The most common marketing question we receive from prop firm CEOs is some version of: "How much should we spend?" Followed closely by: "Are we spending too much on affiliates?" These are good questions. The answers depend entirely on where you are in your growth journey — and what you are trying to accomplish in the next 90 days.
This guide gives you three concrete budget frameworks by stage, with specific channel allocations, and the logic behind each decision. These are not generic percentages — they reflect what we observe working across prop trading firms in 2025 and 2026.
The right marketing budget rule for prop firms: Your total marketing spend (excluding affiliate commissions) should be 15–25% of your target monthly challenge revenue. Below 15%, you are starving growth. Above 30%, you are likely not optimizing channel efficiency.
You are less than 6 months old. Priority: find what converts before scaling anything. Every dollar is a learning investment. Do not scale until you know your challenge page converts and you have one paid channel working.
You know what works. You have a converting challenge page, 1–2 proven ad creatives, and early community momentum. Now you scale what is proven and invest in channels that compound.
You are doing 500+ challenges per month. Marketing is no longer experimental — it is operational. The focus shifts to channel diversification, brand building, and reducing CAC as volume increases.