Google Ads Budget Calculator with industry CPCs

The base formula is: Monthly budget = Target leads × (CPC ÷ Conversion rate). Each lead costs CPL = CPC ÷ CVR; multiply by how many leads you need and you've got the budget. Reverse the formula to forecast: Expected leads = Monthly budget × CVR ÷ CPC. Both directions assume your CPC and CVR estimates are realistic — wrong inputs produce wrong forecasts.

Spend until you hit either your target lead count or your maximum CAC, whichever comes first. There's no universal 'right' budget — there's a number where one more euro stops being profitable. Calculate your max CAC (LTV × the % of LTV you'll spend on growth), back-solve into max CPL, and you'll know your real ceiling. Below the ceiling, more spend = more profit. Above it, more spend = losing money on each customer.

Rough European Search benchmarks (€): B2B SaaS €4–€8, e-commerce €0.80–€1.50, legal €5–€20+, insurance €4–€15, real estate €1.50–€3, home services €3–€8, healthcare/dental €2–€6, education €1.50–€4, finance/fintech €5–€10. Display, YouTube, and Performance Max usually run 30–70% lower than Search because intent is lower. Use these as goalposts only — your account's real CPC depends on Quality Score, geography, and seasonality.

Google Ads operates on a daily budget. The platform can spend up to 2× your daily budget on a high-traffic day, but balances over the month so you never exceed monthly cap (daily × 30.4). When using this calculator, divide monthly budget by 30 to get the daily figure to enter in your campaign — and remember that real daily spend will fluctuate while the monthly stays roughly on target.

It works for any campaign type — just enter the right CPC and CVR for that channel. Search has high CPC + high CVR (€5 / 8% CVR is typical for B2B). PMax has lower CPC + lower CVR (€1.50 / 3% CVR). Display is even cheaper but conversion rates rarely beat 1–2%. Run separate calculations per campaign type and sum them, rather than blending everything into one average — averages hide the truth in PPC.

Three reasons: (1) Quality Score — new accounts and low-CTR ads pay more for the same position, sometimes 2–3× the benchmark. (2) Auction pressure — competitors entering the space, seasonal spikes (Q4, tax season for finance/legal), branded vs non-branded mix. (3) Match type — broad match almost always pulls a higher CPC than exact match because Google fills in lower-intent traffic. The calculator's defaults are blended; expect your CPC to land within ±30% of these numbers in steady state.

The forecast is accurate; your reported numbers won't be. Google Ads' conversion tracking misses 20–40% of leads in most accounts post-iOS 14, mostly because Enhanced Conversions isn't fully implemented and click-IDs (gclid) aren't preserved across the funnel. If you forecast 100 leads and Google reports 65, your campaign probably hit 95 — most of the gap is measurement, not media performance. Fix tracking before you change bid strategy.