Before You Pick Tactics, Know Your Budget

Last week, we talked about strategy — picking the right approach so your marketing supports your goals instead of fighting them.

Next Monday, we’ll dig into tactics — the everyday moves you’ll use to bring that strategy to life.

But there’s a step in between that most owners skip:

👉 Knowing your marketing budget.

Before we get into today’s topic, we just released a new training on YouTube.
It’s a hands-on session showing how to turn generic AI ideas into real, usable strategies for your business.

🎥 ChatGPT Gave Me Bad Marketing Ideas... So I Fixed Them.

Now—let’s talk budgets. Before you choose tactics, you need to know what you can actually spend.

Most owners don’t have a marketing department. They’ve got a business to run and customers to serve — and maybe three different people asking for help at the same time.

So the goal here isn’t perfection.
It’s clarity.

Knowing your budget helps you:

Even a rough number gives you a lane to stay in.

For most locally owned businesses, a good starting point looks like this:

These aren’t rigid rules — they’re practical ranges that help you choose what’s realistic.

If you only take one thing from this email: pick a number you can actually stick to.
Consistency beats big one-off bursts every single time.

Some owners prefer a more strategic calculation, especially if they rely on recurring customers.

Two simple ideas make this work:

How much you spend to acquire one new customer.
If you run $300 worth of ads and get 6 new customers, your CAC is $50.

How much revenue the average customer brings you over the entire relationship.
If a customer typically brings in $300 a year for three years, their LTV is $900.

You don’t need perfect data — estimates are good enough to guide your budget.

A healthy marketing investment usually follows a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio of LTV to CAC.
If a customer is worth $1,000 long-term, spending $250 to acquire them is reasonable.

This approach helps you:

Even without the acronyms, the principle is simple:
Know what a customer is worth so you know what you can spend to get one.

Take out a notepad or open your phone. Then:

That’s it.
It doesn’t need to be fancy — just something you can trust and use.

Next week, when we cover Tactics, this number will help you pick the right moves without overspending, underspending, or guessing.

Copy and paste this into ChatGPT:

PROMPT:
“Here’s my business info: [type of business], [annual revenue], [growth goals], and [busy seasons].
Help me estimate a practical marketing budget using both percentage-of-revenue and CAC/LTV approaches. Then break that number into a simple monthly plan and recommend tactics that fit my budget level.”

This gives you a clear number, a plan, and recommended actions — all in one place.

If you want a practical breakdown — with examples and real spend ranges — here’s this week’s blog.
Read it here → What Should You Really Spend on Ads?

For our upcoming content, I’d love your insight:

What do you actually spend on marketing today?

Your answer helps us create even more practical guidance for owners like you.

If you want hands-on practice building strategies with AI — not theory — this video will help you get better results immediately.

🎥 ChatGPT Gave Me Bad Marketing Ideas...So I Fixed Them

You’ll learn:

Give it a watch and let me know what part you want training on next.