DailySocial Conducted a Research on Startups’ Marketing Budget

DailySocial has nust surveyed a number of startups about the total budget of marketing they spend each and every month. The survey shows up that while some of them spend more than Rp 50 million in a month, not all of them are satisfied with the result.

The respondents of this survey were 11 startups, with 9 of  them have less than 100 employees. Although we only included 11 startups, we regard them as representative enough as each of them is the most appropriate representative of the current vast growing ones. Two of them still relied on bootstrapping, four had got their seed funding, two had obtained series A funding, and three had even got beyond series A funding (might be series B, C, and so on).

Six startups confessed that they spent less than Rp 50 million per month for marketing, with three of them even had less than Rp 5 million. On the other hand, five others spend more than Rp 50 million per month, and four of them stated a budget of around Rp 100 million to Rp 1 billion.

That being said, Facebook and Google Adwords ads became their main target to get inorganic traffic, with eight of them spend almost of their money there. The next app was the Search Engine Machine (SEM) which was targeted by six startups, and offline events which was targeted by four startups.

The placement of ads on traditional media, like newspaper or magazines, is apparently still perceived as more attractive than placing ads on Twitter by startup entrepreneurs. This can be seen from the fact that three of the respondents spent for traditional media, while two others placed their ads on Twitter.

Interestingly, even though spending quite an amount each and every month, the startups’ satisfaction level was still considerably low. Only 55% of them (6 startups) stated that they were satisfied, while the rest still found that the result didn’t match their initial expectation.

Furthermore, the survey’s result might show us the big picture of startups’ marketing budget. For well-established ones who focus on having inorganic traffic, Google Adwords and Facebook Ads are their main selection. Even so, don’t be surprised to learn that what they get isn’t  in line with what they expect.

[Illustration: Shutterstock]