{
  "$schema": "https://soudcoh.com/tools/data/index.json",
  "slug": "channel-mix-calculator",
  "name": "Google and Meta budget split",
  "category": "Budget and forecasting",
  "url": "https://soudcoh.com/tools/channel-mix-calculator",
  "dataUrl": "https://soudcoh.com/tools/data/channel-mix-calculator.json",
  "currency": "AUD",
  "updated": "2026-08",
  "summary": "Split an ad budget between Google search and Meta, set a different lead-to-job rate for each, and compare the real cost per booked job instead of the headline cost per lead.",
  "whatItDoes": [
    "Splits one monthly budget across Google search and Meta at whatever ratio you choose.",
    "Applies a separate cost per lead and a separate lead-to-job rate to each channel, because those two numbers are what make the comparison honest.",
    "Reports blended cost per lead and blended cost per job, and shows which channel is actually buying the cheaper job at your settings."
  ],
  "howToUse": [
    "Enter the total monthly budget and the share you want on Google.",
    "Enter what a lead costs on each channel. If you have run both, use your own figures. If not, the fields carry published US medians and say so.",
    "Enter the share of leads from each channel that become paid work. This is the input that decides the answer, so use your own records if you have them.",
    "Read the cost per job for each channel, then adjust the split."
  ],
  "formula": [
    "Google spend = total budget × Google share",
    "Leads per channel = channel spend ÷ channel cost per lead",
    "Jobs per channel = channel leads × channel lead-to-job rate",
    "Cost per job = channel spend ÷ channel jobs",
    "Blended cost per job = total budget ÷ total jobs"
  ],
  "interpret": [
    "If search buys the cheaper job, the case for social is reach and remarketing rather than direct enquiries — and it should be budgeted as that.",
    "If social buys the cheaper job at a lead-to-job rate you can actually evidence, shift budget. If the rate is a guess, measure it for a month before you shift anything.",
    "The break-even point is worth finding: drag the lead-to-job rates until the two cost-per-job figures match. That tells you how much worse social leads can be before search wins outright."
  ],
  "limitation": "Both default costs per lead are United States medians in US dollars and they aggregate whole industries. There is no Australian equivalent for either channel. Treat them as a starting shape, replace them with your own numbers, and do not compare a US dollar figure against your Australian budget without noticing you have done it.",
  "inputs": [
    {
      "key": "budget",
      "label": "Total monthly budget",
      "kind": "currency",
      "default": 5000,
      "min": 100,
      "max": 5000000,
      "unit": "AUD",
      "help": "Media spend across both channels, in Australian dollars.",
      "sourceId": null,
      "sourceNote": null,
      "options": null
    },
    {
      "key": "googleShare",
      "label": "Share on Google search",
      "kind": "percent",
      "default": 70,
      "min": 0,
      "max": 100,
      "unit": "percent",
      "help": "The rest goes to Meta.",
      "sourceId": null,
      "sourceNote": null,
      "options": null
    },
    {
      "key": "googleCpl",
      "label": "Cost per lead — Google search",
      "kind": "currency",
      "default": 90.92,
      "min": 0.5,
      "max": 100000,
      "unit": "AUD",
      "help": "Your own figure if you have one.",
      "sourceId": "wordstream-google-2026",
      "sourceNote": "US$90.92, the median for Home & Home Improvement across 13,474 United States search campaigns. Not an Australian figure.",
      "options": null
    },
    {
      "key": "metaCpl",
      "label": "Cost per lead — Meta",
      "kind": "currency",
      "default": 41.26,
      "min": 0.5,
      "max": 100000,
      "unit": "AUD",
      "help": "Your own figure if you have one.",
      "sourceId": "wordstream-facebook-2025",
      "sourceNote": "US$41.26, the median for Home & Home Improvement across 726 United States lead-objective campaigns. Not an Australian figure.",
      "options": null
    },
    {
      "key": "googleClose",
      "label": "Google leads that become work",
      "kind": "percent",
      "default": 30,
      "min": 0.1,
      "max": 100,
      "unit": "percent",
      "help": "Someone who searched for the service. A round placeholder until you measure it.",
      "sourceId": null,
      "sourceNote": null,
      "options": null
    },
    {
      "key": "metaClose",
      "label": "Meta leads that become work",
      "kind": "percent",
      "default": 12,
      "min": 0.1,
      "max": 100,
      "unit": "percent",
      "help": "Someone who was shown an ad. Almost always lower — but measure it rather than accepting this number.",
      "sourceId": null,
      "sourceNote": null,
      "options": null
    },
    {
      "key": "jobValue",
      "label": "Average job value",
      "kind": "currency",
      "default": 1200,
      "min": 1,
      "max": 10000000,
      "unit": "AUD",
      "help": "Average invoice excluding GST.",
      "sourceId": null,
      "sourceNote": null,
      "options": null
    }
  ],
  "defaults": {
    "budget": 5000,
    "googleShare": 70,
    "googleCpl": 90.92,
    "metaCpl": 41.26,
    "googleClose": 30,
    "metaClose": 12,
    "jobValue": 1200
  },
  "exampleResult": {
    "headline": {
      "label": "Blended cost per booked job",
      "value": "$314.24",
      "note": "15.9 jobs from $5,000"
    },
    "outputs": [
      {
        "label": "Google — cost per job",
        "value": "$303.07",
        "note": "11.5 jobs from 38.5 leads"
      },
      {
        "label": "Meta — cost per job",
        "value": "$343.83",
        "note": "4.4 jobs from 36.4 leads"
      },
      {
        "label": "Blended cost per lead",
        "value": "$66.80",
        "note": "74.9 leads in total"
      },
      {
        "label": "Revenue",
        "value": "$19,093",
        "note": "15.9 jobs at $1,200.00"
      }
    ],
    "workings": [
      {
        "label": "Google spend",
        "expression": "$5,000 × 70% = $3,500"
      },
      {
        "label": "Google leads",
        "expression": "$3,500 ÷ $90.92 = 38.5"
      },
      {
        "label": "Google jobs",
        "expression": "38.5 × 30% = 11.5"
      },
      {
        "label": "Meta leads",
        "expression": "$1,500 ÷ $41.26 = 36.4"
      },
      {
        "label": "Meta jobs",
        "expression": "36.4 × 12% = 4.4"
      },
      {
        "label": "Blended cost per job",
        "expression": "$5,000 ÷ 15.9 = $314.24"
      }
    ]
  },
  "shareableExample": "https://soudcoh.com/tools/channel-mix-calculator?budget=5000&googleShare=70&googleCpl=90.92",
  "faqs": [
    {
      "question": "Are Facebook leads cheaper than Google leads?",
      "answer": "By cost per lead, yes, in the only datasets with a published method. WordStream's United States figures put Home & Home Improvement at US$41.26 on Meta lead campaigns and US$90.92 on Google search — roughly half. By cost per booked job the answer is usually the other way round, because a search lead went looking for the service and a social lead was interrupted while doing something else. Neither dataset publishes a lead-to-job rate by channel, in any market, so that half of the comparison has to come from your own records."
    },
    {
      "question": "What split should I run between Google and Meta?",
      "answer": "There is no defensible generic answer, and a percentage split is the wrong first question anyway. Start by funding search to the point where you are not losing enquiries to budget — the impression share calculator shows whether you are — and treat social as the next dollar rather than a fixed share. If you cannot yet evidence a lead-to-job rate for social, run it for a quarter at a size you can afford to learn from before you weight a plan on it."
    },
    {
      "question": "Why does this compare cost per job instead of cost per lead?",
      "answer": "Because cost per lead flatters whichever channel produces the most leads, regardless of whether any of them turn into work. A channel producing leads at $30 that book 5% of the time costs $600 a job. A channel producing leads at $90 that book 30% of the time costs $300. Cost per lead says the first is three times better. Cost per job says it is twice as expensive."
    },
    {
      "question": "Is there Australian data for Meta lead costs?",
      "answer": "None with a published methodology that we could find. The WordStream and LocaliQ Facebook datasets are explicitly United States only, and no Australian source publishes a comparable figure with a stated sample and window. We have not relabelled the US number as Australian, and any calculator that shows you an AUD Meta benchmark without naming its dataset has."
    },
    {
      "question": "How do I measure my own lead-to-job rate per channel?",
      "answer": "Tag the source on every enquiry at the point it arrives, not afterwards from memory, and reconcile it against invoices monthly. Phone calls are where this usually falls apart: without call tracking, every phone enquiry lands in the same bucket and the channel comparison becomes fiction. That plumbing is the least glamorous and most valuable part of running two channels at once."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "wordstream-google-2026",
      "label": "WordStream / LocaliQ, Google Ads Benchmarks 2026",
      "publisher": "WordStream (LocaliQ)",
      "year": "2026",
      "market": "US",
      "method": "13,474 United States search campaigns, 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026. Figures are medians.",
      "confidence": "high",
      "caution": "United States data. Australian auction prices are widely believed to differ, and no published Australian dataset measures by how much.",
      "url": "https://www.wordstream.com/blog/2026-google-ads-benchmarks"
    },
    {
      "id": "wordstream-facebook-2025",
      "label": "WordStream, Facebook Ads Benchmarks 2025",
      "publisher": "WordStream (LocaliQ)",
      "year": "2025",
      "market": "US",
      "method": "726 United States lead-objective campaigns, 1 April 2024 to 30 June 2025. Figures are medians.",
      "confidence": "high",
      "caution": "United States data, lead-objective campaigns only.",
      "url": "https://www.wordstream.com/blog/facebook-ads-benchmarks-2025"
    }
  ],
  "relatedTools": [
    "https://soudcoh.com/tools/cost-per-lead-calculator",
    "https://soudcoh.com/tools/impression-share-calculator",
    "https://soudcoh.com/tools/cost-per-booked-job-calculator"
  ],
  "licence": {
    "terms": "Free to reuse with attribution to SoudCoh and a link to the page it came from. Third-party figures remain the property of the publisher named on each row and must keep their market and year attached.",
    "attribution": "SoudCoh — https://soudcoh.com/tools"
  }
}