Short answer
Paid advertising cost depends on four numbers you can measure: what a click costs, how many clicks become leads, how many leads become booked jobs, and what a job earns you. Enter yours below. The calculator shows leads, cost per lead, cost per booked job and whether the ads pay for themselves before overhead.
This paid advertising cost calculator works for Google Ads, Local Services Ads, Meta or LinkedIn, because it only needs your own conversion numbers. If you do not know them yet, the sections below say where to find each one.
Use the calculator
The starting numbers are round placeholders, not industry averages. Replace every one with your own figures. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
How the numbers are worked out
- Clicks = budget divided by cost per click.
- Leads = clicks times the click-to-lead rate.
- Booked jobs = leads times the lead-to-job rate.
- Cost per booked job = budget divided by booked jobs.
- Gross profit per job = job value times margin. If cost per booked job is higher than this, the first job loses money.
- Gross profit minus ad spend = revenue times margin, minus budget. It leaves out overhead, your management fee and repeat business.
Where to find your real inputs
| Input | Where to look |
|---|---|
| Cost per click | Your Google Ads or Meta account, last 90 days. If you have no account yet, use Google Keyword Planner and treat it as a rough guide. |
| Click-to-lead rate | Conversions divided by clicks, but only if call and form tracking is set up. Without tracking this number is a guess. |
| Lead-to-job rate | Your own booking records. Mark each lead as booked or not for a month. |
| Job value and margin | Your invoicing system and your accountant, not a guess. |
Reading the result
Look at cost per booked job first, then compare it with gross profit per job. If ads cost more than the job earns, test one change at a time: tighter keywords, a faster call-back, a better landing page. If ads cost far less than the job earns, the limit is probably budget, not efficiency. Both readings depend on your tracking being right. See the conversion tracking guide and the free tracking checklist, which works for any phone-driven trade.
Mistakes that make the result wrong
- Using the platform's conversion count when it includes calls that were wrong numbers or sales calls.
- Counting enquiries as booked jobs.
- Leaving out repeat customers, which can make a lead worth more than one job.
- Ignoring seasonality. Run the numbers for your slow month as well as your busy one.
- Treating one good week as the new average.
Want this checked against your real account?
These calculators give you a first read on your own assumptions. They cannot see your account, your market or how quickly your phone is answered. LiveLeadsLane is a new, founder-led remote practice run by Prakhar Kirsali from India. Paid ads management starts at $375 a month for one platform, with ad spend paid by you directly to the platform, and a recommended minimum of $1,500 a month per platform. Book a free call and bring your numbers, or see the published prices. Nothing here is a promise of leads or revenue.
