How much should I spend on marketing?

15-25% of your target revenue. For a brand targeting $500K/year, that's $75K-125K in total marketing spend. New brands may need to invest more (25-30%) to build initial momentum. Established brands can often spend less (15-20%) once organic channels are contributing.

Which marketing channel should I start with?

Paid ads (Meta or Google Shopping) plus email marketing (Klaviyo). Paid ads drive traffic immediately. Email converts and retains that traffic. Together they form the minimum viable marketing stack for any eCommerce brand.

How long does it take to see results from a marketing plan?

Paid ads: 2-4 weeks. Email: 30-60 days for flows to show impact. SEO: 3-6 months. Social: 3-6 months. The fastest results come from optimizing what you already have (site conversion, email flows) rather than building new channels from scratch.

Should I hire an agency or do marketing in-house?

Under $1M/year in revenue: agency or freelancer (you can't afford full-time specialists). $1M-$5M: agency for execution, maybe one in-house marketer for coordination. Above $5M: start building in-house with agency support for specialized channels.

How do I know if my marketing plan is working?

Three signals: revenue is growing month-over-month, blended CAC is stable or decreasing, and email/organic channels are growing as a % of total (reducing paid dependency). If all three are trending positive, the plan is working.

Marketing Strategy Guide

Most eCommerce brands don't have a marketing plan. They have a collection of random tactics.

Run some ads. Send some emails. Post on Instagram. Try TikTok. That's not a marketing plan. That's throwing spaghetti at the wall.

A real marketing plan connects your business goals to specific channels, budgets, timelines, and metrics. It tells you what to invest in, what to ignore, and how to measure success. Without one, you waste money on channels that don't work, under-invest in channels that do, and have no way to know which is which.

Here's how to build an eCommerce marketing plan that actually drives predictable, measurable growth.

15-25%

Revenue Allocated to Marketing

3-5

Core Channels to Focus On

90 days

Planning Horizon

$23M+

Revenue Driven for Clients

How to fix this — step by step

Define your revenue goal and work backward

Start with the number. If your goal is $1M in year one, break it down: $83K/month. At $75 AOV, that's 1,107 orders per month. At 2% conversion rate, you need 55,350 sessions per month. Now you have a traffic target. Divide that across channels: paid ads (40% of sessions), email (25%), organic/SEO (20%), social/referral (15%). Each channel has a cost. Paid media at $50K/year budget, email platform at $1.2K/year, SEO investment at $12K/year. This math turns a vague goal into a specific, budgeted plan.

Audit your current performance to find the biggest gaps

Before deciding what to do, understand where you are. Audit: traffic by source (GA4), conversion rate by device and channel, email revenue as % of total, CAC by channel, repeat purchase rate, and AOV trends. The gaps between current performance and your targets reveal priorities. If conversion rate is 1% (target 2%), fix the site first. If email is 5% of revenue (target 25-30%), build flows immediately. Don't invest in new channels until existing ones are optimized.

Choose 3-5 core channels and commit for 90 days

You can't do everything. Pick 3-5 channels based on your stage: Under $500K/year: Paid Ads (Meta or Google), Email (Klaviyo), and Organic Social. $500K-$2M: add SEO and SMS. $2M+: add TikTok Ads, influencer, and a retention program. Commit to these channels for 90 days minimum before evaluating. Jumping between channels every 2 weeks wastes money because no channel has time to optimize.

Set monthly budgets and KPIs for each channel

Allocate your total marketing budget (15-25% of target revenue) across channels: Paid Ads (40-50% of budget, KPI: ROAS and CAC), Email/SMS (5-10%, KPI: revenue as % of total, open rate, click rate), SEO (10-15%, KPI: organic traffic, keyword rankings), Organic Social (5-10%, KPI: follower growth, engagement rate), Creative Production (10-15%, KPI: cost per creative, winning ad rate). Track KPIs weekly. Report monthly. Adjust quarterly.

Build a 90-day execution calendar

Turn strategy into action with a calendar: Week 1-2: set up tracking, audit current performance, fix quick wins. Week 3-4: launch paid ads (start with proven creative or competitor-inspired concepts), send first email campaigns. Month 2: launch email flows, start SEO content, ramp ad spend on winners. Month 3: optimize based on data, test new creative, expand to secondary channels. The calendar prevents the "I don't know what to work on today" problem that kills momentum.

Review, learn, and adjust every 30 days

A plan is only useful if you measure against it. Monthly review: Are we hitting traffic targets? Is conversion rate improving? What's our blended CAC trend? Is email revenue growing as a % of total? Which channels are performing above/below target? Double down on what's working. Fix or cut what isn't. Adjust the plan based on data, not gut feelings. The brands that grow consistently are the ones that review their numbers religiously.

Want us to handle this?

Building a marketing plan is step one. Executing it consistently across paid ads, email, SEO, and social — while optimizing based on data — is where it gets hard. That's exactly what we do.

We build and execute complete marketing plans for eCommerce brands. If you want a custom marketing plan built around your specific business, goals, and budget, we'll do the first one for free.

Get Your Custom Marketing PlanWe'll walk through your setup live.

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We'll analyze your current performance, build a channel strategy, set budgets and KPIs, and give you a 90-day execution calendar.

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