{
  "$schema": "https://soudcoh.com/tools/data/index.json",
  "slug": "google-ads-budget-forecaster",
  "name": "Google Ads budget forecaster",
  "category": "Budget and forecasting",
  "url": "https://soudcoh.com/tools/google-ads-budget-forecaster",
  "dataUrl": "https://soudcoh.com/tools/data/google-ads-budget-forecaster.json",
  "currency": "AUD",
  "updated": "2026-08",
  "summary": "Enter a daily budget and click price to see the clicks, enquiries and jobs a month of Google Ads buys, as a range banded by conversion rates measured across 25 Australian accounts.",
  "whatItDoes": [
    "Works forward from a daily budget: spend, clicks, enquiries, jobs, and what each of those costs.",
    "Bands the answer using the range of click-to-enquiry rates we have measured across our own accounts, so you see the pessimistic and optimistic versions beside the one you entered.",
    "Shows the click price you entered next to the published United States median, with the market stated, because there is no Australian equivalent to compare against."
  ],
  "howToUse": [
    "Enter the daily budget you are considering and the number of days you want to model. Thirty days is the usual planning unit.",
    "Enter the average cost per click. Take it from your own account if you have one; if you do not, the field carries the published US median and says so.",
    "Enter the share of clicks that become enquiries. The default is the median across our own accounts.",
    "Read the band, not the middle number. If the low end is not survivable, the budget is not ready."
  ],
  "formula": [
    "Monthly spend = daily budget × days",
    "Clicks = spend ÷ cost per click",
    "Enquiries = clicks × click-to-enquiry rate",
    "Cost per enquiry = spend ÷ enquiries",
    "Jobs = enquiries × lead-to-job rate"
  ],
  "interpret": [
    "Plan against the low end of the band. Every account we have taken over was planned against its middle.",
    "If the low end produces fewer than about ten enquiries a month, the account will be hard to read: a single unusual week will move every figure and you will make decisions on noise.",
    "The click price is the input you have least control over and the conversion rate is the one you have most. If the numbers do not work, the landing page is usually a cheaper fix than the bid."
  ],
  "limitation": "No ramp, no seasonality, no auction feedback. A real account spends its first weeks learning and pays more per enquiry while it does. The click price is also not fixed: bidding for more volume raises it, which is why doubling the budget rarely doubles the enquiries.",
  "inputs": [
    {
      "key": "dailyBudget",
      "label": "Daily budget",
      "kind": "currency",
      "default": 100,
      "min": 1,
      "max": 100000,
      "unit": "AUD",
      "help": "What you are willing to spend a day, in Australian dollars.",
      "sourceId": null,
      "sourceNote": null,
      "options": null
    },
    {
      "key": "days",
      "label": "Days",
      "kind": "number",
      "default": 30,
      "min": 1,
      "max": 365,
      "unit": "count",
      "help": "How long you want to model. Thirty days is the usual planning unit.",
      "sourceId": null,
      "sourceNote": null,
      "options": null
    },
    {
      "key": "cpc",
      "label": "Average cost per click",
      "kind": "currency",
      "default": 8.33,
      "min": 0.05,
      "max": 500,
      "unit": "AUD",
      "help": "From your own account if you have one. The default is a published figure, not an Australian one — see the note.",
      "sourceId": "wordstream-google-2026",
      "sourceNote": "US$8.33, the median for Home & Home Improvement across 13,474 United States search campaigns. Australian prices are widely believed to differ and nothing published measures by how much.",
      "options": null
    },
    {
      "key": "cvr",
      "label": "Clicks that become enquiries",
      "kind": "percent",
      "default": 17.58,
      "min": 0.1,
      "max": 100,
      "unit": "percent",
      "help": "The share of visits that end in a call or a form. The default is our own measured median.",
      "sourceId": "soudcoh-case-studies",
      "sourceNote": "Median of 25 of our published Australian accounts. The spread is 11.64% to 36.48%.",
      "options": null
    },
    {
      "key": "closeRate",
      "label": "Enquiries that become paid work",
      "kind": "percent",
      "default": 30,
      "min": 0.1,
      "max": 100,
      "unit": "percent",
      "help": "From your own job book. A round placeholder until you replace it.",
      "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": {
    "dailyBudget": 100,
    "days": 30,
    "cpc": 8.33,
    "cvr": 17.58,
    "closeRate": 30,
    "jobValue": 1200
  },
  "exampleResult": {
    "headline": {
      "label": "Enquiries over the period",
      "value": "63.3",
      "note": "41.9 to 131.4 across the range we have measured"
    },
    "outputs": [
      {
        "label": "Spend",
        "value": "$3,000",
        "note": "$100.00 × 30 days"
      },
      {
        "label": "Clicks",
        "value": "360",
        "note": "At $8.33 each"
      },
      {
        "label": "Cost per enquiry",
        "value": "$47.38",
        "note": "At 17.6% conversion"
      },
      {
        "label": "Jobs",
        "value": "19",
        "note": "At 30% closing"
      },
      {
        "label": "Cost to win a job",
        "value": "$157.94",
        "note": "Against $1,200.00 of revenue"
      }
    ],
    "workings": [
      {
        "label": "Spend",
        "expression": "$100.00 × 30 = $3,000"
      },
      {
        "label": "Clicks",
        "expression": "$3,000 ÷ $8.33 = 360"
      },
      {
        "label": "Enquiries",
        "expression": "360 × 17.6% = 63.3"
      },
      {
        "label": "Cost per enquiry",
        "expression": "$3,000 ÷ 63.3 = $47.38"
      },
      {
        "label": "Jobs",
        "expression": "63.3 × 30% = 19"
      }
    ]
  },
  "shareableExample": "https://soudcoh.com/tools/google-ads-budget-forecaster?dailyBudget=100&days=30&cpc=8.33",
  "faqs": [
    {
      "question": "How many leads will $100 a day on Google Ads get me?",
      "answer": "It depends on the click price and the share of clicks that enquire, and the honest answer is a range rather than a number. $100 a day for thirty days is $3,000. At a click price of $8.33 that is about 360 clicks, and at the conversion rates we have measured across our own accounts — 11.64% at the low end and 36.48% at the high end — that is somewhere between 42 and 131 enquiries. The middle of our book, 17.58%, lands at about 63. Two warnings on that: $8.33 is the published United States median for home services, not an Australian figure, and it is in US dollars, so it is a placeholder until you put your own account's click price in. And anyone quoting you a single lead figure for a budget is guessing."
    },
    {
      "question": "Why do you use a United States click price?",
      "answer": "Because it is the only one with a published method behind it. WordStream's 2026 dataset covers 13,474 search campaigns and states plainly that it is United States data. Every Australian benchmark page we checked either published no methodology or admitted its figures were US numbers adjusted by feel. We show the US figure labelled as US and let you replace it with your own account's number, which is the only truly relevant one."
    },
    {
      "question": "Will doubling my budget double my leads?",
      "answer": "No, and this tool will tell you it does, which is why the limitation is stated on the page. Auctions sell the cheapest and most relevant impressions first. Extra budget buys progressively less relevant traffic at a higher price, so the cost per enquiry rises as spend does. Expect the second $100 a day to work harder for you than the fourth."
    },
    {
      "question": "What is a realistic conversion rate for a trades website?",
      "answer": "Across 25 of our own Australian accounts that publish one, click-to-enquiry rates run from 11.64% to 36.48%, with a median of 17.58%. The end-of-lease and carpet cleaning accounts cluster near the top at 22% to 33%, and the Sydney plumbing accounts cluster near the bottom at 13% to 14% — which is what the most contested plumbing market in the country looks like. Those are our accounts, not a market survey, and a new site should not assume it starts in the middle."
    },
    {
      "question": "How long before the forecast becomes reliable?",
      "answer": "Give it thirty enquiries before you trust the cost per enquiry, and three weeks before you touch the budget. Several of our published case studies record a cost per enquiry falling by 20% to 58% inside the same account as it settled — a forecast judged in week one is judged against the worst version of the account."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "soudcoh-case-studies",
      "label": "SoudCoh, 36 published client case studies",
      "publisher": "SoudCoh",
      "year": "2026",
      "market": "AU/UK",
      "method": "Cost per enquiry taken from the headline figure published on each case study, for a measured period in 2026. Australian dollars.",
      "confidence": "high",
      "caution": "A range from selected work on accounts we run, not a market average and not a forecast. Read the individual case studies before using any figure from it.",
      "url": "https://soudcoh.com/case-study"
    },
    {
      "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"
    }
  ],
  "relatedTools": [
    "https://soudcoh.com/tools/marketing-budget-calculator",
    "https://soudcoh.com/tools/cost-per-lead-calculator",
    "https://soudcoh.com/tools/impression-share-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"
  }
}