Set a marketing budget for your freelance business.
Setting a marketing budget as a share of the revenue target keeps it proportionate as the business grows. What makes the figure actionable is running it forward through the funnel: dividing by cost per lead gives the leads it buys, and applying the conversion rate gives the clients those leads should produce. The resulting cost per acquired client is the number to compare against what a client is actually worth.
Budget through the acquisition funnel
Budget = revenue target x marketing share; leads = budget / cost per lead; clients = leads x conversion rate; cost per client = budget / clients
Established service businesses typically spend 5-10 percent. A new practice building a client base from nothing often needs 15-20 percent for the first year or two, then falls back as referrals take over.
Compare it against the client's lifetime value, not a single project. Spending 250 to acquire a client worth 8,000 over three years is excellent; spending it on a one-off 400 project is not.
Not as spend, but it belongs in the funnel. Referrals typically convert at three to five times the rate of cold leads, so a practice with strong referral flow needs a much smaller budget for the same client count.