How Much Do Companies Spend on Content Marketing? [Infographic]

Bob Hutchins — April 24, 2017 Follow @Bobhutchins

“How much should I spend on my content marketing?” It’s a question that many business owners consider, but few want to ask.

Instead, they hold the question to themselves:

“If I ask, they’ll try to upsell me.”

“I should be the one to know how much I ought to spend.”

“What if I waste my money? … What if I don’t spend enough to get any significant results?”

Making any kind of an investment in your business can feel risky. Plus, when you outsource a content strategy, you’re also putting your brand (your hard-won brand equity!) into the hands of… outsiders!

So, how do you know (1) how much to spend on content marketing and (2) who to trust with your budget and your brand?

A new infographic from Point Visible provides valuable insights into the current state of content marketing (2017).

While the entire infographic is worth scanning through, we’re going to focus on just the final section (Budget & Spending) in this blog post. As for knowing who to partner with, use this list of 27 questions to ask a digital marketing agency as a guide in your search.

Content Marketing Budget & Spending

B2B content marketers expect their spending to be affected in the following ways in 2017:

• 45% – remain the same
  
• 39% – increase
  
• 14% – unsure
  
• 2% – decrease

On average, content marketing accounts for 29% of B2B marketing budgets.

B2C content marketers expect their spending to be affected in the following ways in 2017:

• 42% – remain the same
  
• 39% – increase
  
• 17% – unsure
  
• 2% – decrease

On average, content marketing accounts for 26% of B2C marketing budgets.

Fast Facts:

• 28% of marketers have reduced their advertising budget to fund more digital marketing.
  
• 69% of companies report their video marketing budget is increasing.
  
• 75% of marketers are increasing investment in content marketing
  
• Content marketing will be a $ 300 billion industry by 2019 – this means it will more than double in under four years.
  
• Total digital ad spending in 2017 will equal $ 77.37 billion, or 38.4% of total ad spending.

Our Content Marketing Budget Formula

So, how much should you spend? If you’re new to content marketing, consider allocating 25 to 30% of your total marketing budget. The U.S. Small Business Administration recommends companies doing under $ 5 million a year in sales consider spending 7-8% of gross revenue on marketing and advertising.

So, if you are a small business that does $ 500,000 in sales per year, your total marketing spend might be $ 37,500, of which 30% ($ 11,250) may go to content marketing. This is a conservative estimate, and many businesses can (and do) benefit from scaling these figures considerably. That being said, use this formula to estimate your spend:

[$ annual revenue] x 0.075 x 0.3 = [$ annual content marketing budget]

Do you currently invest in content marketing? If not, what’s kept you from trying it? We’d like to know! Leave us a comment below.

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