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TL;DR: If you're a SaaS founder or first-time marketing leader, setting your first marketing budget can feel like a guessing game. This guide breaks down how to build a smart, scalable SaaS marketing budget based on your goals, stage, and funnel maturity.
Plus, we’ll give you a free calculator and two downloadable templates to make the process simple and strategic.
In the first week of most CMO engagements we do at Kalungi, the same question comes up: "What should our marketing budget be?"
Most founders either over-invest too early or under-invest and lose momentum. The truth is, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Your budget should reflect your:
Whether you're building from zero or rethinking your existing spend, this guide will help you:
According to Gartner, the average marketing budget sits at 7.7% of company revenue [2023]. But SaaS startups can vary widely based on goals:
| Objective | Budget Range (of ARR) |
|---|---|
| Growth-focused (VC-funded) | 10–20% |
| Balanced growth & profit | 8–14% |
| Profit-first or bootstrapped | 5–8% |
Important: Don't just plug in a percentage. Your funnel maturity, product readiness, and team capacity should guide what you're ready to invest in and manage effectively.
Every SaaS company has a different cash flow and constraints. Here's how I typically approach building a SaaS marketing budget:
Only invest in channels you can actively manage. For example, don’t run paid search unless you have someone (in-house or agency) who knows how to manage, optimize, and track it properly.
A poorly managed $5,000/month Google Ads budget can easily turn into sunk cost.
Don’t launch a blog, campaign, or event unless you can maintain it. Sustainable marketing matters more than flashy starts. Before anything else, make sure your:
In a competitive SaaS market, perception matters. Quality trumps quantity. One polished landing page that builds trust is better than five half-baked assets.
High-growth startups win early attention by looking credible, consistent, and trustworthy.
Some startups are funded to capture market share fast. Others need to show a path to profitability. Your growth thesis should inform your budget range.
You can’t afford to get your positioning, brand, and website wrong. These are the anchors of your GTM strategy. Before spending on outbound or paid, invest in:
A weak brand or unclear messaging = wasted acquisition dollars.
Here are more examples:
Planning your first marketing budget? Use our free tools to:
What you get:
Fill out the form below and we'll send you an easy-to-use spreadsheet and set of instructions. The sheet includes guidance to set your Marketing Budget $ amount based on:
Use our calculator to get a benchmark marketing budget based on your:
Based on data from 30+ B2B SaaS engagements. Get an estimate of how much you should be investing in your marketing function for exponential growth.
Too many early-stage SaaS companies:
Budgeting isn’t just about what you spend, it’s about when and why you spend it.
Startups that scale well usually:
Use our template to break down each of these by quarter or by month.
Your marketing budget should be a strategic signal. It reflects how confident you are in your go-to-market motion, how clearly you’ve defined your ICP, and how committed you are to building a pipeline that scales.
At Kalungi, we’ve seen what happens when SaaS companies get this right, and what it costs when they don’t. The companies that win are the ones who:
If you're unsure how much to spend, where to spend it, or how to build a budget your board will get behind, let’s talk.
Book a free discovery call with our team to walk through your goals and get expert guidance tailored to your growth stage.
Stijn is Kalungi's co-founder and board member. He is a serial SaaS marketing executive and has over 30 years of experience working in software marketing. He is co-author of the T2D3 book and masterclass that helps startups drive exponential growth.
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