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Ad budget planner

Start from the leads or customers you want each month and work backward to the clicks, monthly budget and daily budget it takes to get there.

Your numbers

How many leads or customers you want per month.

Choose customers if you know your close rate.

Percent of leads that become customers. Only used when the goal is customers.

Percent of ad clicks that become a lead.

Plan from what a click costs or from what a lead costs.

In USD, matching the cost assumption above.

Results

Enter your numbers to see results. They update as you type.

What this calculator tells you

Most budgets are set top down: a round number that feels comfortable. Planning from the goal instead makes the tradeoffs visible. If the budget you can afford will not buy enough clicks to hit the goal, you know before the month starts rather than after.

The planner uses three assumptions: how many clicks turn into leads, how many leads turn into customers, and what a click or a lead costs. Use your own account history where you have it, or a benchmark for your industry as a starting point.

How it works

  1. Set a monthly goal and say whether it is leads or customers. For customers, add the share of leads your team closes, so the planner knows how many leads it takes.
  2. Add the share of ad clicks that become leads. The planner works out how many clicks that many leads require.
  3. Choose whether to plan from cost per click or cost per lead and enter the value. The planner multiplies it out to a monthly budget and divides by the average month (365 ÷ 12, about 30.4 days) for a daily budget.

The formula

Leads needed
Customer goal ÷ Close rate (or the lead goal itself)
Clicks needed
Leads needed ÷ Click to lead conversion rate
Monthly budget (CPC)
Clicks needed × Cost per click
Monthly budget (CPL)
Leads needed × Cost per lead
Daily budget
Monthly budget ÷ 30.42 (365 days ÷ 12 months)

Worked example

Example figures for illustration, not benchmarks.

A clinic wants 20 new patients a month and books 25% of the people who inquire, so it needs 80 inquiries. Its landing page turns 5% of ad clicks into inquiries, which means 1,600 clicks. At an assumed $2.50 per click, the plan calls for a monthly budget of $4,000, or about $131.51 per day, and implies a cost per inquiry of $50.00.

Frequently asked questions

How much should I spend on ads per month?

Enough to reach your goal at a cost per customer you can afford, and no more than you can sustain long enough to learn. Work backward from the goal with this planner, then check the cost per customer against what a customer is worth. If the budget is out of reach, lower the goal or improve the conversion rate before raising spend.

Where do I get a conversion rate and CPC to plan with?

Your own account history is the best source, ideally the last three months so seasonality is smoothed out. If you are starting fresh, use the benchmark pages for your industry and platform as a starting assumption, then replace it with real numbers after the first few weeks.

Why does the planner use 30.4 days per month?

It is the average length of a month (365 days divided by 12). Google Ads uses the same average when it converts an average daily budget into a monthly spending limit.

Should I plan from CPC or from CPL?

Plan from CPC when you trust your landing page conversion rate and want to see how many clicks you need. Plan from CPL when you already know what a lead costs, for example from lead form campaigns on Meta Ads, where clicks and leads are closely tied.

What if my budget is smaller than the plan?

Three levers change the result: a higher conversion rate, a higher close rate, or a lower cost per click. Improving the landing page or the follow-up on leads usually moves the result more than cutting bids. You can also narrow targeting to the audiences or keywords that convert best.

Want to know why your numbers look this way?

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