How much should a landscaper spend on marketing?

Short version: most healthy landscaping businesses put somewhere between 5% and 10% of revenue into marketing. Newer companies pushing for growth sit near the top of that range. Established crews running on referrals sit near the bottom, sometimes below it. That said, I’ve watched owners get hung up on the percentage when it’s the wrong place to start. Here’s how I’d actually work out your number.

It depends what you’re trying to do

Before you pick a percentage, ask a different question: what are you trying to make happen this year? A crew that’s comfortably booked and wants to stay that way barely needs to spend anything. A business trying to fill a second truck has to spend enough to actually fill it. Same industry, completely different budgets.

So get clear on the goal first. Defending the work you have is cheap. Winning new work isn’t. That one answer moves your budget more than any benchmark will.

A simple way to work out your number

Here’s the back-of-the-napkin version I walk owners through. Ten minutes with a calculator, and it beats any generic percentage:

• Figure out what a customer is worth. Not one job. The whole season, or the whole year if they stay on.
• Decide how many more you want. Ten extra jobs this year? Twenty? Put a real number on it.
• Work backwards. If a new customer is worth $2,000 over a season, paying $300 to win one is a good trade all day long.

Framed that way, the question stops being “can I afford marketing” and becomes “how many profitable jobs do I want to buy this year.” Much easier decision.

Where the money actually goes furthest for landscapers

You don’t need to spend on everything. For most landscaping and lawn care businesses, the money works hardest in this order:

• A website that turns visitors into calls. Everything else points here, so if it doesn’t convert, nothing else matters.
• Your Google Business Profile. Cheap to maintain, and often the very first thing a customer sees. Punches way above its weight.
• Local SEO. Slow to build, but it compounds. Once you rank, the calls keep coming without you paying per click.
• Social media. Your before-and-afters are perfect for it, and it keeps you visible between jobs.

You’ll notice ads aren’t at the top. Ads send people to your website, and if the site doesn’t convert, you’re paying Google to lose leads for you. Get the basics right first. Then ads can work.

What about brand-new businesses?

If you’re brand new, percentages are useless. There’s no revenue to take a percentage of yet. Pick a fixed monthly number you can keep up for at least six months without sweating it, because consistency matters more than size here. And spend it on the foundation: a proper website and a claimed, filled-out Google profile will do more for a new landscaper than any amount of boosted posts.

The bottom line

Use 5–10% of revenue as a rough benchmark, and lean higher while you’re growing. But tie the number to a goal, spend it where it compounds, and check every few months whether it’s actually buying you jobs. That’s the whole trick.