There are several different advertising budget strategies, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Before you decide which type of budget to use, it's important to be clear on what your business needs from your advertising campaign and how much money you're prepared to spend to achieve that.


Each type of budget can help you reach different goals in different ways; choosing the right budget can help you improve your conversion rates, boost your sales, or increase brand awareness and customer loyalty, among other things. In this blog we’ll run down the most common types of advertising budgets used by businesses today.


Advertising Budget Meaning


An advertising budget is the sum of all marketing investments that a brand makes to reach its target audience. It can include traditional media, such as TV, radio, print and digital ads, and more experimental tactics, such as viral videos and experiential marketing. The total budget for all these efforts is known as a brand's ad budget. Advertisers use various means to measure the effectiveness of their ad campaigns.


What's an advertising budget size?


The size of a brand's advertising budget refers to the amount of money a brand is willing to invest in advertising its products or services. It can range from a small percentage of a brand's overall marketing budget to a larger portion of their marketing spend. It's important to note that the size of a brand's advertising budget is not the same as the size of its marketing department.


Why is the advertising budget important


The advertising budget is important because it determines how effective your ad campaign will be. Think about it: if you have an enormous budget and only one week to promote your business, you'll run one huge ad that gets a lot of impressions but doesn't convert many customers.
If you spend less money on ads per day but spread them out over several weeks and months, chances are better that those visitors will eventually become paying customers. Advertisers should decide early on what kind of budget they want to set aside for their ad campaigns before they even launch them.


The different types of advertising budget methods


Companies have many options to set advertising budgets. Each of them has advantages and disadvantages. Different types of advertising budgets are as follows:


1) Percentage of sales method


This method is based on the total sales volume of a company. A percentage of sales method allocates a certain percentage of the sales revenue to advertising and promotion budget. The larger the share of the advertising budget, the more profits companies that use these budgets have.
Companies should be careful about this method because it does not consider other aspects such as gross margin, costs, competitors' actions and more. It can cause big problems for companies in the long term.


2) Competitive parity method


This method compares the ratio of advertising and promotion expenses to the average of competitors' expenses. This method may not be good because it forces comparison to competitors.


Competitive sales volume method


This method allocates a certain percentage of sales revenue to the advertising and promotion budget based on the sales volume in market share. For example, if the company's sales volume is 15% of the total market, it should allocate 15% of the advertising budget to this product line. The higher the percentage, the higher the budget.


3) Objective and Task method


This method uses the company's objectives and tasks to determine the budget. For example, if a company's main goal is to increase sales volume by 10%, the advertising budget should be proportional to this target.


This method is useful for setting up a budget for specific periods, but it does not consider long-term goals. It also has disadvantages such as inaccurate calculations and lack of flexibility.


This method bases the budget on the percentage of its market share in its industry. This method is suitable for companies with a strong market position and high sales volume.


4) Market Share method


This method is based on the amount of money a company earns from selling its products. This method does not consider the cost of sales, marketing expenses, or capital expenditures, resulting in inaccurate calculations.
In this way, this method may need to be combined with other strategies to calculate a budget. The most suitable method for each company depends on the industry and the company's size.


5) Unit Sales method


This method uses sales figures to determine the budget. For example, if a company's sales are expected to increase by 10%, the advertising budget should be proportional to this target.
This method is useful for setting up a budget for specific periods, but it does not consider long-term goals. It also shares the disadvantages of inaccurate calculations and lack of flexibility.


6) Return on Investment (ROI) method


This method uses profits gained from a product or service to determine the budget for its advertisement. This budget should cover any costs incurred in generating those profits, including advertising costs.


This means that if an advertisement costs $10,000 and the resulting profits are $15,000, then the ROI of that advertisement is ($15,000-$10,000)/$10,000 = 150%. It means that for every dollar spent on advertising, the company will receive a return of 150 cents.


7) Affordable method


This method is used to set a budget that is not likely to exceed the available funds. This method is also known as the "lowest common denominator" method since it always uses the lowest value. It works well for situations with many possible budgets but no easy choice between them. 


For example, if a company wants to promote two products and the sales volume of each product depends on its advertising budget: using this method will ensure that the combined budget will not exceed the available funds.


How to allocate your digital advertising budget?

 

  1. Make a list of the products you want to sell and the sites where you can advertise them.
  2. Find out how much it costs to advertise per site.
  3. Multiply the price per visitor by the number of visitors each site gets every month.


The result is your advertising budget for that product/website combination. 
Don't forget to add a buffer to this amount as advertising prices are volatile and may change without notice. For example, you can be charged a lot more if your campaign suddenly becomes very popular.


For example, if you want to advertise a weight loss product on the Google search engine and Yahoo! search engine, your calculation may look something like this:

  1. Google: Cost per click is $ 0.50 X 40,000 visitors = $ 20,000/month (the minimum)
  2. Yahoo!: Cost per click is $ 0.40 X 10,000 visitors = $4,000/month (the minimum)
  3. If you run both campaigns at the same time: $ 20,000 + $ 4,000 = $ 24,000/month


Factors that affect advertising budgets


Large budgets don't always result in more sales. Your budget needs to be aligned with your promotional and marketing objectives to be effective.
Factors that affect an advertising budget are as follows:


1) Marketing goals


Marketing goals should align advertising budgets with a company's marketing goals. For example, if the goal of marketing is to increase penetration in the mass market, then advertising budgets should reflect that. Companies may have to spend a lot on advertising because it's necessary to increase consumer awareness and expose their products to a broader market.
Advertisement spending is also determined by marketing objectives, which affects the choice of media.


2) Target audience profile


Knowing your target audience is key when it comes to advertising. You need to figure out who you're targeting and interests to create an ad that will be most effective for them. For example, online advertising may be more effective than print newspapers if you're targeting millennials. That is because millennials are more likely to use online media than reading print newspapers.


3) Types of advertising media


Not all mediums are appropriate for every audience. Selecting the wrong medium can reduce the effectiveness of your advertising messages and increase costs.


A business's most effective media type depends on its target audience, target market, and marketing goals. Some media have a local reach, while others have an international reach.


TV advertising is more expensive than online media, but it may be more appropriate for some types of products than others. Online media is cheaper and has a similar reach.


4) Types of products


Different products require different types of advertising. Some products don't need a lot of marketing. Machines and heavy equipment usually address a specific niche, so companies don't need to advertise as much.


Ads for laptops and furniture are usually shown in magazines rather than TV. Meanwhile, for mass products, companies tend to rely on mass advertising. It means that the company picks an advertisement type and medium that most people will see.


Introducing a new product to the market requires a lot of investment. Advertising is essential to getting the word out, and it can be costly. Marketers have to spend more to make sure consumers know the new product since they may not have considered it before.


5) Projected sales and profits


Advertising elasticity is a metric companies use to measure how sensitive sales are when they change their advertising budget. Advertising is a tricky thing. It can affect how people view a product, but it's difficult to say how it impacts sales numbers. After all, the effects of advertising are intangible- they're in people's minds, not on paper.


Revenue projections are typically used to set an advertising budget that is neither too high nor too low. It is helpful for companies not to spend too much or too little on advertising.


6) Product life cycle


The product life cycle also impacts the advertising budget. Companies usually allocate more money for advertising in the introduction and the growth stage.


If consumers are largely unaware of the product, the priority should be to educate them about it. That will require more aggressive advertising.
As a product matures, companies typically reduce promotional spending and focus on differentiating the product or reducing costs. Although some advertising may still be necessary to maintain current sales, it is usually less than before.


Final Thought


There is no one answer for the best advertising budget. To determine an appropriate budget for your needs, you must first understand an advertising budget. An advertising budget is money that a company sets aside for marketing and advertising initiatives.


There are many factors to consider when calculating an advertising budget, such as the company's projected revenue, the size of the market, the competition, and the cost of advertising. Once you better understand advertising budgets, you can decide how much money to allocate for advertising.
 

BACK TO BLOG

What to Learn More?

Discover and enjoy SetAds webinars and podcasts.

PODCASTS

Email has been sent!