US SBA guideline — 7-8% of gross revenue for businesses under $5M

Claim: US Small Business Administration guideline — 7-8% of gross revenue for businesses under $5M.

Note distinct from advertising-only benchmarks: SBA's own blog cites a ~1.08% advertising average (sourced via Small Business Trends) — narrower measure, not the same thing.

Source: US SBA. Industry-consensus, widely cited.

Confidence: Industry-consensus.

Why this matters for Candid: Non-vendor government source — useful for triangulation with Gartner and CMO Survey. The 7-8% sits between the two and is specifically for the SMB band.