How Much Should a Small Business Spend on Ads?

Most small business owners ask "how much should I spend on ads" before asking "what result do I need." We flip that order with every client. Start by working out what one customer is worth to your business, then decide how many new customers you want in the next 3 months, and your budget follows from there — not the other way around. This is also why we run every ads plan for a minimum of 3 months: platforms like Google and Meta need real data to optimize, and judging results after two weeks almost always leads to the wrong conclusion.