Stop guessing with your marketing spend. Here’s how UK construction firms should set marketing budgets that drive real growth and build sustainable pipelines.
You might be one of the MANY construction firms operating without a formal construction marketing budget. Big, medium and small, there’s plenty that are doing this.
Notice how I didn’t say you were ‘guilty’ of working like this? It’s because it isn’t some kind of unique failing that everyone knows to avoid. It’s simply how the industry has traditionally worked, with marketing happening organically through relationships and referrals. Word-of-mouth has been king, rapport building has been queen. Since day dot.
However, construction is becoming more and more competitive. The digital age means you no longer only need to look to local contractors for help. Marketing approaches are suitably diverse, so having a structured approach to marketing investment creates significant advantages.
When MDs set clear marketing budgets and establish proper budget processes, it benefits everyone; the business gets more strategic growth, and marketing efforts become more focused and effective.
Strategic marketing budgets enable UK construction firms to maintain consistent activity regardless of workload, which logically leads to more predictable pipelines and less dependence on market cycles or referral luck.
Here’s how to set a construction marketing budget that drives growth and gives your marketing efforts the foundation they need to succeed.
Construction Marketing Budgets Matter More Than You Think – Here’s Why.
The Strategic Foundation
Setting a construction marketing budget is a strategic commitment to growth. When you set a proper marketing budget for your construction business, you’re making a deliberate decision to invest in building awareness of your business before prospects need your services. It’s essential, and winging it just won’t cut the mustard. You’ll end up overspending or underspending, sending resources in the wrong direction, and disappointing yourself.
A forward-thinking approach separates successful construction firms from those stuck in feast-or-famine cycles. Construction companies with strategic marketing budgets can maintain consistent activity regardless of current workload, building compound momentum over time. Sounds like the way forward, right?
The Discipline Factor
Having a defined budget creates discipline around marketing activities. Instead of random spending on whatever seems urgent in the moment, you can focus resources on activities that build long-term relationships and positioning. It can actually help you save money, because you then know you’re funnelling it in the right directions at the right time.
This discipline is crucial in construction, where the temptation is always to stop marketing when busy and panic-spend when work slows down. A properly ring-fenced budget allows your team to continue getting you in front of more clients consistently and effectively.
How Much Should Construction Firms Spend on Marketing Budget?
The General Guidelines
According to global insight company, Gartner, marketing budgets have remained at 7.7% of overall revenue for 2025. The recommendations for marketing budget vary from between 2 and 15% of revenue. This might seem high if you’re used to spending nothing formal, but consider what you’re currently spending on reactive business development – awards, networking events, last-minute proposals, and advertising opportunities. Or you could be missing out on lead gen opportunities as you are unsure about spending any money on other activity.
If this level of spend is a bit scary, start with what you know and use the previous year’s actual spend as a baseline. You can then add a nominal percentage increase to that level of spend to reflect your intentions in the year ahead. You can also look at elements of baseline that met their objectives and remove those that didn’t. Before implementing any budget, consider getting a comprehensive marketing audit to understand what’s currently working and where investment will deliver the best returns. (I can support you with this!)
I can’t stress this enough! The key is maintaining consistent, strategically allocated marketing investment rather than the stop-start approach that characterises most construction business marketing efforts. A £50,000 annual marketing budget spent strategically will outperform £100,000 spent reactively. The key is consistent, focused investment in activities that build compound momentum over 12 months.
How to allocate your budget
Before determining how much to spend or where to allocate resources, successful construction firms establish clear marketing objectives and strategic direction. That has to be your first step, and it can be incredibly illuminating.
Are you looking to expand into new geographic markets? Target different client types? Build thought leadership in a specialist area? Your marketing objectives should align directly with your business growth plans and inform every budget decision that follows.
Equally important is understanding your strategic approach. Will you focus on relationship building through LinkedIn and industry events? Develop content marketing that positions you as an expert? Invest in referral system development? Your strategy determines not just where money goes, but how different marketing activities work together to build compound momentum.
Without this foundation, budget allocation becomes guesswork. With clear objectives and strategy, every pound spent has purpose and direction, making your marketing investment far more effective.
A Practical Framework for Construction Marketing Budget
To make your budget easy to track and report on you should have a system for phasing and allocating it. You can do this in a number of ways.
The 70-20-10 Rule
- 70% on proven activities: Invest the majority of your budget in activities that have demonstrated effectiveness for your business or similar firms.
- 20% on optimisation: Improving and expanding activities that show promise but need refinement.
- 10% on experimentation: Testing new approaches or platforms that might deliver future growth.
This framework prevents both stagnation and reckless experimentation while ensuring continuous improvement.
Allocating Budget by Activity Type
Beyond the 70-20-10 split, you need to consider how your budget balances different types of marketing activities:
Brand Building vs. Lead Generation (60-40 split): Most construction firms focus heavily on immediate lead generation, but sustainable growth requires significant investment in brand-building activities that create awareness 12-24 months ahead of need.
Digital vs. Offline (70-30 split): While digital marketing offers better tracking and targeting, construction still benefits from strategic offline activities like industry events and professional association participation.
Content Creation vs. Content Promotion (50-50 split): Creating valuable content is only half the equation. Budget equally for promoting and distributing that content to reach your target audience.
Relationship Building vs. Visibility (60-40 split): Direct relationship building through networking and one-to-one engagement typically delivers higher returns than broad visibility campaigns for construction firms.
These splits provide starting frameworks that you can adjust based on your specific market position and growth objectives.
Monthly Investment vs. Project Spending
Fixed monthly investment (70-80% of budget): Consistent activities like content creation, relationship building, and system maintenance that require ongoing effort.
Project-based spending (20-30% of budget): Strategic initiatives like website development, major content projects, or intensive market research.
The monthly investment creates momentum and compound effects. Project spending addresses specific strategic needs without disrupting ongoing activities.
Review and Adjustment Cycles
- Monthly review: Are we maintaining consistency in high-impact activities? Are we staying within our construction marketing budget allocations?
- Quarterly assessment: What’s delivering results? What needs optimisation? Are we building the right relationships with our target construction clients?
- Annual planning: How did our marketing investment correlate with business growth? What strategic shifts are needed for next year’s construction marketing budget?
Regular review prevents budget drift and ensures investment remains aligned with business objectives
Measuring ROI When Decision Cycles Span Years
One of the biggest challenges in construction marketing (unless you are in products) is determining return on investment when client decision cycles extend 12-24 months and often cross financial years. Traditional ROI calculations don’t work when you invest in relationship building in 2025 but don’t see project awards until 2026 or 2027.
Leading Indicators vs. Lagging Indicators
Focus on leading indicators that predict future pipeline rather than immediate financial returns:
- Relationship development with target prospects
- Content engagement from ideal client profiles
- Speaking opportunities and industry recognition
- Referral introductions and warm connections
Multi-Year ROI Tracking
Set up systems to track marketing investment against outcomes over 24-36 month periods rather than annual cycles. Tag prospects and opportunities with their original source and track relationship development from first contact through project award. We’d recommend using a decent CRM tool to help with this.
Portfolio Approach to Measurement
Rather than expecting every marketing activity to deliver immediate ROI, view your budget as a portfolio where some investments pay off in 6 months, others in 18 months, and some build long-term competitive advantages that compound over years.
This longer-term view aligns marketing measurement with actual construction business cycles rather than arbitrary financial year boundaries.
Implementation Without Overwhelm
Start With What You Can Commit To
Better to invest £2,000 monthly consistently for 24 months than £10,000 for three months followed by nothing. Consistency matters more than absolute amounts.
Focus on Relationship ROI
Measure success by relationship development and long-term pipeline progression rather than immediate lead generation. The best marketing investments can take 12-18 months to show full returns.
Build Internal Capability
Include enough budget for developing internal marketing capabilities alongside external support. The most successful construction firms combine external strategic guidance with internal execution capability.
Strategic construction marketing budget planning isn’t about spending more money, often, it can even be the opposite. It’s about investing wisely in activities that build sustainable competitive advantages over 12-24 months.
The UK construction firms that understand this timing advantage consistently outperform their competitors in both growth and profitability.
Ready to develop a strategic marketing budget that drives real growth?
Book a free 30-minute strategy call to discuss your business objectives and create a budget framework that builds sustainable competitive advantage.
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