What budget should founders plan for online marketing?

That’s because there’s no universal figure: the budget you need depends on your industry, the level of competition, your region, and whether you invest your own time or outsource tasks. What can be answered, though, is the way of thinking founders should bring to this decision.

Why “How much does SEO cost?” is the wrong question

Many founders ask for a flat amount, the way you’d expect for a software license. But online marketing works differently: some measures mainly cost time rather than money (e.g. maintaining your own Google Business Profile), others depend directly on money and can be scaled at will (e.g. Google Ads). So the right question isn’t “How much does it cost?”, but “How much time do I have, and how much am I willing to invest in speed?”

Two basic budget routes

Time instead of money: If you have little budget but some time, you can do many of the basics yourself – Google Business Profile, first SEO texts, actively asking for reviews. The downside: results take longer, because organic growth needs time and expertise has to be built up first.

Money instead of time: If you want to be visible faster or have little time, you can invest specifically in paid advertising (SEA) or in outside support such as an agency like mine. The advantage is speed – results are often visible within a few days, unlike SEO, which usually takes months. The downside: without clear control over target groups and budget, money can quickly be burned without any measurable effect.

In practice, most successful founders combine both routes with different weightings, depending on their capital and available time. What matters is not choosing a route because it seems “usual,” but based on your own situation: if you have a lot of time but little capital, don’t let yourself be pressured into investing in ads right away. If, on the other hand, you have capital but little time, you’re wasting potential if you try to learn everything yourself instead of investing in a targeted way.

How the budget changes over time

The budget question doesn’t come up just once at the beginning – it changes as the business grows. In the startup phase, the focus is usually on low-cost or free basics, since it’s still unclear which channels work for your business model at all. Only once first results are in – for example, that a certain channel reliably brings in new customers – does it pay to shift more budget into exactly that channel. This step-by-step increase is much less risky than spending a large budget on a hunch from the start.

What really matters in the budget decision

More important than the absolute size of the budget is how controllable it is. Google Ads budgets can be capped daily and adjusted at any time – which makes them predictable, even with small amounts. Anyone who starts small, tests and watches the results makes better decisions than someone who spends a large budget all at once without testing.

Just as important is the distinction between one-time and ongoing costs. A website is usually a one-time (or rare) investment, while SEO work, ads or outside support are ongoing costs that have to be planned for permanently. Founders should be aware of this, because the one-time website build often takes center stage.

Your own time as part of the equation

One aspect often overlooked in budget planning is the value of your own time. If you invest ten hours a week in online marketing yourself, you don’t pay any money, but that time is missing elsewhere in the business – for example in your core service or customer care.

A realistic look at the budget therefore takes into account not only the money available, but also how much your own time is worth and where it’s best spent. This trade-off turns out differently for every founder, depending on how scarce time and capital each are.

Why SEO and SEA differ in budget logic

A key difference that strongly influences the budget decision lies in how the two measures play out over time. Paid advertising works as long as budget is being spent – once the budget stops, visibility disappears almost immediately. Organic visibility through SEO takes longer to build, but then lasts for a long time even without ongoing investment. For budget planning, this means: if you need to be visible in the short term, you can hardly avoid paid advertising, while long-term investments in SEO pay off later, but more sustainably.

Budget as a testing tool rather than a fixed number

Instead of seeing the budget as a rigid number set once, it helps to understand it as a tool for testing. A small amount, invested specifically in a single measure, gives feedback within a short time on whether expanding is worthwhile. This approach reduces the risk considerably, since wrong decisions become apparent early and with a manageable loss, rather than only after a larger, untested investment.

A common mistake: trying to budget for everything at once

A widespread mistake is spreading a large total budget across several channels right at the start, without knowing which channel works for your business model at all. A short test period on one channel makes more sense before the budget is expanded or spread across more channels.

A quick reality check to finish

Instead of committing to a number up front, a simple three-step approach helps: start with the free basics first, then dare a first small, controlled investment in a single channel, and only decide on expanding the budget based on the experience you gained. If you stick to this sequence, you make budget decisions based on your own data rather than on assumptions or comparisons with other businesses, whose starting situation is rarely comparable anyway.