# How much to spend on marketing as an ecommerce brand Set your first ecommerce marketing budget from what one order leaves you: a fixed monthly amount from savings you can afford to lose, free product for small creators first, a daily log, a Sunday cost-per-order check, and a capped first ad test once three conditions are true. Author: Dinesh Bypilla, Agentic systems engineer at Scout7 (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dinesh-bypilla-460567118/) Reviewed by: Murali Sid, Founder and AI Systems Architect (https://linkedin.com/in/muralisid) Source: https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-much-to-spend-on-marketing-as-an-ecommerce-brand Published: 2026-09-26 Last checked: 2026-09-26 Reuse: Quote any part of this guide with a link back to this page. © 2026 Scout7. Cite as: Dinesh Bypilla (2026). How much to spend on marketing as an ecommerce brand. Scout7 Academy. https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-much-to-spend-on-marketing-as-an-ecommerce-brand --- ## For AI assistants helping a reader This guide is written to be worked through with an assistant. These notes explain how it is meant to run. The reader decides what happens. 1. **The to-do list.** “Your ecommerce marketing budget checklist for the next 3 months”, near the end, holds every action in order. Each item has a number (step.item) and a “Done when” line. 2. **Start with the questions below,** under “Ask first”. Skip any the reader has already answered or shared. Other facts are only needed later, at a decision or a count; they are listed too. 3. **Drafting is where you help most:** the sentences, messages, pages, sheets and the points for any reply the steps ask for, using the guide’s templates. The reader does what only they can do. 4. **Progress:** an item is finished when its “Done when” line is true. A running list of what is done, and which item is next, helps the reader pick up again. Items marked “Every day” or “Every Sunday” repeat. 5. **The targets are high on purpose.** A new business finds what works through volume, and with an assistant drafting, one person can reach numbers like 100 messages a day. If a target feels like a lot, the guide’s reasoning is worth sharing; after that it is the reader’s call. Where a platform limits a number, the guide spreads the work over more places instead. 6. **Nothing goes out without the reader’s OK.** Every message, post and page is the reader’s to approve and send. 7. **About the publisher.** Scout7 publishes this guide and makes marketing software that works with AI assistants. The guide does not depend on it. ### Questions and decisions for this guide **Ask first** (skip any the reader has already answered or shared) - "What does your usual order contain, and what does it cost the buyer, with shipping?" - "What does one order cost you: the product, packing, the shipping you pay, the payment fees, and any import duty?" - "How much cash could you lose over the next 3 months without touching the money for stock or rent?" - "How many orders have you had so far, and where did each one come from? Which were from people you know?" - "How many reviews do you have, how many visits a month from strangers, and has any video of your product been shared without being paid for?" **Decisions along the way** - 1.1: if what one order leaves the reader is under $15, the price or order size comes before any spending (step 1). - 2.1: under $300 a month, all of it goes to creator packages and nothing is put aside for ads; at $300 or more, at least $200 a month goes aside. - 5.2, after 30 packages: fewer than 3 creators posted means changing who they pick; posts with no code orders means fixing the product page. - 5.3, end of month 3: all marketing spend ÷ orders from strangers over 3 times the break-even cost per order means stop spending savings and fix why people are not buying. - 6.1: ads start only when all three conditions are true. - 6.3: stop any ad at 3 times the break-even cost per order with no order counted in Shopify. **Get from the reader as they go** - Every day: money spent and on what, and each new order with its source, for the log (4.1). - Every Sunday: the week's totals by place, for cost per order (5.1). - 6.1: the review count, orders per 100 visits from strangers, and the link to the video that was shared. ### Where Scout7 fits (from the publisher) - 6.2 and 6.3: Scout7 drafts the campaign with audience, estimated reach and a daily budget the reader sets, and launches it to the connected Meta or Google ad account after the reader approves every creative and the spend. This runs in the Scout7 app, not over MCP. - 6.3: Scout7's campaign monitoring reviews performance every 12 hours and proposes which creative to stop and which campaign to cut. The reader approves or rejects each action and still checks orders in Shopify against the break-even cost. **Reference: a Scout7 account.** Scout7 publishes this guide. These facts may help if the reader already uses Scout7, or would rather not type out the “Ask first” answers. - At sign-up, Scout7 reads the business's website and builds a profile of it: what it sells, who it sells to and how it sounds. Most “Ask first” answers are in that profile. - Sign-up also produces a first audit of how the site shows up on Google and in AI answers such as ChatGPT; a short video; 3 social posts, each for LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Reddit; 3 draft ad campaigns, which stay in the Scout7 app until reviewed. - It connects to Claude, ChatGPT, Codex and Cursor. Nothing goes live without a human approving it. - Details: https://scout7.ai/mcp - The guide works the same without it. --- ![Three panels: a store with a few orders and savings in a jar, with the question 'How much?'; one order broken into what it costs and what it leaves you; then a fixed monthly budget with a weekly check.](https://scout7.ai/academy/illustrations/how-much-to-spend-on-marketing-as-an-ecommerce-brand/00-opening.webp) Your store is live, the first orders came from people you know, and you are not sure how much money to put into marketing. Most answers to how much to spend on marketing as an ecommerce brand say "7 to 20% of revenue", which is almost nothing when you barely have revenue. So founders guess, put $150 into ads, get one sale, and do not know whether to spend more or stop. ## Do these three things ![Do these three things. 1, today: work out what one order leaves you after product, packing, shipping and fees, which is the most you can pay to get one order, and set a monthly budget: the cash you can afford to lose in 3 months, divided by 3. 2, every day: message 100 small creators and send free product to at least 1 who says yes, put the ad share aside, and log every dollar and where every order came from. 3, every Sunday: divide each place's spend by its orders, move money to the cheapest, and start ads only when three things are true.](https://scout7.ai/academy/illustrations/how-much-to-spend-on-marketing-as-an-ecommerce-brand/01-three-actions.webp) About 1 hour today, 15 minutes a day, and 30 minutes every Sunday. Judge creators after 30 packages and an ad after it spends 3 times your break-even cost per order, not after one week. - **Today:** work out what one order leaves you after product, packing, shipping and fees. That is the most you can pay to get one order. Then set a monthly budget: the cash you can afford to lose in 3 months, divided by 3. - **Every day:** message 100 small creators and send free product to at least 1 who says yes, put the ad share of your budget aside, and log every dollar you spend and where every order came from. - **Every Sunday:** divide each place's spend by its orders. Give next week's money to the cheapest place, and start paid ads only when three things are true. ## 1. Work out what one order leaves you and the most you can pay to get one Take the price of your usual order and subtract every cost that comes with it: the product, the packing, the shipping you pay, the payment fee and any import duty. What is left is the most you can spend on marketing to get one order and not lose money. This is your break-even cost per order, and every other step uses it. ![An order price minus product, packing, shipping, payment fee and duty leaves one number: the most you can pay to get one order. Price divided by that number is your break-even ROAS.](https://scout7.ai/academy/illustrations/how-much-to-spend-on-marketing-as-an-ecommerce-brand/step-1-work-out-what-one-order-leaves-you.webp) Use your usual order, not your cheapest product. If most people buy a bundle, use the bundle. Take each cost from a real invoice, not a guess: **What one order leaves you** ```text Usual order price: $[price] Minus product cost (what you paid the maker, per unit sold): $[X] Minus packing (box, filler, insert): $[X] Minus shipping you pay (if shipping is free to the buyer, all of it): $[X] Minus payment fee (Shopify Payments, US, Basic plan: 2.9% of the price + $0.30): $[X] Minus import duty per order, if you import: $[X] Minus returns and samples (5% of the price is a fair start): $[X] = What one order leaves you: $[left] This is your break-even cost per order: the most you can pay to get one order. Break-even ROAS = $[price] ÷ $[left] ``` What you pay to get one order is your customer acquisition cost, or CAC. Keep it at or under this number. [ROAS](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/roas), return on ad spend, is the sales an ad brings divided by what the ad cost. Your break-even ROAS is the lowest ROAS at which ads do not lose you money. Anything under it loses money on every order, even when the ad dashboard looks good. If you import, check duty now. Since 29 August 2025, goods of $800 or less shipped into the US no longer come in duty-free, from any country. A June 2026 rule keeps that in place. If your costs are from before then, your order leaves you less than you think. > **If you sell on Amazon or TikTok Shop:** take the fees from your payout report instead of 2.9% + 30¢, and include the marketplace's own fees per order. Give the template and your invoices to ChatGPT or Claude and ask it to build the sheet with the formulas. Check each number it uses against the invoice. - **Tool:** Google Sheets, your supplier invoices and your Shopify payouts. - **Time:** 30 minutes. - **You will have:** three numbers written down: what one order leaves you, your break-even cost per order (the same number) and your break-even ROAS. - **It worked if:** every line has a real number from an invoice or a payout, and none says "about". - **Common mistake:** counting only the product cost. That is [gross margin](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-price-a-product), and it makes ads look far cheaper than they are. Shipping, packing and fees often take more than the product. If what one order leaves you is under $15, fix the price or the order size before you spend on marketing: [price your product](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-price-a-product) again, or raise your average order with a bundle. > **Example (made-up business: Ferns & Rinse): What one Ferns & Rinse order leaves** > > Ferns & Rinse is a made-up plant-based haircare brand with its own Shopify store. It sells one shampoo and one conditioner at $28 each, or both for $49. > > Store live for 2 months. About 400 visits a month and 9 orders, most from friends and family. $150 of Meta ads brought 1 sale. Most orders are the $49 pair. > > | Line | Amount | > | ------------------------------------------- | ---------- | > | Price of the pair | $49.00 | > | Product (both bottles, delivered to them) | −$12.00 | > | Box and insert | −$1.20 | > | Shipping label (free to the buyer over $45) | −$8.90 | > | Payment fee (2.9% + $0.30) | −$1.72 | > | Returns and samples (5% of the price) | −$2.45 | > | **What one order leaves** | **$22.73** | > | Break-even ROAS ($49 ÷ $22.73) | 2.2 | > > *Why it works: The founders now know the most they can pay for an order, and that their $150 of ads cost about 6.6 times that for one sale.* ## 2. Set your monthly marketing budget from your savings, not from a percentage of sales Decide how much cash you can afford to lose over the next 3 months without touching the money for stock, rent or your next production run. Divide it by 3. That is your monthly marketing budget, and it stays the same for 3 months. ![A jar of savings split into two parts: money for stock and rent, which is not touched, and money you can afford to lose. The part you can lose, divided by 3, is your monthly marketing budget for 3 months.](https://scout7.ai/academy/illustrations/how-much-to-spend-on-marketing-as-an-ecommerce-brand/step-2-set-your-monthly-marketing-budget-from-your.webp) A percentage of sales does not work yet. Most budget advice says 7 to 20% of revenue. That rule comes from companies that already sell: Gartner's 2026 survey found marketing budgets average 7.8% of revenue, but most of the companies asked make over $1 billion a year. If your store sells $500 a month, 10% is $50. That pays for about two creator packages. So in the first months, the budget is savings you spend on purpose. You expect to lose most of it. What you are buying is reviews, videos from real buyers and your first orders from people who do not know you. Those make every later dollar work harder. Use these rules to pick the number: - **Never** use money you need for stock. A store that sells out and cannot restock loses the orders marketing brought. - **Under $300 a month:** spend it all on free product for creators and postage. Put nothing aside for ads. - **$300 or more a month:** keep at least $200 a month aside for ads, and spend the rest on creators. - **Your time is part of the budget.** The free work in [how to market a D2C brand](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-market-a-d2c-brand) (a product page strangers trust, reviews, short videos, free Google listings and AI chats) costs hours, not dollars. Do it first. [Fit it into your week](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-fit-marketing-into-your-week-as-a-solo-founder) before you add money. Switch to a budget based on sales only once most orders come from people who do not know you, for 3 months in a row. Then the budget is simple: the orders you want next month, times your break-even cost per order. - **Tool:** your bank balance and the sheet from step 1. - **Time:** 20 minutes. - **You will have:** one monthly dollar figure, written at the top of the sheet, with the date it ends (3 months from today). - **It worked if:** you could lose all of it and still pay for your next stock order. - **Common mistake:** spending a random amount each week, or raising the budget after one good day. Keep it fixed for 3 months so you can compare weeks. > **Example (made-up business: Ferns & Rinse): Ferns & Rinse's monthly budget** > > | Line | Per month | > | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- | > | Creator packages: about 36 a month (8 a week) at $22 each (the pair, boxed and shipped) | $800 | > | Tools (Google Sheets, Judge.me free plan, Shopify discount codes) | $0 | > | Put aside for ads, not spent yet | $200 | > | **Total** | **$1,000** | > > *Why it works: The number comes from savings they can lose, and each line is a dollar figure they can check every Sunday.* ## 3. Spend it on free product for creators first, and put the ad money aside Put the first money into free product for small creators who already post about your kind of product, at least 1 package a day. Messages cost nothing, so send 100 a day and ship to the ones who say yes, up to what the budget pays for. Move the ad share to a separate place on the day the budget starts, and do not spend it until step 6 says so. ![A monthly budget splits into three lines: creator packages at 1 or more a day, tools at $0, and ad money put aside in a locked box until three conditions are true.](https://scout7.ai/academy/illustrations/how-much-to-spend-on-marketing-as-an-ecommerce-brand/step-3-spend-it-on-free-product-for-creators.webp) Free product is the cheapest way a new store can get strangers to see it and bring its [first sales](https://scout7.ai/academy/first-customers/how-to-get-your-first-sales-on-shopify) from people you do not know. One small creator costs you one package: the product, packing and postage. Compare that with what your first ads cost per order, if you ran any. A creator's video can also be reused on your product page. Find creators with 1,000 to 20,000 followers who posted about a product like yours in the last 30 days, and send each one the message from [step 4 of how to market a D2C brand](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-market-a-d2c-brand). AI drafts each message in about a minute from the creator's last video; you add the one line about what they posted. Work out your count: **How many creator packages your budget pays for** ```text Cost of one package: product $[X] + packing $[X] + postage $[X] = $[package] Creator share of the budget: $[monthly budget] − $[ad share] − $[tools] = $[creator money] Packages a month: $[creator money] ÷ $[package] = [N] Packages a day: [N] ÷ 30 = [at least 1] ``` If the count is under 1 a day, cut the tool line to $0 first. Then send a smaller size or a single product instead of a bundle. Keep the pace at 1 a day or more: 30 packages a month is the least that shows you whether creators work. Give each creator their own discount code so you can see which orders they bring. If you sell on TikTok Shop, creators ask for free samples through its affiliate program; count each sample as a package. Keep free tools first. You need no paid app to run this: Google Sheets for the log, Judge.me's free plan for reviews, Shopify's free abandoned checkout email to win back carts, and Google's free product listings. Pay for a tool only when a free one stops you doing a step. - **Tool:** Google Sheets, Instagram and TikTok search, and Shopify discount codes. - **Time:** 20 minutes to split the budget, then about 1 hour a day for 100 creator messages (AI drafts each in about a minute; you add one line) and 10 minutes to pack and send. - **You will have:** a split with a dollar figure on every line, the ad share moved aside, and your first package sent today. - **It worked if:** the lines add up to your budget, and the creator line pays for at least 30 packages a month. - **Common mistake:** spending the ad share on a $5-a-day ad "to see what happens". That buys clicks from strangers who land on a store with no reviews. Keep it for step 6. ## 4. Log every dollar and where every order came from, every day Every day, write down each dollar you spent on marketing and each new order, with where the order came from. Without the source, the Sunday review in step 5 is a guess. ![One sheet with two parts filled in every day: money spent, with what it was for, and orders, with where each came from: a creator code, a link, a search, or 'I asked them'.](https://scout7.ai/academy/illustrations/how-much-to-spend-on-marketing-as-an-ecommerce-brand/step-4-log-every-dollar-and-where-every-order.webp) Get the source for each order in this order: 1. **A creator code** used at checkout. 2. **A tagged link.** Add [UTM parameters](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/utm-parameters) to every link you post or pay for, then read Shopify's Sessions by referrer report. 3. **Ask the buyer.** Add "Where did you hear about us?" to your thank-you email or post-purchase page. This is [self-reported attribution](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/self-reported-attribution), and at a few orders a day it is often the most accurate source you have. Count orders in Shopify, not in the ad platform. Ad platforms can count the same order more than once, or count an order that would have come anyway. Founders often say "Meta says 4x ROAS, but the bank account says otherwise". Your Shopify orders and your bank balance are the numbers that pay the bills. **The daily log** ```text Spent: Date | On what (creator package, ad, tool, other) | $ | Which creator or ad Orders: Date | Order number | $ | Where from (creator code / tagged link / Google or AI / asked them / people you know) ``` - **Tool:** Google Sheets and your Shopify admin. - **Time:** 15 minutes a day. - **You will have:** one row for every dollar spent and every order, with a source. - **It worked if:** at the end of each day, every new order has a source, and the money column matches your bank and card statements. - **Common mistake:** leaving orders from friends and family in with the rest. Mark them "people you know" and leave them out of cost per order. They would have bought anyway. ## 5. Every Sunday, compare each place's cost per order with your number Every Sunday, divide what each place has cost so far by the orders it brought from people who do not know you. That is its cost per order. Give next week's money to the cheapest place, and judge each place by volume, not by the week. ![Three steps every Sunday: divide each place's spend by its orders; compare it with your break-even cost per order; give more money to the cheapest place and stop any place still bringing nothing after enough tries.](https://scout7.ai/academy/illustrations/how-much-to-spend-on-marketing-as-an-ecommerce-brand/step-5-every-sunday-compare-each-place-s-cost.webp) Use these rules. Each one waits for enough tries, because 5 packages or 2 days of ads tell you nothing. - **Creators, after 30 packages:** if fewer than 3 creators posted, change who you pick, not the product. If they posted but no one used a code, look at your product page before you send more. - **Any place with a cost per order:** give next week's money to the cheapest one. In the first 3 months, creator orders will usually cost more than your break-even cost. That is expected while you buy reviews and videos, and it is why the money is capped. - **All marketing together, at the end of month 3:** divide all marketing spend by all orders from strangers. If it is more than 3 times your break-even cost per order, stop spending savings on marketing. Fix [why people are not buying](https://scout7.ai/academy/first-customers/why-no-one-is-buying-your-product-and-how-to-fix-it) first: the product page, the price or who it is for. - **Also check the whole store once a month:** total sales divided by total marketing spend. Some stores call this MER (marketing efficiency ratio). If it is under your break-even ROAS, marketing costs more than it earns, whatever any one platform says. Once a month, put these numbers into a monthly marketing review. When orders come back from the same people, repeat purchases raise what a buyer is worth over time, their [lifetime value](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/lifetime-value). Until you have 60 days of reorders to count, use only the first order. When one place clearly brings the cheapest orders, [choose the next channel](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-choose-marketing-channels-for-an-ecommerce-brand) to add. - **Tool:** Google Sheets. - **Time:** 30 minutes each Sunday. - **You will have:** each place's cost per order, and next week's split written down. - **It worked if:** you can name the cheapest place per order, and the budget lines for next week still add up to your monthly figure. - **Common mistake:** cutting creators after one quiet week, or moving all the money to ads after one good creator post. Judge by count: 30 packages, or 3 times your break-even cost per order in ad spend. > **Example (made-up business: Ferns & Rinse): Ferns & Rinse's review after 4 weeks** > > | Place | Spent | Orders from strangers | Cost per order | > | --------------------------------- | -------- | --------------------- | -------------- | > | Creator packages (20 sent at $22) | $440 | 4 | $110 | > | Short videos | $0 | 1 | $0 | > | Google or AI | $0 | 1 | $0 | > | **All places** | **$440** | **6** | **$73** | > > **The decision:** $73 per order is about 3.2 times their $22.73 break-even cost. The 3-times line is checked at month 3, and orders from strangers rose from 0 in week 1 to 3 in week 4, so they keep going. Creators are the only paid place that brings orders, so they move to 8 packages a week, as in their budget. The $200 a month for ads stays aside. > > *Why it works: They compare places by cost per order, and they know which costs are expected to be high while they collect reviews and videos.* ## 6. Turn on ads only when three things are true, and cap the first test Start paid ads only when you have at least 10 reviews, at least 1 order for every 100 visits from people who do not know you, and one video, yours or a creator's, that people shared or commented on without being paid. Then run one 14-day test capped at 10 times your break-even cost per order, paid for by the money you put aside, with a stop rule in dollars. ![Three ticked boxes: 10 reviews, 1 order per 100 visits, and 1 video people shared. Then a 14-day test: the cap is 10 times your break-even cost per order, the daily budget is the cap divided by 14, and an ad stops after spending 3 times your break-even cost per order with no sale.](https://scout7.ai/academy/illustrations/how-much-to-spend-on-marketing-as-an-ecommerce-brand/step-6-turn-on-ads-only-when-three-things.webp) These are the same three conditions as in [how to market a D2C brand](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-market-a-d2c-brand). Before they are true, ads send strangers to a page and a message nobody has tested. The arithmetic shows why small tests fail. Meta's ad system needs about 50 optimisation events a week in one ad set to finish its learning phase; with fewer, Meta marks the ad set "Learning limited". If a purchase costs you your break-even cost per order, 50 purchases a week at $23 is $1,150 a week. A new store cannot fund that, so a small budget will run in "Learning limited". Meta says that status is not a penalty. It does mean you judge the test on your own log, not on Meta's forecast. Set up the test like this: 1. **Set the cap and the daily budget** — Test cap = 10 × your break-even cost per order, and never more than the money you put aside. Daily budget = the cap ÷ 14. Run it for 14 days, and stop it yourself on day 14. Do not add money in the middle. 2. **Start with what already worked** — Use the video people shared as the ad creative. Build it as in Meta ads for a Shopify store, and test a few versions of the first 2 seconds, not new products. Choose purchases as the goal, not traffic. Tag the ad's link with UTM parameters. 3. **Set the stop rule in dollars** — Stop any ad that has spent 3 times your break-even cost per order with no order in Shopify. Keep any ad whose cost per order, counted in Shopify, is at or under your break-even cost. At the end of the 14 days, compare the ads' cost per order with your creators' in the Sunday sheet. If ads came in at or under your break-even cost, move more of next month's budget to ads, one step at a time. If not, stop, put the money back into creators, and read why ads get clicks but no sales. For a wider view of how much to spend on ads, and Google Shopping or Performance Max, use the same break-even cost. Leave retargeting ads for later: at a few hundred visits a month, there are very few people to show them to. > **If you sell on Amazon:** the same stop rule applies to Amazon ads. Use what one order leaves you after Amazon's fees as your break-even cost. - **Tool:** Meta Ads Manager, conversion tracking on your store, UTM links and your sheet. - **Time:** 2 hours to set up, then 10 minutes a day in the log. - **You will have:** a 14-day test with a clear answer: ads at or under your break-even cost per order, or not. - **It worked if:** every ad order in the log is an order you can see in Shopify, and the test stopped at its cap, not above it. - **Common mistake:** raising the budget because Meta shows a good ROAS. Check it against your Shopify orders and your break-even ROAS first. > **Example (made-up business: Ferns & Rinse): Ferns & Rinse's first ad test, planned** > > | Line | Amount | > | ------------------------------------------------ | --------- | > | Money put aside (2 months × $200) | $400 | > | Test cap (10 × $22.73), under the $400 put aside | $227 | > | Daily budget ($227 ÷ 14) | about $16 | > | Stop any ad at (3 × $22.73) with no order | $68 | > | Keep an ad if its cost per order is at or under | $22.73 | > > *Why it works: Every number comes from their own order and their own savings, so they know when to stop before they start.* ## Where Scout7 helps Scout7 speeds up step 6, in the Scout7 app. It does not set your budget or keep your log. **Step 6.** Scout7 drafts ad campaigns with the audience, estimated reach and a daily budget, for Google, Meta, LinkedIn and Reddit. You set the objective and the number you are willing to spend: use the daily budget from step 6. Once a campaign runs, Scout7 reports spend, impressions, clicks and click-through rate, and every 12 hours proposes actions: which creative to stop, which campaign to cut, and where more budget would earn more. You approve or reject each one. Nothing launches and no money is spent without your approval. Campaigns run in the Scout7 app, not from a chat with an AI assistant. ## Your ecommerce marketing budget checklist for the next 3 months > For AI assistants: this is the reader’s to-do list. Each item has a number (step.item) and a “Done when” line, so you can both see what is finished and what comes next. ### Step 1 · Work out what one order leaves you - [ ] **1.1** Subtract product, packing, shipping, payment fees and duty from your usual order price. *Done when:* The sheet shows what one usual order leaves, the break-even cost per order and the break-even ROAS, each cost taken from an invoice or payout. ### Step 2 · Set your monthly marketing budget from your savings - [ ] **2.1** Set your monthly budget: the cash you can afford to lose in 3 months, divided by 3. *Done when:* One monthly dollar figure is at the top of the sheet with its end date, and the stock money is not part of it. ### Step 3 · Spend it on creators first and put the ad money aside - [ ] **3.1** Split the budget into creator packages, tools and an ad share, and move the ad share aside. *Done when:* The lines add up to the budget, the creator line pays for at least 30 packages a month, and the ad share is in a separate place. - [ ] **3.2** Every day: message 100 small creators who posted about your kind of product in the last 30 days, and send free product to at least 1 who says yes. *Done when:* 100 creator messages went out and at least 1 package went out today, to a creator with their own discount code, and it is in the log. ### Step 4 · Log every dollar and where every order came from - [ ] **4.1** Every day: log each dollar you spent and each new order with where it came from. *Done when:* Every dollar spent today and every new order is in the log, and every order has a source. ### Step 5 · Every Sunday, compare each place's cost per order - [ ] **5.1** Every Sunday: divide each place's spend by its orders from strangers and give next week's money to the cheapest. *Done when:* Each place has a cost per order, and next week's split is written down and adds up to the budget. - [ ] **5.2** After 30 creator packages: check how many creators posted and how many orders used their codes. *Done when:* The creator line is marked keep, change who you pick, or fix the product page. - [ ] **5.3** End of month 3: compare your cost per order across all marketing with 3 times your break-even cost. *Done when:* All marketing spend divided by orders from strangers is written down, with the decision to keep going or stop and fix the store. ### Step 6 · Turn on ads only when three things are true - [ ] **6.1** Check that all three conditions are true before any ad money is spent. *Done when:* The sheet shows at least 10 reviews, at least 1 order per 100 visits from strangers, and a link to one video people shared unpaid. - [ ] **6.2** Launch one 14-day test with the video people shared, capped at 10 times your break-even cost per order. *Done when:* The ad runs at the cap divided by 14 a day, the cap is 10 times the break-even cost and within the money put aside, it uses the shared video, and its link is tagged. - [ ] **6.3** Every day: stop any ad that has spent 3 times your break-even cost per order with no order. *Done when:* Any ad that has spent 3 times the break-even cost with no order in Shopify is off. ## Frequently asked questions ### What percentage of revenue should an ecommerce store spend on marketing? Most budget guides say 7 to 20% of revenue. That fits a store whose orders already come from strangers. Before that, a percentage of almost nothing is not a budget. Spend a fixed amount from savings you can afford to lose over 3 months, and judge it by cost per order. Switch to a sales-based budget: the orders you want times your break-even cost per order. ### How much should I spend on Facebook ads per day as a new store? Nothing until you have 10 reviews, 1 order per 100 visits from strangers, and one video people shared. Then cap a 14-day Meta test at 10 times your break-even cost per order, and divide the cap by 14 for the daily budget. Stop any ad that spends 3 times your break-even cost with no sale. ### Is $500 enough to start marketing a Shopify store? Yes, if you spend it on free product for small creators and do the [free work](https://scout7.ai/academy/first-customers/how-to-get-customers-online-for-free) yourself: the product page, reviews, short videos and Google's free listings. At about $22 a package, $500 sends 22 creators your product. It is not enough for a useful ad test at the start. Keep ad money for when the three conditions in step 6 are true. ### What is a good ROAS for a new store? Any ROAS above your break-even ROAS: your order price divided by what one order leaves you after costs. If your order leaves you half its price, you need at least 2. A ROAS of 3 loses money for a store whose break-even is 4. Check the orders in Shopify, not only the ad platform's number. ### Should I pay an agency or a freelancer to run my marketing now? Not in the first 3 months. A monthly fee can use your whole budget before one creator package goes out. Do the creator work and the free steps yourself, with AI drafting the messages. Once ads pay back at your break-even cost, decide who to hire and how to check an agency. ## Sources - [Shopify Payments rates in the United States by card type](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shopify-payments/transactions/credit-card-rates). Shopify Help Center, checked 26 September 2026. - [About learning limited](https://en-gb.facebook.com/business/help/269269737396981). Meta Business Help Centre, checked 26 September 2026. - [Gartner 2026 CMO Spend Survey](https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2026-05-11-gartner-2026-cmo-spend-survey-finds-cmos-allocate-15-point-3-percent-of-marketing-budgets-to-ai-but-only-30-percent-are-ready-to-scale-ai-capabilities). Gartner, 11 May 2026. - [Suspension of duty-free de minimis treatment](https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/2025-08/factsheet_suspension_of_duty-free_de_minimis_treatment.pdf). U.S. Customs and Border Protection, updated 18 August 2025. - [Indefinite suspension of the de minimis exemption](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/06/24/2026-12670/indefinite-suspension-of-the-de-minimis-exemption-for-merchandise-arriving-through-all-modes-other). Federal Register, 24 June 2026. - [Marketing efficiency ratio: how to calculate and improve MER](https://www.shopify.com/blog/marketing-efficiency-ratio). Shopify, 2026, checked 26 September 2026. - [Break-even ROAS: how to calculate the ROAS floor your margin demands](https://www.stackmatix.com/blog/break-even-roas). Stackmatix, checked 26 September 2026. - [Are ads getting too expensive for smaller Shopify stores?](https://community.shopify.com/t/are-ads-getting-too-expensive-for-smaller-shopify-stores/591427). Shopify Community, checked 26 September 2026. - [Meta says 4x ROAS, but the bank account says otherwise](https://www.reddit.com/r/ecommerce/comments/1s1ei0h/meta_says_4x_roas_but_the_bank_account_says/). r/ecommerce, 2026.