budgets are 8.7% of a company’s revenue. So let’s say your business has an annual revenue of $1 million dollars. This figure leaves you with a marketing budget of $87,000. Every industry, at present, is planning to increase their spend on social media long-term, signaling that CMOs believe in the power of social media to drive revenue for their business.
- Content Creation: 40% Budget Allocation
- Software & Tools: 15% Budget Allocation
- Paid Social Media Campaigns: 15% Budget Allocation
- Influencer Marketing: 10% Budget Allocation
- Social Media Manager(s) Remuneration: 20% Budget Allocation
If you’re just starting out, there are plenty of free tools available, which means you can run social media for free. However, if you’re looking for long-term success, you’ll need to devote a portion of your marketing budget to running social media, and the amount will depend on your company size and revenues.
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