Ben, it's "ad" as in advertisement. Not
add as in
addition. Although I'm sure you'd like it to add up.
Companies will spend 5 to 10% of their gross sales on advertising. Some, like Bow Flex and all those heavily marketed products are spending a lot more. Remember Split fire spark plugs? They spent 30% in the first 2 years after an expensive launch. The plugs were $5.95 EACH then. Now, if they still sell them, they are less than half.
You spend for what you want. Big spending gets lots of sales. However, if you're slow right now, don't take this period as typical. No one is selling much, if anything. Necessities are out selling non necessities by a wie margin. You're the latter.