How Much Should You
Spend on Advertising?

The calculator uses spending benchmarks from Gartner's CMO Spend Survey and U.S. Small Business Administration guidelines — two of the most widely cited sources for marketing budget standards.

Hagadone's local strategists use these same benchmarks as a starting point when building advertising plans for businesses across Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Hawaii.

Use it as a starting point for a real conversation. The calculator tells you how much—a Hagadone local strategist can tell you where to put it, what's available in your specific market, and what's worked for businesses like yours. Most strategy conversations take about 20 minutes.

Most local businesses should spend between 5% and 15% of monthly revenue on advertising, depending on their growth stage. Early-stage businesses building awareness typically invest toward the higher end of that range. Established businesses focused on retention spend less.

Hagadone's Local Advertising Budget Calculator applies these benchmarks to your specific situation and gives you a recommended range based on your revenue and goals.

Local businesses typically perform best when print and digital work together, not separately. Print builds trust and recognition in the community. Digital extends reach and keeps your business visible online.

Hagadone Media Group operates across both environments—combining trusted community media with digital capabilities — so advertisers don't have to choose between them.

Local advertising outperforms national advertising for small businesses in two specific ways: relevance and trust. A community newspaper reaches the exact geographic audience a local business serves. A national platform reaches a far broader audience, most of whom will never become customers.

Hagadone's publications are embedded in the communities we serve, which means advertising placements carry credibility that national platforms can't replicate.

Budget affects both the speed and sustainability of results. Higher investment across more channels creates faster recognition. Lower investment concentrated in the right channel produces slower but still measurable results over time.

Either way, consistency matters more than the size of the budget. Hagadone advises clients to think in programs rather than one-time placements — because recognition builds with repetition, not with a single ad.