19.2% of Revenue: Small Business Marketing 2026

Small business marketing runs on a much tighter, and proportionally larger, budget than most people assume. Companies with fewer than 50 employees put 19.2% of revenue into marketing, according to the CMO Survey’s February 2025 wave from Deloitte, Duke Fuqua, and the American Marketing Association, more than double the 9.4% average reported across all company sizes in the same survey. The gap holds up across every measure in this data: small operators spend a bigger share, lean harder on AI tools each year, and answer to the same disclosure rules as national brands.

That last point matters as much as the budget numbers. A small business running testimonials, affiliate links, or AI-written ad copy in 2026 faces the same FTC disclosure requirements as a Fortune 500 marketing department, just with a fraction of the legal budget to manage the risk.

How much do small businesses spend on marketing in 2026?

Companies with fewer than 50 employees reported spending 19.2% of revenue on marketing in the CMO Survey’s February 2025 wave, well above the 9.4% average across the full sample of 281 US marketing leaders. That same small-company group also allocated 15.4% of its overall operating budget to marketing, versus an 11.4% average across every company size in the survey. The report does not publish a separate sample size for each employee-size cut, only the overall n=281, so treat the small-business figure as directional within a credible, methodologically disclosed survey rather than a standalone statistically powered estimate.

Figure 1: Marketing budget as a share of revenue, by company employee count. Source: The CMO Survey, Deloitte / Duke Fuqua / AMA, February 2025, n=281 marketing leaders at US companies.

Smaller companies do not have the luxury of a large marketing department to absorb inefficiency, so a bigger share of revenue tends to go toward channels a small team can run directly: local search, email, and word of mouth from reviews. That pattern shows up again later in this article’s review data.

Overall marketing spending across the full CMO Survey sample grew 3.3% over the prior 12 months, while digital marketing spending specifically grew 7.3%, both slower than the 5.8% and 11.1% growth rates reported in Fall 2024. Marketing leaders expect that to accelerate again, forecasting 8.9% overall growth and 11.9% digital growth over the next year.

What do customers actually want from small business marketing?

Superior product quality remains the single biggest factor customers say drives their purchase decisions, cited as the top priority by 35.5% of the CMO Survey’s marketing leaders in 2025, ahead of low price at 19.4% and superior innovation at 12.4%. That ranking has held roughly steady since Spring 2024, when product quality also led at 34.3%.

Figure 2: Share of marketing leaders naming each factor as their customers’ first priority. Source: The CMO Survey, February 2025, n=281.

This breakdown comes from the CMO Survey’s full sample, which skews toward mid-size and larger companies rather than small businesses specifically, so treat it as broader industry context rather than a small-business-only finding. Marketing leaders also rated their own companies at just 4.4 out of 7 on delivering low prices, their weakest self-rating of any category, while scoring 6.1 out of 7 on both product quality and building trusting relationships. A small business competing on price alone is competing on the one factor marketers themselves say they handle worst.

How many small businesses use AI for marketing tasks?

Company use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in marketing reached 17.2% of marketing efforts in the CMO Survey’s 2025 wave, up from 13.1% in Fall 2024 and a 100% increase since 2022, when usage sat at 8.6%. Generative AI specifically grew even faster, now used in 15.1% of marketing activities compared with 7.0% a year earlier, a 116% increase.

Figure 3: Reported and projected AI/ML use in marketing activities. Source: The CMO Survey, February 2025. The 3-year figure is a marketer expectation, not a measured outcome; the same report notes that past AI-spend projections have consistently landed lower than forecast.

For a small business, AI tools mostly show up as faster ad copy, auto-generated product descriptions, and AI-assisted email drafts. None of that changes what the FTC expects when the resulting content includes a testimonial, an endorsement, or a comparison claim, a point covered in full later in this article.

Do online reviews still drive small business marketing?

Yes, and the gap is widening. 97% of consumers read online reviews before choosing a local business, and 41% say they always read reviews before making a decision, up sharply from 29% a year earlier, according to BrightLocal’s 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey of 1,002 US adults conducted via SurveyMonkey.

Figure 4: Consumer review-reading and response-expectation behavior. Source: BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey, 2026, n=1,002 US adults.

The same survey found that 80% of consumers are more likely to use a business that responds to every review, and 89% expect an owner or manager to reply at all. For most small businesses, an unanswered negative review is now a marketing decision, not just a customer service oversight, and it lands in front of the same 97% of buyers who check reviews before they ever visit a website.

What legal disclosures does small business marketing content need?

A small business generating testimonials, reviews, or influencer content is bound by the same FTC rules as a national retailer, and the enforcement landscape got sharper in 2024. The FTC’s Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials took effect October 21, 2024, banning fake or AI-generated reviews, buying positive reviews, undisclosed reviews written by company insiders, and suppressing genuine negative reviews. The FTC’s separate Endorsement Guides, most recently revised in 2023, already required clear disclosure whenever a paid relationship, free product, or employee connection could affect how a reader interprets a review or social post.

Figure 5: The FTC’s basic test for when a marketing claim needs a disclosure. Source: synthesized from the FTC’s 2024 reviews and testimonials rule and 2023 Endorsement Guides.

A small business running an affiliate program, sending free products to reviewers, or publishing customer testimonials on its own site needs a standing disclaimer that covers material connections and paid relationships, not a one-time note added after the fact. Building that disclosure into every campaign template is far cheaper than responding to an FTC inquiry after the content is already published.

What is the regulatory timeline for marketing disclosure rules?

The rules covering reviews, testimonials, and endorsements have moved from guidance to enforceable regulation over a short window, and small businesses that built their marketing playbook even three years ago are working from an outdated standard.

Figure 6: Key regulatory and technology milestones affecting marketing disclosure. Sources: FTC Endorsement Guides and reviews rule; The CMO Survey, 2025.

The practical takeaway is that disclosure obligations have not loosened as marketing has gotten faster and more automated. If anything, the rules got more specific in the same window that AI made it easier to generate marketing content at volume.

How do small business marketing budgets compare across company sizes?

Company size (employees)	% of overall budget on marketing	% of revenue on marketing	YoY change in overall marketing spend
Under 50	15.4%	19.2%	-0.1%
50 to 99	10.5%	7.5%	5.2%
100 to 499	13.2%	12.8%	6.6%
All companies (average)	11.4%	9.4%	3.3%

Source: The CMO Survey, Deloitte / Duke Fuqua / AMA, February 2025, n=281 marketing leaders at US companies.

The smallest companies spend the largest share of both budget and revenue on marketing, yet their overall marketing spending was essentially flat year over year at -0.1%, while every other size bracket grew. That combination, spending a bigger share of a smaller pie while resisting further growth, is a reasonable description of a small business protecting an already-stretched marketing line rather than expanding it.

The Bottom Line

Small business marketing in 2026 costs proportionally more than marketing at any larger company, with owners committing 19.2% of revenue against a 9.4% cross-company average, while the legal bar for what they publish has not gotten any lower. AI tools are cutting production time, and 97% of consumers still check reviews before they buy, so the channels that matter most for a small operator, local search, email, and reputation, are also the ones easiest to run without an outside agency. The part that is easy to skip is documentation: any testimonial, affiliate link, or AI-drafted review response needs a disclosure that would hold up if the FTC asked to see it. A disclaimer generator that covers endorsements and material connections closes that gap without adding a legal review step to every campaign. For the fuller picture of how those same small businesses show up online in the first place, see our data on small business website adoption in 2026, and for the infrastructure behind the landing pages and email campaigns this budget pays for, see the 2026 web hosting market data.

Frequently Asked Questions

What percentage of revenue do small businesses spend on marketing? Companies with fewer than 50 employees spend 19.2% of revenue on marketing, more than double the 9.4% average across all company sizes, according to the CMO Survey’s February 2025 wave (n=281 marketing leaders at US companies).

How many small businesses use AI for marketing tasks? AI and machine learning now touch 17.2% of marketing efforts across the CMO Survey’s sample of US companies in 2025, a 100% increase since 2022, and marketing leaders expect that share to reach 44.2% within three years.

Do online reviews still matter for small business marketing? Yes. 97% of consumers read online reviews before choosing a local business, and 41% say they always read reviews, up from 29% a year earlier, according to BrightLocal’s 2026 survey of 1,002 US consumers.

Does the FTC require small businesses to disclose paid endorsements? Yes. The FTC’s rule banning fake reviews and undisclosed paid or insider testimonials took effect October 21, 2024, and applies to businesses of every size, not just large advertisers.

Sources and References

1. The CMO Survey. (2025). “Leading Marketing in a Complex World: Highlights and Insights Report.” Deloitte, Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and the American Marketing Association. n=281 marketing leaders at US companies, fielded January 21 to February 12, 2025.
2. BrightLocal. (2026). “Local Consumer Review Survey.” n=1,002 US adult consumers, surveyed via SurveyMonkey.
3. US Chamber of Commerce, citing the US Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy. (2023 data). “There are 33.2 million small businesses in America.”
4. Federal Trade Commission. (2024). Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials. Effective October 21, 2024.
5. Federal Trade Commission. (2023). Endorsement Guides, revised.

Note: All figures verified as of August 2026. Marketing budget allocation and AI adoption figures shift with each CMO Survey wave, so headline figures are refreshed at least twice a year.