How to Advertise Your Business: Where to Run Ads, What They Cost, and What to Expect

By Christoph Olivier, Founder, CO Consulting. Last reviewed: July 2026.

To advertise your business, pick paid platforms by buying intent: run Google Search ads to capture people already searching for what you sell, and run Meta ads to create demand and reach new audiences. Start at $500 to $2,000 per month split across two channels, expect the first 2 to 4 weeks to be learning, and judge results on cost per lead, not clicks. This guide is about paid advertising specifically. If you want the free and organic side, read our companion guide on how to promote your business.

Which advertising platform should you use first?

Choose your first platform by whether demand already exists. If people search for your product or service by name, start with Google Search ads because you pay to meet demand that is already there. If nobody searches for you yet, start with Meta (Facebook and Instagram) to create demand by interrupting the right audience. B2B service firms usually add LinkedIn. Local service businesses usually pair Google Search with Google Business Profile.

The mistake I see most from 7-figure founders is spreading a small budget across five platforms at once. You get five underpowered campaigns and no signal. Fund one primary channel until it is profitable, then expand.

Match the platform to intent this way:

Figures are directional. Real costs swing by industry and competition, so treat them as a planning range, not a quote. Our data on Google Ads CPC by industry shows how wide the spread gets.

How much does it cost to advertise your business?

Most small businesses spend between $500 and $2,000 per month on ads, and mid-sized companies spend $3,000 to $15,000. A common planning benchmark is 7 to 8% of gross revenue on marketing and advertising combined, adjusted up when you are growing fast or in a competitive category. What you pay per result matters more than the monthly total, so set the budget against a target cost per lead you can afford.

Cost has three layers people forget to separate. First is media spend, the money the platform charges. Second is production, the ads and landing pages themselves. Third is management, whether you or an agency runs it. A $1,000 media budget with a broken landing page is $1,000 wasted, so fund the page before the ad.

Here is a realistic way to think about entry spend by goal:

• Test and learn: $500 to $1,000/month on one channel to gather signal.
• Steady lead flow: $2,000 to $5,000/month once a channel proves out.
• Scaling a proven offer: $10,000+/month with tracked cost per acquisition.

Before you scale, know your ceiling. If a customer is worth $3,000 over their lifetime and you close 1 in 4 leads, you can pay up to roughly $750 per lead and still profit. Work that number out first using our customer acquisition cost guide.

A first-90-day advertising plan (worked example)

Here is the exact allocation I give a 7-figure service business with $2,000/month to start and no paid history. It funds one demand-capture channel, one landing page, and one retargeting layer, and it treats month one as measurement, not profit. This is the sequence, not a menu to pick from.

1. Weeks 1 to 2 (setup, ~$0 media): Build one focused landing page for your best offer, install conversion tracking, and write 3 to 5 search ads around your highest-intent keywords. Do not launch until tracking fires correctly.
2. Weeks 3 to 6 ($1,500 on Google Search): Run search ads on 10 to 20 exact and phrase-match keywords. Expect the first two weeks to be noisy. You are buying data. Kill any keyword with spend above 2x your target cost per lead and no conversion.
3. Weeks 5 to 12 ($500 on Meta retargeting): Once traffic exists, retarget site visitors on Facebook and Instagram. Retargeting is the cheapest paid win because it reaches people who already know you.
4. Week 12 review: Compare cost per lead to your ceiling. If Google is profitable, add budget there before opening a second cold channel.

What to expect on the timeline: direct-response campaigns aimed at leads or sales usually show early signal in 1 to 4 weeks. Awareness campaigns take 2 to 3 months to move anything. If someone promises leads on day one from a cold audience, be skeptical.

Paid ads vs organic promotion: which should you fund?

Fund paid ads when you need results now, have an offer that converts, and can afford to lose the first month to learning. Fund organic promotion when you want compounding traffic that keeps paying after you stop spending. Most 7-figure businesses do both: ads for speed, organic for durability. The two are not rivals, they are different jobs.

Paid advertising buys attention on demand and stops the moment you stop paying. Organic channels like SEO and content build an asset that compounds. If you only have budget for one and you need pipeline this quarter, start with paid. If you are patient and want lower long-term cost per lead, start with content. For the organic playbook, see our compounding lead generation strategies.

How to know if your advertising is working

Advertising is working when your cost per acquired customer sits below what a customer is worth to you, and the ratio holds as you add spend. Ignore vanity metrics like impressions and clicks in isolation. Track the money chain: spend, leads, qualified leads, customers, and revenue. If any link breaks, fix that link before adding budget.

The three numbers I check first are cost per lead, lead-to-customer close rate, and payback period. A campaign can have a great cost per lead and still lose money if those leads never close. Set up tracking so you can see the whole chain, not just the top. Our conversion rate benchmarks give you targets to compare against.

If you want a growth partner to build and run this, that is what our paid advertising service does. You can also book a consultation to pressure-test your budget and channel mix before you spend.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest way to advertise your business?

The cheapest effective paid option is usually Meta retargeting, which shows ads only to people who already visited your site, so the audience is small and cheap to convert. For cold reach, Microsoft (Bing) Ads often run 30 to 50% below Google’s cost per click. Free organic promotion like SEO and a Google Business Profile costs time instead of media spend but takes longer to produce leads.

How much should a small business spend on advertising?

Most small businesses spend $500 to $2,000 per month on ads, or roughly 7 to 8% of gross revenue on marketing and advertising combined. Start at the low end on one channel to gather data, then scale spend only after your cost per lead sits comfortably below what a customer is worth to you. Fund the landing page and tracking before you increase media spend.

Which is better for advertising, Google Ads or Facebook Ads?

Google Ads is better when people already search for what you sell, because you capture existing demand at high intent. Facebook (Meta) Ads is better when you need to create demand or retarget past visitors, because it interrupts audiences who are not searching yet. Many businesses run Google Search to capture demand and Meta to build and retarget it, funding one first until it profits.

How long before advertising starts working?

Direct-response campaigns aimed at leads or sales usually show early signal within 1 to 4 weeks, and stabilize by weeks 6 to 12 as the platform learns and you cut losers. Brand awareness campaigns take 2 to 3 months to show meaningful impact. Treat month one as paid measurement, not profit, and judge performance on cost per lead once you have enough conversions to trust the data.

Do I need an agency to advertise my business?

No, you can run early tests yourself on Google and Meta, which have low minimum daily spends and guided setup. Consider an agency or fractional operator once budgets pass roughly $3,000 to $5,000 per month, when the cost of wasted spend and the value of expert optimization exceed the fee. Below that, a founder who learns the basics can gather signal without paying management on top.