How much $ on advertising?

[dewey9876]

How much does everyone spend on advertising? Do you spend a % of your gross? How do you determine how much to spend.

 

[pitzerwm]

In a normal business, you spend at least 3-4% to maintain your business and 5-10% to grow it. Advertising comes in many forms, giving away tokens, charity events etc also count.

 

[sonicsoft]

Bill is that 5-10% a benchmark from somewhere?

The real question is not how much but where you spend it. My wash is in a suburb of a major city, and the local newspaper has been most effective for me in advertising. It's a free local newspaper that you pick up at any local store, in my type of demographic I never thought this rag would produce the results that it does. I was spending double the amount to mail in valpak and I was getting less than a .5% redemption rate.

 

[pitzerwm]

When I had the ad agency, it was a benchmark. When I opened my check cash, first one in our area, I was spending 15-18% for a year or more to get people to realize what it was for. And it worked.