What Does Performance Marketing Really Cost? Realistic Budgets for B2B, B2C and E-Commerce
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
How much budget do I need at minimum for Performance Marketing?
For an individual channel (e.g. Google Ads), at least €1,500-2,000 monthly in media budget plus agency costs are recommended. Below this value, you collect too little data to sensibly optimise campaigns. For multi-channel strategies, you should reckon with at least €5,000-8,000 in total budget.
How long does it take until Performance Marketing becomes profitable?
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Reckon with a learning phase of 2-3 months. During this time, campaigns are tested, target groups narrowed and bid strategies optimised. For B2B companies with long sales cycles, it can take 4-6 months until the full ROI becomes visible. E-commerce companies often see initial profitable results after just 4-6 weeks.
What is a good ROAS for Performance Marketing?
A good ROAS depends on your margin. At margins of 50%, a ROAS of 3:1 is profitable (€3 in revenue per €1 in advertising spend). At margins of 30%, you need at least a ROAS of 4:1. Across industries, a ROAS of 4:1 to 8:1 is considered good. Values above 10:1 often indicate that you could grow even more strongly with more budget.
Is Performance Marketing cheaper than classic advertising?
Performance Marketing is not per se cheaper, but significantly more measurable. You know exactly which euro brought which result. With classic advertising (print, TV, posters), you pay for reach without direct conversion measurement. For most mid-sized companies, Performance Marketing therefore offers the better price-performance ratio.
Should I distribute my budget across several channels or focus on one?
Start focused. Choose the channel on which your target group is most active (Google for search queries, Meta for visual products, LinkedIn for B2B decision-makers) and build a profitable basis there. Only when a channel performs stably do you expand to the next one. Never distribute your budget evenly across 4-5 channels - that leads to none of them getting enough data for optimisation.
