Work out the budget you need, model likely results, or check whether this month’s spend is on pace.
47 businesses audited this month — 89% had fixable waste
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Use click cost and landing-page conversion rate instead. Industry benchmarks are a starting point; account data is better.
Choose a planning mode and enter your assumptions. We will show the range, economics and next action without asking for your email.
Planning methodology
Use the calculator for forward planning. To calculate an existing campaign’s ROI from known spend and return, use the retrospective ROI tool.
This planner connects spend, click cost, conversion rate and commercial value. It produces a range rather than a promise, so you can compare the expected case with conservative and ambitious outcomes. Check current Google Ads benchmarks before relying on defaults.
Start with the business outcome: qualified leads, customers or orders. Work backwards through close rate, lead quality and conversion rate to estimate the traffic required, then multiply clicks by CPC. Our Google Ads cost guide explains why CPC varies by market.
Budget Required answers “what should I plan to spend?” Results Projection answers “what might this fixed budget produce?” Use the first for annual and quarterly planning, and the second when finance has already set the spend ceiling.
Pacing compares the share of budget spent with the share of calendar days elapsed. It shows the remaining budget, the daily rate needed for the rest of the month and projected month-end spend. For ongoing control, pair it with the PPC budget template.
Lead generation depends on lead quality, sales close rate and customer value. E-commerce depends on order value, conversion rate and gross margin. Keeping those models separate prevents headline ROAS from disguising an unprofitable margin.
Auctions, search demand, tracking, landing pages and sales follow-up all move the result. Treat this output as a planning hypothesis. If current performance is materially worse, get a free wasted-spend analysis before increasing budget.
There is no universal minimum. A useful test budget must buy enough clicks to observe conversions at your realistic CPC and conversion rate. Use the calculator’s conservative scenario and compare it with your available search demand.
Divide the monthly amount by the number of calendar days for a simple control target. Google may spend more or less on individual days, so monitor cumulative month-to-date pacing rather than judging one day in isolation.
Target CPA is useful when it comes from qualified leads or customers, not every form submission. Multiply the qualified-lead or customer target by an achievable acquisition cost, then test the result against available traffic.
The minimum sustainable ROAS depends on gross margin and costs outside ad spend. At a 40% gross margin, the simplified break-even ROAS is 2.5 times before overheads, returns and fulfilment.
Use a stable base plan, then adjust CPC, conversion rate and demand assumptions for peak and quiet periods. Recalculate before the season rather than applying the same daily target all year.
A calculator gives you the range. Account structure, tracking and weekly decisions determine whether the budget earns a return.