What percentage of revenue should a sports club spend on marketing?

There's no reliable benchmark for clubs. The best-known figure comes from big companies: Gartner's 2026 survey found marketing budgets at 7.8% of company revenue, but most of those companies make over $1 billion a year. A youth club or academy is a different business, so use a method, not someone else's percentage.

That's why I'd start with the registration, not the revenue. Here's the method.

/Sources: 7.8% ... over $1 billion

How do you work out a marketing budget for a club or academy?

Work backwards from your registrations. Decide how many new players you need, estimate how many inquiries it takes to get one, and multiply by what an inquiry costs you today. That gives you a budget tied to real spots, which you can check every season.

The four numbers:

1. New registrations needed. Spots to fill minus the families you expect back.
2. Inquiries per registration. If 1 in 4 inquiries registers, you need 4 inquiries per spot.
3. Cost per inquiry. From your own ads and forms. If you don't know it, run a small test first.
4. What a registration is worth. A season fee, plus the camps and seasons a family is likely to stay for.

A worked example with round numbers (not a benchmark): a club needs 60 new players. 1 in 4 inquiries registers, so it needs 240 inquiries. If an inquiry costs $10, the ad budget for that window is about $2,400. If each new family is worth far more than $40 in fees over the years, the budget makes sense.

For a real reference point, our work with BC Prep produced 400 leads in 6 months at under $7 a lead. Your cost will depend on your sport, market and offer.

How should a club split its marketing budget?

Use 70/20/10 as a guide. Put 70% into what already fills spots, like ads that convert, follow-up and footage of your programs. Put 20% into making those better, like a sharper registration page or new ad angles. Keep 10% for real tests, like a new channel or a new program.

What that looks like for a club:

The rule was built for steady businesses. A club isn't steady. Its demand comes in windows. So split each window 70/20/10, rather than the year.

When should a club spend its marketing budget?

In the weeks before and during each registration window. Most of a club's year is quiet, then families decide in a few weeks. Spending evenly across 12 months wastes money in the quiet months and runs out when it matters. Plan the budget by window: spring, summer camp, fall and any winter program.

I keep coming back to this: don't sell leads one season at a time. Own the intake calendar. Plan your windows a year ahead and put a budget next to each one.

A simple way to plan it:

The shares come from the four numbers above, window by window. That's the point: the budget follows the spots.

What do families already spend on youth sports?

A lot, and more every year. The Aspen Institute's Project Play survey found US families spent $1,016 on a child's main sport in 2024, up 46% from 2019. In Canada, the 2026 Jumpstart report put the median at $1,938 a year for hockey and $450 for soccer. A family spending that much is worth a proper marketing budget to win and keep.

/Sources: $1,016 ... 46% · $1,938 ... $450

Should a club spend its budget on a hire, an agency or ads?

That depends on what's missing. If nobody at the club has time to post footage, run ads and follow up, ad money alone won't fix it. I think the marketing unicorn doesn't exist: one hire rarely does strategy, filming, editing, ads and follow-up all well. You're choosing between one person and a team, not between in-house and agency.

A quick way to decide:

Whichever you choose, judge it by registrations per window, not by followers or views.

What's the biggest marketing budget mistake clubs make?

Spending on ads and nothing on follow-up. Leads come in and nobody answers them for days. That, not the ad budget, is usually where clubs lose families. Before you raise your ad spend, make sure every inquiry gets a reply the same day. Otherwise you're paying for leads you'll never convert.

Other common mistakes:

• No budget at all until a program is half empty.
• Spending the same every month, so nothing is left for the registration window.
• Counting views and likes instead of registrations. If you can't count registrations, you can't count ROI.