Why a Fixed Percentage Doesn't Work
You've probably heard 'spend five percent of your revenue on ads.' That rule can serve as a rough starting point, but it guarantees nothing. A business selling high-margin services and one selling low-margin products cannot sensibly spend the same percentage. The right question is: how much can you afford to spend to win one customer?
Starting Point: Calculate Customer Value
How many orders does a customer place per year on average? What do you earn per order? Multiply these two figures to get your revenue per customer. Your customer acquisition cost — ad spend divided by customers won — should sit comfortably below that value. If a customer brings you 5,000 TL per year, acquiring them for 500 TL is a healthy ratio.
Start with a Test Budget
Without any data, committing a large budget upfront is risky. Allocate a small but meaningful test budget per channel — for search ads, social, perhaps content. After four to eight weeks, you will see which channel brings customers at a lower cost and which one just drives clicks. Set your real budget based on that evidence.
- Do my customers find me through search or discover me on social? (Which channel matches their habit?)
- Is the buying decision instant or does it take weeks of research? (Search ads vs. brand awareness?)
- Is my product or service visual in nature? (Does Meta or Instagram make more sense?)
- Am I targeting locally or nationally? (For local businesses, maps and local SEO come first.)
- Am I investing in SEO for the long term, or do I need fast results right now?
How to Distribute Budget Across Channels
As a general principle: search ads work well when customers are actively looking to buy. Social ads are better suited for building awareness, brand recognition, or showcasing visual products. SEO is a patient investment — it takes four to six months to gain traction but becomes one of the lowest-cost channels over time. And the quality of your website directly affects every channel's performance — a weak site will undermine even a well-run ad campaign.
Reading the Data: No Measurement, No Decision
As of 2026, GA4 (Google Analytics 4) is the standard measurement tool. Ad platforms show you clicks and costs in their own dashboards, but GA4 tells you what the visitor actually did on your site — whether they filled out a form, made a purchase, or bounced. Making budget decisions without combining both data sources is like navigating a room with the lights half off.