Digital marketing costs for small businesses

If you are a small business owner thinking about leveraging digital marketing as a new medium to attract sales, this is something you need to know: there’s no fixed amount of money that you should or must invest in digital marketing.

Since every case is unique, setting expectations based on results your competitors have seen, may not be realistic. Your ROI may exceed theirs, but if your campaigns perform poorly, you may be wondering where all that money has gone.

Before anything else, it’s important to have a clear idea of what digital marketing is in the context of your business. This includes knowing what all is possible with digital marketing, what goes into your digital marketing cost, and how you will track results (the most important part).

What does digital marketing mean for your business?

Digital marketing, contrary to what many still think, is not about being on Facebook or Instagram. It consists of various online activities that help your customers discover your business online.

Now, for a small business, it could mean setting up a Google Business (GMB) profile, running ads in your local area, building an optimized website, having a blog in it, using WhatsApp to nurture new leads etc. All of them help you to stay visible. It’s all about more visibility for more sales.

What goes into digital marketing cost?

The cost of digital marketing depend on several things, the most important ones are listed here:

Strategy and planning: It is about setting a direction, understanding the target audience and preparing a content plan.
Content creation: It involves creating media, image, video and others, in static and dynamic forms.

Advertising spend: It is about setting a budget for running paid campaigns on channels like Google, Meta etc.,

SEO, AIOs: It involves optimizing your site and its content for better ranking in SERP (search engine results pages) and for AI citations.

Tools and software: You may need to invest in email marketing tools, analytics tools, automation platforms etc., if needed.

Professional fees: This includes payments made to freelancers or agencies that are managing your campaigns and performance.

Each of these factors can change based on your business size, its goals and market competition.

For example, a in a small town might only need ₹10,000/month for basic online visibility but an e-commerce brand that wants to target audiences nationwide, may require ₹1 lakh or more a month.

Tracking and measuring results

Many small businesses invest in marketing but skip the most critical part which is tracking. Without proper tracking systems, you can’t tell what’s working and what is that needs improvement.

If you’re new to digital marketing, ask your agency or freelancer to provide you with accurate and updated data about results frequently and in a transparent manner.

So, how much should you budget?

There’s no single answer as to how much you should spend. Since every case is unique, you can’t decide upfront the best number. However, the below figure is a rough estimate based on various businesses.

 

These include both ad spend and service costs.

If you’re still unsure, why not begin with a small campaign, then based on outcomes, scale gradually?

We think as a small business owner going digital, you may have hundreds of questions. As a responsible digital marketing agency for small businesses that has successfully served hundreds of startups and independent small business owners, we have all the right and justified answers to all your questions.

Feel free to contact us for any questions,
Before you get started, let’s check our portfolio here.