What marketing actually costs an Australian small business.
Every owner asks it, almost nobody publishes a straight answer. Here is how marketing spend actually breaks down for Australian service businesses in 2026, and the three places the money quietly disappears.
The honest starting point: marketing cost is a function of your revenue stage, not a menu price. A $150K owner-operator and a $5M multi-crew business buying "SEO and Google Ads" are buying two completely different jobs. That's why any agency quoting you a price before understanding your revenue is guessing, or worse, running one price for everyone.
The benchmark that actually holds up
Across the Australian small-business economy, the working rule is 3–8% of annual revenue on marketing, the lower end when word of mouth is still carrying you, the upper end when you're deliberately buying growth or defending a contested market. On the ABS's own size bands, that translates roughly like this:
| Revenue band | Share of AU businesses | Typical total marketing budget | What it should buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under $200K | ~57% (incl. non-employing) | $500–$1,200/mo | Fundamentals: profile, reviews, one converting page, tracking |
| $200K–$2M | ~35% | $1,500–$8,000/mo | Google Ads + local SEO, run to cost-per-job |
| $2M–$10M | ~5% | $8,000–$40,000/mo | Multi-channel, competitor displacement, CRO |
| $10M+ | ~2% | Custom | Multi-location systems, brand, recruitment marketing |
Two things about that table. First, the bands mirror how the Sellevate programs are built, because pricing off revenue stage is the only structure that doesn't overcharge small operators or under-serve big ones. Second, the budget column includes ad spend and fees together. Splitting them is where owners get burned, which brings us to the rip-offs.
The three places money disappears
1. Ad-spend mark-up
Some agencies charge a percentage of your Google Ads budget, 10–20% is common. That means your agency earns more when you spend more, whether or not the spend works. In our August 2026 keyword research, click costs for Australian service keywords ran from about A$3 for local trades terms to A$78 for "dentist marketing". At those prices a 20% margin on spend is real money doing nothing. What to demand instead: your card in the ad account, and a flat fee. (This is how we run it, what you pay Google is what Google gets.)
2. Retainers reported in rankings
A $1,500/mo SEO retainer that reports "you moved to position 6 for a keyword" is unfalsifiable. The only report that means anything is cost per enquiry and cost per signed job, which requires call tracking and form tracking wired from day one. If tracking isn't in the first month's work, the report can never say anything real.
3. Paying for volume you can't service
The most expensive marketing is leads you don't answer. Missed-call studies keep finding that a large share of calls to trades go unanswered, and every one of those was paid for. Before scaling spend, fix intake: response time, call-back automation, booking paths. It's the cheapest revenue you'll ever buy.
So what should you actually pay?
Find your band in the table, then pressure-test any quote with one question: "what will this cost me per signed job, and how will you prove it?" An agency that can answer has a system. One that answers with impressions, reach or "brand awareness" is selling you their process, not your outcome.
The shortcut: our free audit tells you what your enquiries cost you today, before you commit to anything. Thirty minutes, and the findings are yours either way. Call 0493 290 352.
Questions owners ask
Is $500 a month enough for marketing?
Under $200K in revenue, yes. If it goes to fundamentals: an optimised Google Business Profile, a review system, one page that converts, and tracking. It is not enough to run ads properly on top; buying clicks before the fundamentals exist is how small budgets get wasted.
Should marketing cost scale with revenue?
As a budget, yes, the 3-8% band is the sanity check. As agency fees, only loosely: fees should reflect the scope of work at your stage, which is why revenue-banded programs are more honest than one-size retainers.
Why won't agencies publish prices?
Sometimes it's games. Sometimes it's honesty: the real price depends on your trade, area and competition. The test is whether they'll state an exact number on the first call once they've seen your situation, anyone still vague after that is playing games.
Rather just get the answer for your business?
The free audit applies all of this to your market, your competitors and your numbers. Thirty minutes; the findings are yours either way.