Google Ads Budget Calculator with industry CPCs
Pick your vertical to load realistic Google Search CPC + conversion benchmarks. Set a lead goal to back-solve budget, or set a budget to forecast leads, customers, and ROAS — daily and monthly, plus a scenario table.
The Google Ads budget formula
Example: 100 leads × (€6 CPC ÷ 7% CVR) = 100 × €85.71 = €8,571 / month.
Plan your Google Ads spend
Pick an industry to load realistic defaults — then choose whether to back-solve budget from a goal, or forecast results from a budget.
Defaults are blended Google Search benchmarks — override below with your real numbers.
What you pay per click on Google Search.
Clicks → leads. Search ads usually 5–12%.
How many leads you need from Google Ads each month.
Unlock CAC + ROAS (optional)Add close rate + deal size →
% of leads that become paying customers.
Revenue per closed customer.
All math runs in your browser. We never store your numbers.
Daily forecast
Daily spend
286 €
Daily clicks
48
Daily leads
3.3
What-if scenarios
Why "industry average" is a starting point, not a plan
Google Ads budgets get planned two ways: top-down ("we have €X to spend, what should we expect?") and bottom-up ("we need X leads, what budget hits that?"). Both start with the same two numbers: the CPC you'll pay and the conversion rate of the page you send clicks to. Get those two right and the rest is arithmetic. Get them wrong and the budget you set is a wish, not a plan.
The CPC defaults in this calculator are blended European medians per industry. Your real CPC depends on three local variables: Quality Score (new accounts pay 30–70% more for the same position until ad relevance and CTR build up), match type (broad match averages 1.5–2× the CPC of exact match), and auction pressure (Q4 retail, tax season for legal/finance, spring real estate). Run the calculator with the default, shrink-wrap the answer with a ±30% range, and treat the middle as your most-likely budget.
Conversion rate is the lever you actually control. CPC is set by the auction; CVR is set by your landing page. Doubling your page's CVR halves your budget for the same lead target — that's usually a faster path than driving CPC down, because Google's algorithm fights you on cheap clicks but never penalizes a great page.
Google Search CPC ranges by industry (€)
- B2B SaaS / Software€4 – €8
- E-commerce (general)€0.80 – €1.50
- Legal services€5 – €20+
- Insurance€4 – €15
- Real estate€1.50 – €3
- Home services / contractors€3 – €8
- Healthcare / dental€2 – €6
- Finance / fintech€5 – €10
Numbers are blended European medians for Google Search. Display, YouTube, and Performance Max usually 30–70% lower — with proportionally lower conversion rates.
Get accurate Google Ads trackingFrequently asked questions
How is a Google Ads budget calculated?
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.
How much should I spend on Google Ads?
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.
What's a typical Google Ads CPC by industry?
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.
How is daily budget different from monthly budget on Google Ads?
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.
Should I include Performance Max + Display in this calculator?
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.
Why does my actual CPC come out higher than this estimate?
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.
How accurate is the lead forecast if my Google Ads tracking is broken?
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.
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