Most "marketing budget" advice is a percentage plucked from the air. We took a different route: we priced the actual supplier stack — line by line — that an engaged UK small business pays for today, across 14 industries. The result is a range from £590/month (small charities) to £4,850/month (e-commerce stores including ad media).
An engaged spender typically pays for most of these each month: video or content production (£1,500–£5,000 per commissioned video, amortised), social media management (£250–£800), a paid-ads retainer (average ~£1,040) plus media, an email tool (£20–£150), a phone answering service (£200–£450) or AI equivalent, a CRM (£40–£240), a booking system (£10–£300 by sector), and lead-generation platforms or commissions on top.
| Industry | Typical total | Single biggest line |
|---|---|---|
| Law firms (2–10 fee earners) | ~£2,835 | Ads retainer + answering service |
| Colleges / training providers | ~£3,110 | Ads — education CPCs are among the UK's highest |
| Private dental clinics | ~£2,450 | Ads retainer + pay-per-lead (£30–£100/lead) |
| Accounting firms | ~£2,115 | Ads + lead platforms |
| Consultants / recruiters | ~£2,465 | Lead-gen retainers (market runs £1.5k–£6k/mo) |
| E-commerce (ex media) | ~£1,600 | Email/retention tooling + management |
| High street (salons, gyms) | ~£1,355 | Social management (£400–£800) |
| Garages / MOT | ~£1,230 | Ads + booking-platform fees |
| Restaurants (ex commission) | ~£1,180 | Delivery commission sits on top: £500–£2,500 |
| Trades | ~£1,110 | Checkatrade-type platforms (£100–£300 all-in) |
| Small charities | ~£590 | Mostly software — media is often free (Ad Grant) |
1. Paid ads dominate every stack. UK PPC management retainers average around £1,040/month before a pound of media is spent, and median SMB media budgets run over £1,000/month per platform.
2. Commission is the hidden whale. Delivery apps take 14–35% of order value; salon marketplaces charge 20–35% for "new" clients; trades platforms charge per lead you then race competitors to answer. These lines rarely appear in a "marketing budget" — but they're the biggest controllable cost in hospitality and personal care.
3. The stack never talks to itself. The videographer doesn't know what the ads person is running; the answering service can't see the diary; the email tool doesn't know who just bought. Every gap is paid for twice — once in subscriptions, once in leads that fall through it.