New Advertising Trends Report reveals 9 out of 10 small businesses will maintain or increase advertising spending in 2025

A new survey of more than 1,000 marketing leaders commissioned by Intuit SMB MediaLabs reveals strong appetite for advertising among US small businesses over the next 12 months.

Overall, 92% of respondents said they’ll maintain (41%) or increase (51%) their advertising spending into the first quarter of 2026—with only 8% predicting cuts. The survey reveals how much small businesses will spend and which advertising channels they’ll prioritize. Get all the data, with insights by industry, by downloading the 2025 Small Business Advertising Trends Report by Intuit SMB MediaLabs.

Small businesses could spend $640 billion on advertising in 2025

The average small business advertising budget is estimated to be roughly $78,000 this year. Extrapolating this estimate to the US as a whole, small businesses could spend as much as $640 billion on advertising in total over the next 12 months.¹ The full report reveals who has the most money to spend in 2025.

Social media is the most effective advertising channel, according to small businesses

More than 7 out of 10 respondents (75%) said social media was an effective advertising channel for them—the clear winner by an 18-point margin. Second place went to product referrals, with 57% saying these are effective. Search engine advertising was third, with roughly half (51%) saying this is an effective channel. Among those advertising on social media, Meta’s platforms—Facebook and Instagram—emerged as the most popular.

Larger, younger businesses see more value in video advertising

It’s also clear from the survey that different advertising channels suit different types of businesses. For example, younger, larger businesses are much more likely to use video advertising than smaller, older businesses. In fact, businesses established in the last 5 years with annual revenue above $2.5M were 7 times more likely to use video in their ads than businesses established 21+ years ago with annual revenue below $500K. In fact younger, larger businesses generally make more extensive use of all advertising channels, including social media, according to the data in the report.

What’s driving the increase in small business advertising spending?

The number-one goal for small businesses increasing their advertising spending in 2025 is to reach more people, according to the survey. Better audience targeting is also a priority. Overall, more than 9 out of 10 said they can reach their target audiences through advertising, including 42% who are “somewhat confident” and 57% who are “very confident.” Less than 2% are “not at all confident.”

Similarly, more than 9 out of 10 said they’re able to measure the return on investment (ROI) on advertising—but again, some are more confident than others. Find out who’s getting the best ROI, and how often they measure it, by downloading the full report.

Where will small businesses increase advertising spending in 2025?

Small businesses spending more on advertising in 2025 are most likely to prioritize social media ads, according to the survey. This was by far the most popular choice—more than 21 points ahead of search engine advertising, in second place. Further analysis of the data shows that smaller businesses (with annual revenue below $500K) focus on Facebook and Instagram while larger businesses (with annual revenue above $2.5M) also advertise on TikTok, Snapchat, and Reddit.

What’s holding other small businesses back from spending more?

As noted above, fewer than 1 in 10 small businesses surveyed (8%) said they plan to cut advertising spending in 2025. They primarily blame budget constraints and cost pressures. Larger businesses (with annual revenue above $2.5M) were most likely to blame “increased operating costs.”

Want to learn more?

Get all the data, including detailed results by industry, by downloading the 2025 Small Business Advertising Trends Report by Intuit SMB MediaLabs.

Intuit SMB MediaLabs is a first-of-its kind B2B media network focused solely on small businesses. Learn more here.

Authors

Dave Raggio, Sagar Ganapaneni, David Ocampo, Simon Worsfold

Methodology

Intuit SMB MediaLabs commissioned an online survey of 1,006 business owners and marketing leaders at businesses with 0-100+ employees in March 2025. Of these, 6% had no employees, 32% had 1-9 employees, 29% had 10-49 employees, 24% had 50-99 employees, and 10% had more than 100 employees. By annual revenue, 34% had up to $499K per year, 34% had $500K to $2.4M, 26% had $2.5M to $9.9M, and 6% had $10M or more. By age, 35% of the respondents’ businesses were established in the last 5 years, 23% were established 6-10 years ago, 19% were established 11-20 years ago, and 23% were established 21+ years ago. All respondents were over the age of 18 and received remuneration. 3% of the respondents were 18-24 years old, 13% were 25-34, 31% were 35-44, 23% were 45-54, 18% were 55-64, and 11% were 65+. Using similar methodologies to the quarterly Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Insights surveys used in the Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index annual report, respondents were only eligible to complete the survey if they either owned the business or were familiar with their employer’s marketing and advertising strategies and were part of, or led, the decision-making processes. For clarity, percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number. As a result, the responses to some single-response survey questions may not add up to 100%. Please note that the sum of responses to multiple-choice survey questions will always exceed 100%, because the number of respondents is used as the denominator.

¹ Small business advertising spending calculation uses total receipts from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Statistics of U.S. Businesses (SUSB) dataset for businesses with less than $9.9M in receipts, times the average (midpoint) percent of revenue survey respondents reported spending on marketing, times the average percent of marketing budget they report spending on advertising. Averages are calculated for businesses with less than $9.9M in revenue. Estimates are calculated using industry-level and national totals from SUSB.

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