In days of yore, every business must needs possess a social strategy, fortified by a budget earmarked for social media. Verily, it is imperative to ascertain the appropriate amount to allocate towards social media marketing. Whether thou be an enterprise of great esteem, a solitary entrepreneur, or a budding startup with grand ambitions, thou must ensure that thy investment in social marketing doth yield fruit. This is where a social media budget doth prove its worth.
What ho! What be this social media budget thou dost speak of? ‘Tis a document that doth specify the amount thou intendest to expend on social media over a predetermined period, be it a month, a quarter, or a year. By crafting such a document, thou shalt gain a lucid understanding of the costs associated with running thy social media campaigns. Budget information is oft presented in a spreadsheet, though ’tis not unusual to encounter social media budgets in other tools such as Notion or Airtable. Whichever tool thou dost choose to employ, ensure that the data be clearly presented, easy to comprehend, and doth aid thee in analyzing where thou dost allocate thy funds and whether thou dost witness a return on investment.
How grand should thy social media budget be, thou may ask? Alas, there is no fixed rule governing how much to spend on marketing or social media in particular, for each business is unique. The amount of thy company’s budget earmarked for marketing and social media shall hinge upon thy company size, team size, industry, revenue, and business objectives.
Lo and behold! The wise folk at CMO Survey did query over two hundred and seventy chief marketing officers (CMOs) concerning their marketing budgets in the year of our Lord 2022. Their findings do report that marketing budgets have increased by 10.4% in the past year due to the “growing importance of marketing in organizations, which hath risen in over half of all companies during the pandemic.” So, how much coin doth this equate to in dollars?
By the findings of the CMO Survey, marketing budgets doth represent 8.7% of a company’s revenue. Let us suppose that thy business hath an annual revenue of one million dollars. This sum doth leave thee with a marketing budget of $87,000.
And now, regarding the social media budget, according to the CMO Survey, the percentage of marketing budget that businesses didst spend on social media in 2022, in the twelve months following 2022, and in the next five years do break down as follows:
Industry Budget spend 2022 Budget spend +12 months Budget spend +five years
B2B Product 12.83% 15.53% 20.08%
B2B Services 13.27% 14.78% 19.68%
B2C Product 18.54% 21.29% 26.16%
B2C Services 15.25% 16.90% 20.10%
‘Tis wondrous to behold that every industry doth plan to increase their expenditure on social media in the long term, signifying that CMOs do believe in the potency of social media to drive revenue for their businesses.
Should we taketh our example of the company with a revenue of $1 million dollars, which doth leave $87,000 to spend on marketing, using the data above, we can break down how much coin each industry should allocate to a social media budget:
Industry Social media budget
B2B Product $11,162
B2B Services $11,544
B2C Product $16,129
B2C Services $13,267
What spectacle should thy social media budget plan include, thou doth inquire?
