Set a marketing budget
Three ways to arrive at the number, and the rule that decides when money moves between channels. It explains why the published benchmarks do not apply to a business of this size.
Download the guide
Look inside
Eight of the thirteen pages. Turn them the way you would a printed guide.
What the guide covers
Thirteen pages, laid out the same way as every other guide in the series.
Three ways to arrive at the number
What each method assumes, and which of them suits a business without a long record.
Eight actions
Numbered and in order, from working out what a customer costs to setting the rule for moving money.
A worked example
A Dubai equipment supplier, revenue of AED 14 million, AED 50,000 a month across six channels.
A one-page budget sheet
The number, the split, and the rule that moves it.
Related
Where to go next.
Build a marketing plan
Six questions a plan has to answer, on a few pages rather than forty.
Read the guide
Measure your marketing
Three numbers a board will believe, and what a small budget can prove.
Read the guideWhere this fits. Setting the number needs evidence, which comes from a marketing audit. Defending it every quarter is what a fractional CMO in Dubai does.
The article behind this guide. Marketing budget optimisation for UAE SMEs.
Sources. Gartner 2026 CMO Spend Survey, published 11 May 2026: marketing budgets at 7.8% of company revenue against 7.7% in 2025, from 401 marketing leaders in North America, the UK and Europe, the large majority at companies above USD 1 billion in revenue. IPA Bellwether Report, second quarter 2026, published 16 July 2026. Listed in full on page 10 of the guide.
Next step
Talk the decision through before you commit to it
A 30 minute discovery call at no charge, on whichever part of this sits closest to the decision in front of you.
Book a discovery callOr read how marketing audit and diagnostics works, what it covers and how it is scoped.