Work backwards from one job
Take your average job value and your gross margin on it. If a £20,000 extension leaves you £4,000, then spending a few hundred pounds to win one is straightforward arithmetic.
Decide how many extra jobs you want
Two extra extensions a month is a completely different budget from filling one gap in the diary each quarter. Set the target first.
Expect a learning period
The first six to eight weeks of any advertising buys information as much as enquiries. Budget for that instead of judging it after a fortnight.
Treat it as a cost of sale
Marketing is not an overhead sitting alongside the van insurance. It is the cost of buying work, and it should be measured the same way.
Written by Oliver Martin, founder of OMP and director of a UK construction company.