How Much Should a Contractor Spend on Marketing?

The usual answer is 'five to ten percent of revenue,' which is technically right and completely useless without context.

By stage

• Established, not trying to grow: 2–3% of revenue. Maintain presence, protect reputation.
• Steady growth: 5–7%. Website, local SEO, consistent content.
• Aggressive growth or new market: 8–12%. Everything above plus paid ads.
• Brand new: whatever it takes to get a professional presence up. Percentages don't apply yet.

What that looks like in dollars

A contractor doing $800,000 a year at 5 percent is $40,000 annually — about $3,300 a month. That's a maintained website, active local SEO, and room for some paid advertising.

At $300,000 a year, 5 percent is $15,000 — website in year one, then maintenance and Google work. Skip ads until the organic side is producing.

Priority order

• 1. Google Business Profile fully optimized. Free. Do it before anything.
• 2. A review collection routine. Free. Highest return of anything on this list.
• 3. A professional website. The foundation everything else points to.
• 4. Monthly maintenance. Protects the investment.
• 5. Local SEO and content. The compounding growth engine.
• 6. Paid ads. Only after 1 through 5 are solid.

Why ads come last

Ads send traffic to your website. If the website doesn't convert, you're paying to lose people faster.

Fix the destination first. Contractors who run ads to a weak site conclude ads don't work, when what didn't work was the page.

Judge it on return

Track revenue per channel over twelve months, not leads per month. A channel producing $60,000 in work on $12,000 spend is working, even if the lead count looks unimpressive.