Google Ads Budget Calculator

How This Calculator Works

There is no industry-average number that tells you what to spend. Your budget comes from four of your own figures, and the arithmetic is simple enough to do on a napkin.

• What a lead is worth. Average job value multiplied by your close rate. A $1,200 job closed one time in three makes each lead worth about $400 in revenue.
• What you can afford per lead. A healthy range is 10 to 20 percent of that revenue, so $40 to $80 in the example above.
• Your monthly budget. Target cost per lead multiplied by the number of leads you want. Twenty five leads at $40 to $80 is $1,000 to $2,000 a month.
• Your daily budget. The monthly figure divided by 30.4, because that is the number Google itself uses for a month.

The full reasoning behind each step, with real client numbers, is in our guide on how much a service business should spend on Google Ads.

How Google Ads Budgets Actually Work

Budgets in Google Ads are set per campaign, per day, and the rules trip up almost every owner the first time they see a charge that looks wrong.

• You set an average daily budget for each campaign, not a monthly one.
• Google can spend up to twice your average daily budget on any single day when demand is high.
• It will never charge you more than 30.4 times your average daily budget in a month, because 30.4 is the average number of days in a month (365 divided by 12).
• So a $50 daily budget can produce a $100 day, but never more than about $1,520 in the month.

That is why a $100 day on a $50 budget is not a billing error. It balances out across the month. It is also why you should set your daily figure as your monthly target divided by 30.4, rather than by 30 or 31.

What Leads Actually Cost In The Trades

The calculator tells you what you can afford. The auction decides what leads cost. When the two do not overlap, that gap is the real problem, and no budget number fixes it on its own.

• Plumbing, $60 to $120 a lead. A new account we built produced 89 tracked leads at $92 each in its first 90 days. See the plumbing playbook.
• HVAC, $50 to $150. Emergency repair sits at the low end, replacement at the high end. More on the HVAC page.
• Roofing, $80 to $200. Replacement keywords justify the top of that range.
• Restoration and remodeling, $100 to $300. Expensive leads, but a single job can be worth five figures.
• Pest control, $30 to $80. Cheapest of the trades, and recurring plans make each lead worth more than the first visit.

Two things decide where you land in those ranges: the junk you filter out, and whether calls are counted. Our guides on negative keywords and conversion tracking cover both. If you also want to weigh Search against Google Guaranteed listings, read Google Ads versus Local Services Ads.

Frequently asked questions