I am taking a poll to see how much people spent or think should be spent on advertising for a NEW company.

I am not looking for companies that have been around a while, I want to know what's a good limit to start with?

It all depends on what you can afford. If you can afford $50/month, do that. If you can afford $250, then thats even better.

What I always did was thought about what I thought I could afford each month, then cut it in half. I'd put half into advertising, and half into an account for the business until it started gaining profit.

A percentage of your startup funds would be more helpful as everyone starts off with different amounts of money. I personally spent almost $0 in advertising in my first year of business.

Depends how much your business model can support and how you are actually spending the advertising money. Different advertising mediums will net you different results. Therefore $xx in one medium might have the same return as $xxxx in another medium

Sometimes the best advertising can be free! As others have stated, it all depends ROI (return on investment), so I would start small in different areas, figure out the ROI and then build your advertising budget that way.

If your new to the hosting world, spending lots on advertising just doesn't make sense. A lot of consumers are also researchers and will be happy to look for reviews/company history before purchasing from them. If the company is new, chances are they will keep looking around elsewhere for a more established one.

I personally spent almost $0 in advertising in my first year of business. Well, did you charge your business for the time spent socializing, putting "free" ads on-line etc.? :)

I fear that for many people it is simply not feasible to wait years for the business to reach the level where it can feed them and their family. Things must be sped up. As it was said in another thread, word of mouth kinda' snowballs, so it really helps to start with a decently sized seed snowball - hence advertising.

I want to know what's a good limit to start with? There is no limit. All that matters is a positive enough ROI. That means testing. Put your ad on a site, see how things fare. Keep in mind that if the campaign is too small, the results can be statistically flawed, and you'll be wasting money. Make it big enough to have an impact.

To get that snowball rolling fast, you might want to offer special pricing (which you won't be using later on) and increase your initial customer base virtually at all costs (except bankruptcy :P).

There is one main trick to all this: keep those customers happy, or you lose the word-of-mouth bet.

I assume that on the first year you need to invest more, trying different advertising ways.

Well, I try to spend as little as possible but it never ends up like that, I tend to stick to private ads (as I dont trust google adwords) but it seems to make up for the expence... You have got to spend money to make money. :)

I spent almost $0 in advertising in my first year of business. I would say no more than 10% of your startup funds should be spent on advertising in your first year, building a foundation is far more inportant than advertising as such. I spend about 30% of profits on advertising now, i feel that is a good % to work with.

I have developed my business from 1 to few thousand clients for the last 6 years and never spend a single dim on advertising :D

Advertising should be on-going so your advertising/promotional expenses will always increase as your company grows.

dont spend too much money in google adwords.. limit your spending with google adwords..

dont spend too much money in google adwords.. limit your spending with google adwords..

then where to?

Its up to how much business you want to generate, if you can afford $50, you get business according to that, if you spend $250, you get more.

I feel if your relying on your hosting business too feed your family from the start, dont! Its a saturated market (IMO), and Id guess for every 1 host that survives year one, 5 dont make it.

Just my 2 pennies on the matter (although a little off topic lol)

advertising is alwayd good. But its the service you provide makes the customer stick on to you. Getting customers might be easy but maintaining them is not that easy. ;)

dont spend too much money in google adwords.. limit your spending with google adwords..

yes please let us know where