Most Brisbane business owners are being fed a lie by their accountants and lazy agencies: the idea that a 'standard' 5% to 10% of gross revenue is the golden rule for marketing spend.
In 2026, following this advice is a fast track to stagnation. If your competitors are aggressive and your margins are thin, 5% won't move the needle. If you have high margins and a dominant market position, 10% might be flushing money down the toilet. It is time to stop looking at what the 'average' business spends and start looking at what your specific unit economics allow.
The Failure of Percentage-Based Budgeting
Percentage-based budgeting is a relic of the traditional media era. It assumes that every dollar of revenue costs the same to acquire, which we know is false. This approach ignores market volatility, seasonal shifts in the Queensland economy, and the actual cost of acquisition (CAC).
When you stick to a fixed percentage, you fail to capitalise on opportunities when lead costs are low, and you overspend when the market is saturated. Worse, it encourages agencies to focus on vanity metrics. If you want to scale, you need to understand the data math behind profit rather than just chasing a higher volume of low-quality enquiries.
Approach 1: The 'Safe' Benchmark (And Why It Fails)
Industry benchmarks usually suggest: Maintenance mode: 2-5% of revenue Growth mode: 10-15% of revenue Aggressive scale: 20%+ of revenue
The Reality Check: These numbers are meaningless without context. A Brisbane-based law firm with a high lifetime value (LTV) per client can afford a much higher CAC than a local cafe. If you are blindly following these percentages, you are likely killing your growth by under-investing in high-intent channels or over-investing in 'brand awareness' that doesn't convert.
Approach 2: The Profit-First Model (The Expert Choice)
Instead of looking at revenue, look at your Contribution Margin. This is what is left over after all variable costs are paid, but before marketing is applied.
1. Calculate your LTV: What is a customer actually worth over 2 years? 2. Determine your Allowable CAC: How much of that profit are you willing to 'buy' growth with? 3. Reverse Engineer the Budget: If your allowable CAC is $200 and you want 50 new customers a month, your budget is $10,000.
This isn't a percentage of last year's revenue; it’s a direct investment in future profit. If the math works, the budget should be uncapped. Why would you stop spending at 10% of revenue if every extra dollar spent returns three dollars in profit?
Stop Overcomplicating Your Analytics
One of the biggest wastes of SME budgets in Australia right now is 'Data Bloat.' Agencies love to charge thousands to build complex reporting suites. Usually, these are just dashboards nobody looks at, filled with green arrows that don't correlate to bank balances.
To benchmark effectively, you only need four numbers: 1. Total Marketing Spend (Ad spend + Agency fees + Content production) 2. Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) (Not just 'clicks' or 'impressions') 3. Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) 4. Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
If your agency is talking about 'engagement rates' and 'reach' without tying them to these four pillars, they are hiding a lack of results behind industry jargon.
The 2026 Brisbane Reality: Local Competition is Rising
In the South-East Queensland market, the 'cost of entry' for digital platforms like Google Ads and Meta has increased by roughly 15-20% year-on-year. If your budget has remained static since 2023, you have effectively taken a massive cut in market share.
You cannot benchmark your 2026 performance against 2021 costs. You must be prepared to pay the current market rate for attention, or you need to pivot your strategy toward high-efficiency organic channels and better conversion rate optimisation (CRO).
Actionable Takeaways for SME Owners
Audit your 'Other' costs: Stop counting your internal sales team's coffee as a 'marketing expense.' Keep marketing spend purely focused on activities that generate or convert demand. Kill the 5% Rule: Sit down with your margins. Determine what a lead is actually worth to your business today, not five years ago. Demand Transparency: If you can't see the direct line from a marketing dollar to a sale, stop spending that dollar until you can.
At Local Marketing Group, we don't believe in 'standard' budgets. We believe in profitable ones. If you're tired of guessing whether your marketing spend is a benchmark success or a total waste, let’s look at the real numbers.
Stop guessing and start growing. Contact Local Marketing Group today for a brutal, honest assessment of your marketing ROI.