Marketing spend as a percentage of revenue is the share of each rupee of sales that went back into marketing: marketing spend divided by revenue, times 100. It is the inverse of MER.
Marketing % of revenue = Marketing spend ÷ Revenue × 100
On the sample data below, six months come to 23.69%.
Why it matters
It is how budgets are usually set ("we spend 20% of revenue on marketing") and lets you compare marketing intensity across months and with your margins.
Worked example
The table shows the columns this metric needs from six months of a made-up subscription brand. Add each column up over the six months, then put the totals into the formula:
| Month | Revenue (net of discounts) | Marketing spend |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-01 | ₹4,12,000 | ₹96,000 |
| 2026-02 | ₹4,38,500 | ₹1,02,000 |
| 2026-03 | ₹4,71,200 | ₹1,18,000 |
| 2026-04 | ₹4,55,800 | ₹99,000 |
| 2026-05 | ₹5,02,300 | ₹1,24,000 |
| 2026-06 | ₹5,48,900 | ₹1,31,000 |
| Total | ₹28,28,700 | ₹6,70,000 |
₹6,70,000 ÷ ₹28,28,700 × 100 = 23.69%
Add up first, then divide. Averaging the six monthly figures gives a slightly different answer, because it counts a small month the same as a large one.
Month by month
| Month | Marketing spend as a percentage of revenue |
|---|---|
| 2026-01 | 23.30% |
| 2026-02 | 23.26% |
| 2026-03 | 25.04% |
| 2026-04 | 21.72% |
| 2026-05 | 24.69% |
| 2026-06 | 23.87% |
Marketing spend as a percentage of revenue calculator
How to read it
If marketing percentage is larger than gross margin minus your other variable costs, every sale loses money before fixed costs.
Common mistakes
- It is 100 divided by MER. Do not track both as separate goals.
- A launch month with heavy spend and delayed sales looks bad on its own; look at a rolling three months.
- Agree what counts as marketing: discounts and free samples are sometimes included, sometimes not.
Calculate marketing spend as a percentage of revenue in Excel, SQL or Python
The quickest version, for the sample sheet laid out as in the CSV (headers in row 1, months in rows 2 to 7):
=SUM(G2:G7) / SUM(B2:B7)- Marketing spend as a percentage of revenue in Excel and Google Sheets — per-month formula and zero-safe version
- Marketing spend as a percentage of revenue in SQL — query by month and for the period
- Marketing spend as a percentage of revenue in Python (pandas) — pandas script with expected output
Related metrics
See all business metrics, or the statistics methods that sit behind them.
Questions people ask
- What is marketing spend as a percentage of revenue?
- Marketing spend as a percentage of revenue is the share of each rupee of sales that went back into marketing: marketing spend divided by revenue, times 100. It is the inverse of MER.
- How do you calculate marketing spend as a percentage of revenue?
- Marketing % of revenue = Marketing spend ÷ Revenue × 100. For example, with six months of sample data: ₹6,70,000 ÷ ₹28,28,700 × 100 = 23.69%.
- What is the marketing spend as a percentage of revenue formula in Excel?
- With the sample data laid out as in the downloadable CSV, =SUM(G2:G7) / SUM(B2:B7) gives the figure for the whole period (format the cell as a percentage). For one month, use =G2 / B2 and fill it down.
- What is a good marketing spend as a percentage of revenue?
- There is no figure that is right for every business: it depends on your products, prices and channels. If marketing percentage is larger than gross margin minus your other variable costs, every sale loses money before fixed costs.
Check how stable it is
A metric moves for ordinary reasons as well as real ones. These methods separate the two: the spread shows what a normal month looks like, the moving average smooths it, the z-score flags a month that is out of line and the trend line shows the direction.
Guides
About the data on this page
The figures come from a small made-up dataset, printed above in full so you can check every number by hand. Download it as monthly.csv. The results are computed from those rows when the page is built, and the Excel formulas, SQL and Python on these pages are run against the same rows before publishing, so the code and the answers agree.
To get these numbers from your own data without writing formulas, try AnalyzeIt: ask in plain words and it shows the working behind every figure.
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