If you run a pub, you’ve probably asked it in some form:
“How much should we spend monthly, based on our pub type, seasonality and growth goals, and what should that money go on?”
This benchmark builder gives you three budget scenarios (Maintain, Grow, Aggressive), a simple channel split, and a 90-day plan you can actually follow.
It’s built to stop the guesswork, reduce wasted spend, and make sure your marketing is doing one job: bringing in more of the right customers, more often.
We’ve anchored the calculations to published benchmarks, so it’s not just opinion.
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The BBPA “Running a Pub” cost models include a Marketing/Promotion/Telephone line item shown as a percentage of turnover across multiple pub types, which gives a grounded “what many pubs already budget for” baseline.
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Gartner’s 2025 CMO Spend Survey puts overall marketing budgets at 7.7% of company revenue across industries, which helps frame an “aggressive growth” ceiling in wider context.
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A commonly cited restaurant guideline is 3% to 6% of revenue on marketing, useful as a middle “growth” bracket (we label this clearly as a general benchmark, not a pub law). Toast POS+1
The result: pub-specific baseline + general growth bracket + broader market context.
Pub Marketing Spend Benchmark Builder
Answer a few questions and get three spend scenarios (Maintain, Grow, Aggressive), a channel split, and a simple 90-day plan. This is a planning tool, not financial advice.
Inputs
Designed for speed. Pick your best estimate and you will still get a useful plan.
Turnover band (optional)
Selecting a band will pre-fill a sensible midpoint. You can still edit it.
Turnover amount
Choose annual or weekly. Weekly uses 52 weeks for simplicity.
Number of sites
If you have more than one pub, fixed marketing work increases.
Average spend per head (optional)
We will show how many covers match the marketing spend in pure revenue terms.
Wet-led to Food-led
0 is wet-led. 100 is food-led.
Trading style
This nudges the tool for competitive areas and tourist demand.
Primary revenue driver
This affects channel weighting and the 90-day plan.
Seasonality preset
Pick the pattern closest to your year.
Push harder in quiet months
Moves some budget from peak months into the quieter months.
Outputs
Run the builder and your spend scenarios, channel split and plan will appear here.
1) Recommended monthly budget ranges
2) Channel split
Apply split to this scenario
We use the midpoint of the selected range for the split.
3) 90-day plan
4) KPI targets and tracking
How it is calculated
• BBPA "Running a pub" cost guide includes a Marketing/Promotion/Telephone line item shown as a percentage of turnover across pub models (used as the baseline anchor).
• Gartner 2025 CMO Spend Survey reports marketing budgets at 7.7% of overall company revenue (used as wider context for aggressive scenarios).
• Toast marketing budget guidance suggests 3% to 6% of revenue as a common restaurant bracket (used as a middle growth range, clearly labelled as general guidance).
Sources:
BBPA Running a pub cost guide (PDF) | Gartner 2025 CMO Spend Survey (press release) | Toast restaurant marketing budget guidance
Embed snippet (optional)
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1) Three monthly budget scenarios (with plain-English meaning)
Maintain (keep visible)
A baseline spend that protects local presence, reviews, and consistent visibility.
Grow (steady uplift)
Enough to win more “near me”, drive bookings, and build an audience you can market to without paying every time.
Aggressive (land grab)
For pubs in competitive locations, pubs with big events ambitions, or pubs that want to shift demand quickly.
Each scenario shows:
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£ per month
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% of turnover
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A short line on what that level of spend actually enables
Important note: “Marketing spend” here can include creative, tools and paid media, depending on what you select.
2) Channel split people can screenshot and share
You’ll get a split across the channels that actually move the needle for pubs:
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Local SEO + Google Business Profile + content
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PPC (Google Search and Maps visibility)
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Paid social (Meta)
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Organic social (content production and posting rhythm)
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Email and CRM (list growth + offers + event pushes)
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Photography/video (quarterly bursts)
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Listings and partnerships (directories, event listings, community)
We also split it into:
Fixed foundations (the stuff you keep consistent)
SEO, content, email, baseline creative.
Variable levers (the stuff you turn up/down by season)
PPC and paid social.
That’s what makes it feel realistic, because pub marketing is never flat month-to-month.
3) A 90-day plan based on your goals
This is the part most tools skip. We don’t.
You’ll get a short roadmap like:
Weeks 1 to 2: Foundations
Google Business Profile categories, services, booking links, tracking, offer positioning.
Weeks 3 to 6: Build demand capture
Local intent pages based on your model (Sunday lunch, quiz night, beer garden, dog friendly, live sport, private hire).
Weeks 7 to 12: Push and refine
Review generation system + 1–2 targeted campaigns (midweek offer, event night, seasonal push), then adjust based on what actually converts.
4) KPI targets and what to track
Not promises. Targets you can manage.
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Reviews per month target (scaled to footfall band)
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Website actions (calls, directions, booking clicks)
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“Near me” visibility checks (trend over time, not one screenshot)
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Email list growth target (simple weekly number)
Find more help calculators here
We start with a baseline percentage that reflects what’s shown in BBPA-style pub P&L models for Marketing/Promotion/Telephone as a useful starting point.
Then we adjust up or down based on:
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how wet-led or food-led you are
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your trading style and competition
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your chosen goals (events, tourists, midweek, repeat visits)
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seasonality weighting (so annual spend doesn’t magically rise, it shifts)
Guidance ranges used in the tool
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Maintain: 1.5% to 2.5% of turnover (baseline visibility)
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Grow: 3% to 6% (commonly cited growth bracket) Toast POS+1
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Aggressive: 6% to 9% (for competitive growth scenarios, with wider context from overall marketing benchmarks)
Is this meant to replace a full marketing strategy?
No. It’s a benchmark builder. It gives you a sensible spend range, a channel split, and a 90-day plan so you can stop guessing and start moving.
Does marketing spend include agency fees and creative?
It can. The tool is designed to be honest about the real world. If you select content and creative support, the split reflects that.
What if we’re in a very seasonal area?
That’s exactly why the seasonality weighting exists. You can shift spend into the months where you need demand most, without inflating annual spend.
What if we rely heavily on walk-ins?
Then your priority is usually Maps visibility, reviews velocity, and social content that gives locals a reason to pick you tonight, not “someday”.
What if we’ve tried marketing before and it didn’t work?
Most pubs don’t fail because marketing “doesn’t work”. They fail because spend is scattered across random tactics with no tracking, weak offers, and no consistent visibility baseline.