Where SMB marketing budgets actually leak.
Wasted ad spend statistics from 74 revenue-verified audits across 9 industries — what the median business loses, where it hides, and how fast it’s found. Refreshed every January.
Nearly two in five dollars are recoverable.
Across audited accounts, only $62 of every $100 was doing real work. The rest hid in wasted paid spend, mispriced offers, and leaky retention — invisible behind a healthy-looking blended ROAS.
Every category leaks — just in a different place.
Median recoverable margin per audit, by industry, across 74 published audits. Fintech skews highest on absolute dollars; Services and Subscription leak most as a share of spend.
The same culprits, again and again.
Spend buying conversions that would have happened anyway.
Channels over-credited for demand they didn’t create.
Landed cost and freight never passed into pricing.
Churn and dunning quietly erasing acquisition gains.
Always-on promos training buyers to wait for the code.
Share of audits in which each leak was material. Most accounts carry three or more simultaneously.
Quoting the report? Take the sentence with you.
Median share of marketing spend leaking, across the 74-audit base.
“SMBs leak a median 18.7% of marketing spend, per the MarginFix 2026 benchmark of 74 revenue-verified audits.”
Only $62 of every $100 of audited spend was doing real work.
“Only $62 of every $100 of SMB marketing spend does real work, per the MarginFix 2026 benchmark report.”
Median recoverable margin identified per audit.
“The median SMB marketing audit surfaces $58k in recoverable annual margin, per the MarginFix 2026 benchmark report.”
Share of audited SMBs overspending on non-incremental paid — buying conversions that would have happened anyway.
“68% of audited SMBs overspend on non-incremental paid media — buying conversions that would have happened anyway — per the MarginFix 2026 benchmark of 74 revenue-verified audits.”
Median recoverable margin per audit, low (Services) to high (Fintech), across 9 industries.
“Median recoverable margin per SMB marketing audit ranges from $47k to $83k across 9 industries, per the MarginFix 2026 SMB Marketing Benchmark of 74 revenue-verified audits.”
Free · 2026 SMB Marketing Benchmark · 74 revenue-verified audits · tidy CSV
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