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D2C Marketing Budget Benchmarks 2026: How Much to Spend
10/08/2026 Written by Mark Kelly
I get asked some version of this question on nearly every discovery call I sit in on: "Realistically, what should we be spending on marketing?" It usually comes with a nervous laugh, because most founders and ecommerce managers have already been given three different answers by three different agencies, none of which explained how they got there.
I've spent over 20 years on the client side of this exact question, budgeting media spend for Buy It Direct Group, Game and Ecatering before I moved to the agency side.
I've sat in the finance meeting where the marketing number gets challenged, and I've sat in the marketing meeting where that same number never felt like enough. So before you take a benchmark from a random blog and build a board deck around it, let me give you the honest, slightly less tidy answer, along with the actual numbers behind it.
There's no single right percentage. Anyone who gives you one is just guessing
If someone tells you "spend 10% of revenue on marketing" without asking about your stage, margin, or category, they're giving you a rule of thumb, not a plan. The percentage-of-revenue benchmark is a useful starting point, but D2C spend behaves very differently depending on where your brand sits.
According to 2026 data from MHI Media's analysis of over 200 DTC campaigns, brands under £1 million in annual revenue typically allocate 45 to 60% of revenue to marketing, accepting thinner short-term margins to build an initial customer base. Brands scaling past £10 million tend to settle around 25 to 30%, balancing acquisition against profitability. Category matters too: supplement and health brands often run closer to 32% of revenue given the strength of repeat purchase and lifetime value, while apparel brands tend to stay leaner at 22 to 28% because of thinner margins and higher return rates.
Separate research from Eightx, drawn from over 35 DTC and CPG brands across the US, UK, Canada and Australia, tells a similar story through the lens of ad spend specifically. Sub-£1 million brands often run ad spend at 25 to 35%+ of revenue. That drops to 20 to 30% between £1 to 5 million, 15 to 25% between £5 to 10 million, 12 to 20% between £10 to 25 million, and down to 7 to 15% once a brand passes £50 million. The trend is consistent across every dataset I've looked at: the earlier the stage, the higher the percentage, because you're paying to build awareness and prove the model, not just to maintain it.
For context on the wider market, the CMO Survey data puts average B2C product company marketing spend at 15.5% of revenue, compared with 6.4% for B2B product companies. If a generic benchmark quotes a figure closer to 8%, check whether it's actually describing B2B or blended company averages, because it isn't describing D2C.
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What UK marketing spend is actually doing right now
If you're budgeting for a UK D2C brand specifically, it's worth grounding your number in what's happening domestically rather than only US data. The Q1 2026 IPA Bellwether Report, one of the most established indicators of UK marketing investment, found that UK companies revised total marketing budgets up by a net balance of 7.3% in the first quarter, the strongest upward revision in almost two years. That's a meaningful shift from the flat 0.0% recorded the previous quarter.
Overall UK adspend growth for 2026 has been revised upward to 2.5%, from an earlier forecast of 1.5%, with S&P Global projecting further growth of 2.7% in 2027 and 2.9% in 2028. Events and PR led the increase in Q1, but main media budgets also returned to growth after several stagnant quarters, which tells me brand-building spend is coming back into fashion alongside pure performance marketing. If your board has been treating marketing as a cost to trim rather than an investment to grow, this is useful ammunition: UK businesses as a whole are moving in the opposite direction going into 2026, even against a genuinely difficult economic backdrop.
Where the budget should actually go
Knowing your total budget is only half the job. The channel split matters just as much, and this is where I see the most outdated thinking. Let me elaborate. A few years ago, most D2C brands put 60 to 70% of everything into Meta and called it a strategy. That approach doesn't hold up anymore because current D2C benchmark data for 2026 points to a more balanced mix: roughly 40 to 50% of paid budget on Meta, 25 to 30% on Google, 15 to 25% spread across emerging channels such as TikTok, and 5 to 10% held back for genuine testing.
That shift reflects rising Meta CPMs, which have climbed 40 to 60% since 2023 on some estimates, and it's a big part of why relying on a single platform is riskier than it was.
The bigger mistake I see, though, isn't platform mix. It's the split between acquisition and retention. Industry benchmarks now suggest that at least 40 to 50% of an ecommerce marketing budget should sit in owned channels like email and SMS, because they cost a fraction of paid acquisition and drive a disproportionate share of repeat revenue. If your budget is 80% paid ads and 5% email, the ratio is inverted. We talk more about why owning that direct relationship matters structurally, not just financially, in our piece on why D2C is critical for brand control and growth.
What this looks like with real brands, not just data points
Benchmarks are a useful sense check, but they don't replace watching real budget decisions play out. A few examples from brands we work with at CommerceCentric.
With Whitby Distillery, the brand was relatively new to market and needed its budget working harder than a broad-audience approach would allow. Instead of spreading spend thinly, we concentrated it on a tightly defined audience built around their Whitby heritage and award-winning gins. That reallocation, not a bigger budget, delivered a 206% revenue increase and a 121% increase in orders, and contributed to the brand's highest revenue year on record.
With Reckitt's Durex range, the brand needed to launch its D2C proposition across the UK, France, Germany and Spain quickly and cost-efficiently. Rather than front-loading paid media spend, budget was directed into building an affiliate programme from scratch, working with partners including The Independent and Hotukdeals. That channel now attracts over 2,000 affiliates and 3.5 million website sessions, has delivered over 300% year-on-year growth, and accounts for roughly 20% of total revenue. You can see the full breakdown in our Durex affiliate marketing case study.
With Ledlenser, an already well-established brand, the issue wasn't total budget at all. It was over-reliance on branded search and existing customers, which limits incremental growth no matter how much you spend. The fix was rebalancing existing budget across affiliates, non-brand Google PPC, Meta full-funnel activity and technical SEO, rather than simply increasing spend on the channels that were already working.
The pattern across all three is the same. Budget size gets the headlines, but budget allocation is usually what actually moves revenue.
How to work out your actual number
Rather than picking a percentage off a chart, I'd rather you work backward from your own numbers. Here's the framework I use with clients.
Start with gross margin and average order value, because they determine what you can afford to pay for a customer. A £25 order at 40% margin gives you £10 of gross profit; if your cost per acquisition is £15, you're underwater on the first purchase and need repeat orders to break even, which should push more budget toward retention rather than acquisition.
Then look at your CAC to LTV ratio. A ratio of 3:1 or better generally signals room to invest further in acquisition. Below that, focus on efficiency before increasing spend. This is exactly the kind of modelling our D2C marketing strategy and analytics service is built around, working out true lifetime value and the right CPA for your specific business rather than a generic industry figure.
Finally, factor in agency or team cost separately from media spend. Most established D2C agencies in the UK work on retainers starting from a few thousand pounds a month for a single channel, scaling up once you add strategy, creative and multi-channel reporting. If you're weighing that decision, our 10-point checklist for choosing a D2C marketing agency covers exactly what to ask before signing anything, including how retainer pricing should map to scope.
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Bringing it together
If you take one thing from this, let it be this: the "right" number is a function of your stage, margin and category, not a flat industry average. Early stage brands should expect to run hot, often 40% or more of revenue, to build initial traction. Brands past £10 million should be tightening toward 25 to 30% and shifting more of that budget into retention and owned channels. And regardless of stage, your channel split matters as much as your total spend, particularly given how much UK marketing budgets are shifting back toward growth in 2026.
If you want a second opinion on your current split, or help building the CAC and LTV model behind it, get in touch with the team and we'll talk it through properly, no generic percentage required.
Whether it's paid and programmatic advertising that needs sharper targeting, or organic growth through SEO to reduce your reliance on paid spend altogether, we can help you work out where your budget should actually sit. Get in touch and let's look at your numbers properly.
FAQs
Q. What percentage of revenue should a D2C brand spend on marketing in 2026?
Ans: It depends heavily on stage. Early stage D2C brands under £1 million in revenue typically spend 45 to 60% of revenue on marketing to build initial traction, while brands past £10 million tend to settle between 25 and 30%. Category also matters: high LTV categories like supplements often run higher, around 32%, while apparel tends to run leaner at 22 to 28%.
Q. How much should a UK D2C brand budget for marketing per month?
Ans: There's no fixed monthly figure that applies across brands, since it depends on revenue, margin and growth stage. A useful starting point is to calculate your target as a percentage of monthly revenue based on your stage benchmark, then add agency or team costs separately. UK D2C agency retainers typically start from a few thousand pounds a month for a single channel, scaling up for multi-channel strategy and creative.
Q. What is a good channel split for a D2C marketing budget in 2026?
Ans: Current D2C benchmarks suggest around 40 to 50% of paid budget on Meta, 25 to 30% on Google, 15 to 25% on emerging channels like TikTok, and 5 to 10% reserved for testing. Alongside paid channels, at least 40 to 50% of total marketing budget should sit in owned channels such as email and SMS, since these drive repeat revenue at a much lower cost than paid acquisition.
Q. Should early stage D2C brands spend more or less than established brands?
Ans: More, as a percentage of revenue. Early stage brands are paying to prove demand and build a customer base, which means accepting a higher CAC and a longer payback period. As brands mature and repeat purchase rates grow, marketing spend as a percentage of revenue typically falls, while absolute spend can still increase.
Q. How much does a D2C marketing agency cost in the UK?
Ans: Retainer costs vary by scope, but most established UK D2C agencies start from a few thousand pounds a month for a single channel, such as paid media or affiliate marketing, scaling up for full-funnel strategy, creative and reporting. It's worth asking for a scope-based quote rather than a flat rate, since the right cost depends on which channels your growth stage actually needs.
Q. Is UK marketing spend increasing or decreasing in 2026?
Ans: Increasing. The Q1 2026 IPA Bellwether Report recorded a net balance of 7.3% of UK companies revising marketing budgets upward, the strongest increase in almost two years, and full-year UK adspend growth has been revised up to 2.5% for 2026.
AUTHOR: Mark leads ecommerce and advertising strategy at CommerceCentric, with over 20 years' experience delivering direct-to-consumer growth for Buy It Direct Group, Game and Ecatering.
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