How Much Should You Spend on Marketing Your Construction Business?
There's no single right number, but there is a sensible way to work one out, rather than picking a figure at random or copying what a competitor spends.
The rule of thumb: percentage of revenue
A commonly used benchmark across established service businesses is 5 to 10 percent of revenue. Businesses actively trying to win bigger, higher-value contracts, rather than simply maintaining what they've already got, tend to sit at the higher end of that range, since breaking into a new tier of work takes real, sustained investment, not just occasional visibility top-ups.
Adjust for where your business actually is
A business coasting on repeat work and referrals can get away with less. But a business with the team and reputation to handle bigger jobs, and simply isn't winning them yet, is usually leaving money on the table by underspending. That gap between "capable of the work" and "getting the work" is almost always a visibility and follow-up problem, not a skill problem, and it's the one most worth solving properly.
What actually counts as "marketing spend"
It's not just ad budget. A proper marketing budget includes your website, your CRM and follow-up systems, any agency fees, and the ad spend itself. Businesses often underestimate their real spend by only counting the obvious bit and forgetting the infrastructure running quietly behind it, the part that actually determines whether a lead turns into a booked job.
What this looks like in practice
Growth (from £1,200/month) - right for an established business ready to stop relying purely on word of mouth: Google visibility, missed call follow-up, review generation, and reactivation of past customers, all running on autopilot.
Authority (from £1,800/month) - right for a business with the team and capacity to take on bigger, higher-value contracts, and ready to invest properly in getting them: a full website, ongoing content, ad management, and dedicated monthly strategy.
Both sit comfortably within that 5-10 percent guideline for a business turning over the kind of revenue that supports a 5+ person team, without stretching into territory that doesn't make financial sense.
What happens if you underspend
The risk isn't usually dramatic, it's quiet. Underspending tends to show up as a business that's technically thriving on paper but stuck at the same size for years, still winning the same tier of job, still invisible to the bigger contracts it's genuinely capable of handling. Nothing breaks. Growth just doesn't happen.
If you're not sure whether Growth or Authority is the right fit for where your business actually stands, our free marketing audit gives you a clear, honest answer, not a generic guess. Book yours at nohasslefortrades.com/free-audit.
