Calculate Your Marketing Budget: Which Channel Brings New Customers?
How do you calculate the break-even point for your marketing strategy?
When experience matters more than resources.
What percentage of revenue should go to marketing?
The most common rule of thumb is a fixed percentage of revenue. It is simple, but it does not answer the real question. Which share makes sense depends on industry, growth goal, margin and customer value, and the ranges quoted for it vary widely.
YourValidator turns the calculation around. Instead of starting with a percentage, you start with your goal:
- Set the goal: how many new customers do you want to win in twelve months?
- Calculate back: target back-calculation shows which budget that goal requires under your conversion rates and channel costs.
- Cross-check: you see which share of your revenue that corresponds to and whether it fits your margin.
The principle: simple, local, traceable
- Online and offline in one calculation: search, ads, social media and email as well as print, trade fairs, outdoor and referrals.
- Saturation: above a certain budget, each additional dollar brings fewer additional customers. The calculation shows where that begins under your assumptions.
- Ramp-up time, for example for SEO: search engine optimization often costs months before it brings inquiries. You set the assumed ramp-up time and see when break-even is reached under it.
- Customer lifetime value (CLV): what a customer brings in over several years, next to the cost of winning them.
Calculating, your own logo and full view are free and may also be used commercially. Pro adds saving and comparing plans, plan vs. actual, backups, import, export and AI functions with your own API key.
For internal presentations: the calculator on your domain
With the embed license, YourValidator runs as an isolated calculator on your own company domain, without YourValidator branding. For individual presentations, the free version with your own logo, header image and full view is often enough.
What the calculator does and does not do
- It calculates deterministically what follows from your figures and assumptions.
- It does not predict what will actually happen, and it does not prove what worked.
- Benchmarks are starting values. The calculation becomes reliable once you replace them with your own figures.
More examples: use cases.
Frequently asked questions from companies
What percentage of revenue should I spend on marketing?
There is no universal figure. The sensible share depends on industry, growth goal, margin and customer value. YourValidator calculates the other way round: you decide how many new customers you want to win, and target back-calculation shows which budget that requires under your assumptions.
How long until SEO pays off?
That depends on competition, starting point and effort and cannot be stated in general. In the calculator you set the assumed ramp-up time and see from which month the investment pays off under that assumption.
Does YourValidator replace marketing consulting?
No. The calculator shows what follows from your assumptions and helps you follow proposals yourself. Ideas, design and execution are not part of it.
Does YourValidator replace our existing marketing tools?
No. CRM, BI and agency dashboards remain the sources. YourValidator is an upstream planning layer: it calculates what a budget yields under specific assumptions before it is approved.
This Software establishes a mathematical foundation with your agencies to ensure that planned and actual figures are always reconciled on the same logical basis.
I do not have solid data yet. Can I still use the tool?
Yes. You can start with benchmarks or your own estimates. These values are starting points, not facts. Replace them gradually with figures from your CRM and dashboards.
How is my data protected?
The calculation runs entirely in your browser. Your inputs are not sent to our servers; there is no sign-up, no cookies and no tracking script. Only if you use the optional AI input assistant with your own API key are inputs sent directly to your AI provider.
What does YourValidator cost?
Calculating is free and may also be used commercially. If you want to save and compare plans, compare plan and actual, or use backups and exports, you need a Pro license. Details are on the prices page.
Calculate your marketing budget back from your goal.
Open the calculator – free, no sign-up See use cases Planning or measurement? The comparison
