"How much should we spend on marketing?" is the most common question Australian app founders ask us. The answer depends on stage, category, unit economics and ambition — but there are useful benchmarks.
The short answer
A realistic Australian app marketing budget in 2026 looks like:
- Pre-launch: $15K–$50K (one-off) for ASO, asset production, paid acquisition setup, PR.
- Launch month: $20K–$100K for paid acquisition spend, PR amplification, viral video production.
- Growth (months 2–12): $20K–$100K+ per month, weighted 70–90% to paid media and 10–30% to ongoing services (ASO iteration, creative production, account management).
- Scale (12+ months): $100K–$1M+ per month, with channel mix matched to LTV:CAC unit economics.
Below the breakdown by stage and category.
Stage 1: Pre-launch (8–12 weeks before launch)
What you're paying for:
- ASO foundation work: keyword research, metadata, screenshots, video preview ($5K–$15K).
- App Store / Play Store creative production ($3K–$10K).
- Paid acquisition account setup (Apple Search Ads, Meta, TikTok, Google AC) ($2K–$5K).
- Pre-launch PR and content plan ($5K–$20K).
Realistic total: $15K–$50K, one-off.
Most Australian founders underspend at this stage because the work doesn't show up in install numbers until launch. That's a mistake — pre-launch ASO and asset work compounds across every dollar of marketing spend that follows.
Stage 2: Launch month
What you're paying for:
- Apple Search Ads spend: $5K–$20K to seed initial volume.
- Meta + TikTok paid spend: $10K–$50K.
- Optional Google App Campaigns: $5K–$20K.
- PR amplification and influencer/creator activations: $5K–$15K.
Realistic total: $20K–$100K in launch month.
Spend more here than feels comfortable. Day-one and week-one installs disproportionately influence App Store ranking and momentum for the next 90 days.
Stage 3: Growth (months 2–12)
This is where unit economics start dictating spend. Once you have ~30 days of post-launch data, you can model:
- Cost per install (CPI) by channel.
- Install-to-active conversion.
- Day-7 / Day-30 retention.
- Revenue per user (or proxy metric).
- LTV:CAC ratio.
A healthy app business sustains LTV:CAC of 3:1 or higher. As long as you're hitting that, you should spend as much as the channels can absorb without eroding the ratio.
Realistic monthly budget at growth stage:
| App stage | Monthly media | Monthly services | | --- | --- | --- | | Early growth (10K–100K MAU) | $10K–$40K | $5K–$15K | | Growth (100K–500K MAU) | $40K–$200K | $10K–$25K | | Late growth (500K–1M MAU) | $200K–$500K | $15K–$30K |
Stage 4: Scale (12+ months, 1M+ MAU)
Channel mix becomes more sophisticated and budgets typically grow another 5–10x. At scale, you'll typically be running:
- Apple Search Ads (5–15% of media).
- Meta + TikTok paid (40–60% of media).
- Google App Campaigns (15–25% of media).
- Programmatic / DSP (5–15% of media).
- Influencer / creator partnerships (5–15% of media).
- Brand campaigns (5–15% of media at the largest scales).
Service costs typically scale to $20K–$50K/month or are absorbed into an in-house team plus a specialist agency partner for ASO, viral video and creative.
Budget framework by category
| Category | Day-one budget intensity | Channel mix bias | | --- | --- | --- | | Consumer (lifestyle, social, fitness) | High | Viral video + Meta + TikTok | | Consumer fintech | Very high | ASA + Meta + Google Search | | B2B SaaS | Medium | ASA + Google Search + LinkedIn + content | | Health | Medium | ASA + Meta + content + community | | Marketplace / e-commerce | High | Meta + Google Shopping + ASA |
What to spend on first if budget is constrained
If you have $25K total to spend over 6 months, our default allocation:
- $10K — ASO foundation work.
- $7K — App Store / Play Store creative.
- $3K — Apple Search Ads test budget.
- $5K — Meta paid test budget.
This gets you a converting App Store listing and validated paid channels. From that base, every additional dollar performs better.
Bottom line
App marketing budgets scale with ambition and unit economics — but the floor for a serious Australian app launch in 2026 is meaningfully higher than it was 5 years ago. Underspending at pre-launch and launch is the most expensive mistake an app team can make, because every downstream dollar performs worse on a poorly-positioned listing.
If you'd like a tailored budget recommendation for your app, apply for a strategy call.