Are marketing expenses fixed or variable costs? (2023)

Is marketing included in fixed costs?

Marketing as a Fixed Expense

Marketing is a major expense in any small business budget. Once you make a marketing budget allocation, it becomes a fixed expense because it typically doesn't change over the coming year.

But in general, marketing expenses are simply the costs incurred in promoting your business. Traditionally, this meant printing and production of physical collateral, advertising placements in print and on-screen, travel, and employee salaries.

As a result, even though ad costs can vary a lot, they are not considered a variable cost. Instead, advertising is a fixed expense — something that remains constant no matter how many products or services you provide to consumers.

Although fixed costs do not vary with changes in production or sales volume, they may change over time. As a result, fixed costs are sometimes called period costs. Some fixed costs are incurred at the discretion of a company's management, such as advertising and promotional expense, while others are not.

Advertising costs will in most cases fall under sales, general, and administrative (SG&A) expenses on a company's income statement. They are sometimes recorded as a prepaid expense on the balance sheet and then moved to the income statement when sales that are directly related to those costs come in.

Record the Purchase of the Advertising

This is done by debiting Prepaid Advertising and crediting the appropriate account. If you paid for the advertising outright, then you would credit the Cash account. If you are paying for the advertising in installments, then you would credit Accounts Payable.

Direct costs always exclude indirect expenses such as marketing expenses, rent, insurance, and other similar expenses. Direct costs (or cost of goods sold) shows up on the profit and loss statement and can be subtracted from revenue to calculate the gross margin of a company.

Variable costs are costs that change as the volume changes. Examples of variable costs are raw materials, piece-rate labor, production supplies, commissions, delivery costs, packaging supplies, and credit card fees.

Advertising represents a discretionary fixed cost, meaning the level of spending is up to company management and the spending level can change from one budget period to the next. There's an ongoing process of evaluating how well advertising spending is working, and how advertising is affecting sales.

Examples of fixed costs include rent, taxes, and insurance. Examples of variable costs include credit card fees, direct labor, and commission.

Is social media advertising a variable cost?

You can allocate more or less money as people respond to your ads, and this makes advertising a variable expense.

Fixed costs are costs that do not change when sales or production volumes increase or decrease. This is because they are not directly associated with manufacturing a product or delivering a service. As a result, fixed costs are considered to be indirect costs.

Fixed costs include any number of expenses, including rental lease payments, salaries, insurance, property taxes, interest expenses, depreciation, and potentially some utilities. For instance, someone who starts a new business would likely begin with fixed costs for rent and management salaries.

Examples of fixed costs are rent and lease costs, salaries, utility bills, insurance, and loan repayments. Some kinds of taxes, like business licenses, are also fixed costs.

Operating expenses definition

Operating expenses—also known as selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A)—are the costs of doing business. They include rent and utilities, marketing and advertising, sales and accounting, management and administrative salaries.

Fixed expenses generally cost the same amount each month (such as rent, mortgage payments, or car payments), while variable expenses change from month to month (dining out, medical expenses, groceries, or anything you buy from a store).

Examples of variable costs are sales commissions, direct labor costs, cost of raw materials used in production, and utility costs. Variable costs are usually viewed as short-term costs as they can be adjusted quickly.

Variable costs change based on the amount of output produced. Variable costs may include labor, commissions, and raw materials. Fixed costs remain the same regardless of production output. Fixed costs may include lease and rental payments, insurance, and interest payments.

How are marketing costs accounted for?

Advertising costs will in most cases fall under sales, general, and administrative (SG&A) expenses on a company's income statement. They are sometimes recorded as a prepaid expense on the balance sheet and then moved to the income statement when sales that are directly related to those costs come in.

Definitions of marketing cost. the cost of marketing (e.g., the cost of transferring title and moving goods to the customer) type of: cost. the total spent for goods or services including money and time and labor.