Skip to content
Free Tool

Ad Spend Calculator

This free ad spend calculator shows local businesses what to spend on Google and Facebook ads each month. Enter your average deal value, profit margin, and close rate, and it returns your maximum cost per lead plus a monthly budget your campaigns can actually win with.

01

Your Ceiling

What can you afford per customer?

$
%
Max CPA Enter values above
02

Your Close Rate

Leads to customers.

%
Leads per Customer Enter close rate
Your Max Cost Per Lead
$---
Complete the steps above
03

Budget Recommendation

Google and Meta need ~30 conversions per month to optimize. Target 1/3 of your ceiling so the platforms have room to learn without burning your margin.

Target CPL $--- 1/3 of your max CPL
Recommended Monthly Budget $--- Target CPL x 30 leads
Expected Leads / Month --- Budget / Target CPL
Projected Revenue / Month $--- Leads x close rate x deal value
These projections are based on general benchmarks. Every market, audience, and sales process is different. Talk to us to build a realistic proof-of-concept budget for your business.
Check

Validate with POAS

ROAS without margin context is a vanity metric. POAS tells the real story.

$
$
--x Enter ad data

How the Ad Spend Calculator Does the Math

The tool works backward from your business, not from an industry average. Deal value times margin gives your maximum cost per customer. Your close rate converts that into a maximum cost per lead. Targeting a third of that ceiling leaves room for the ad platforms to learn while you stay profitable.

Why the 30-lead target? Google and Meta run on machine learning, and roughly 30 conversions a month is what their algorithms need to figure out who your buyer is. Feed them less and they never leave the guessing phase.

That is also why we recommend a minimum of $2,000/mo in ad spend. Underfunded campaigns fail in a predictable way: the budget buys a handful of clicks, the platform never gets enough conversion data to optimize, cost per lead stays stuck, and the owner shuts it off convinced ads do not work. The ads never had a chance. The budget starved them.

Once you have your number, the next question is where to put it. Search demand goes through Google Ads management. Demand generation goes through Meta advertising. Most of our clients run both, managed together under one retainer, and how those packages work lives on our packages page.

Book Your Free Discovery Call

Frequently Asked Questions

How much should I spend on ads each month?

Enough to buy real data. Google and Meta need roughly 30 conversions a month to optimize, so your budget has to cover 30 leads at a realistic cost per lead in your market. That is exactly what this calculator works out from your deal value, margin, and close rate. We recommend a minimum of $2,000/mo in ad spend for local service businesses, going to the ad platforms themselves, separate from the management fee.

Why do you recommend a $2,000/mo minimum ad spend?

Below that, most local campaigns cannot generate the conversion volume the ad platforms need to learn who your buyer is. The algorithm never exits the guessing phase, cost per lead stays high, and the owner concludes ads do not work. The ads were fine. The budget starved them. $2,000/mo is the floor where local campaigns get enough data to improve week over week.

What is a good cost per lead?

It depends entirely on your deal value and margin, which is why this calculator asks for both instead of quoting an industry average. A lead that costs a third of your maximum leaves room for profit and platform learning. For scale: one Meta campaign we ran for a buildings supplier produced 751 leads at a $10.67 cost per lead.

What is the difference between ROAS and POAS?

ROAS is revenue divided by ad spend. It ignores your costs, so a campaign can post a strong ROAS while losing you money. POAS multiplies that revenue by your profit margin first, so it measures actual profit per dollar of ad spend. The validator at the bottom of this calculator shows you both side by side.

Got Your Number? Let's Put It to Work.

The calculator gives you the budget. A discovery call gives you the plan: which platform, which offers, and how we track every lead back to the dollar that bought it. No pressure. We'll walk your own numbers with you on that call, and you decide from there.

Book Your Free Discovery Call