{
  "$schema": "https://soudcoh.com/tools/data/index.json",
  "slug": "marketing-budget-calculator",
  "name": "Marketing budget from a revenue target",
  "category": "Budget and forecasting",
  "url": "https://soudcoh.com/tools/marketing-budget-calculator",
  "dataUrl": "https://soudcoh.com/tools/data/marketing-budget-calculator.json",
  "currency": "AUD",
  "updated": "2026-08",
  "summary": "Work backwards from a revenue target to the ad budget behind it: jobs needed, enquiries needed, monthly spend, and what that spend is as a share of revenue. Australian dollars.",
  "whatItDoes": [
    "Converts a revenue target into the number of jobs behind it, then into the number of enquiries behind those, then into the advertising spend behind those.",
    "Shows the answer as a share of revenue, which is the form the argument usually takes inside a business.",
    "Lets you start from our measured cost per enquiry for your trade, or from your own, and shows the difference between them."
  ],
  "howToUse": [
    "Enter the revenue you want the advertising to produce over the next twelve months. Not total revenue — just the part that has to come from new enquiries.",
    "Enter your average job value and the share of enquiries that turn into work.",
    "Pick your trade to load the median cost per enquiry from our published accounts, or type your own if you have it.",
    "Read the monthly budget, then check the share-of-revenue line before you commit to it."
  ],
  "formula": [
    "Jobs needed = revenue target ÷ average job value",
    "Enquiries needed = jobs needed ÷ lead-to-job rate",
    "Total budget = enquiries needed × cost per enquiry",
    "Monthly budget = total budget ÷ 12"
  ],
  "interpret": [
    "If the monthly budget is more than you can fund, the fix is rarely a smaller budget. It is a smaller target, a higher job value, or a better close rate — in that order of how quickly they move.",
    "The share-of-revenue figure is the one to argue about. A number that looks enormous in dollars often looks ordinary as a percentage, and the reverse is also true.",
    "This assumes the advertising starts working on day one. It does not. Treat the first two months as setup rather than as a twelfth of the year each."
  ],
  "limitation": "Straight-line arithmetic with no ramp, no seasonality and no diminishing returns. Buying twice the enquiries usually costs more than twice as much, because the cheapest searches sell out first — so the real budget for an ambitious target sits above what this returns.",
  "inputs": [
    {
      "key": "revenueTarget",
      "label": "Revenue you want from new enquiries",
      "kind": "currency",
      "default": 600000,
      "min": 1000,
      "max": 500000000,
      "unit": "AUD",
      "help": "Over twelve months. Only the part that has to come from advertising.",
      "sourceId": null,
      "sourceNote": null,
      "options": null
    },
    {
      "key": "jobValue",
      "label": "Average job value",
      "kind": "currency",
      "default": 1200,
      "min": 1,
      "max": 10000000,
      "unit": "AUD",
      "help": "Your average invoice excluding GST. A round placeholder — use your own.",
      "sourceId": null,
      "sourceNote": null,
      "options": null
    },
    {
      "key": "closeRate",
      "label": "Enquiries that become paid work",
      "kind": "percent",
      "default": 30,
      "min": 0.1,
      "max": 100,
      "unit": "percent",
      "help": "From your job book, not from memory.",
      "sourceId": null,
      "sourceNote": null,
      "options": null
    },
    {
      "key": "cpl",
      "label": "Cost per enquiry",
      "kind": "currency",
      "default": 69.85,
      "min": 1,
      "max": 100000,
      "unit": "AUD",
      "help": "What one enquiry costs you to buy. Overwrite this with your own figure if you have it.",
      "sourceId": "soudcoh-case-studies",
      "sourceNote": "Default is the median across 34 of our published Australian accounts. The full spread is $8.91 to $220.59.",
      "options": null
    },
    {
      "key": "tradeCpl",
      "label": "Or load our median for your trade",
      "kind": "select",
      "default": 112.56,
      "min": 0,
      "max": 1000000,
      "unit": "count",
      "help": "Sets a reference figure beside your own. It does not overwrite the field above.",
      "sourceId": "soudcoh-case-studies",
      "sourceNote": null,
      "options": [
        {
          "label": "Plumbing and drainage — 112.56",
          "value": 112.56
        },
        {
          "label": "Electrical — 89.24",
          "value": 89.24
        },
        {
          "label": "Residential cleaning, carpet and end of lease — 31.44",
          "value": 31.44
        },
        {
          "label": "Commercial cleaning and facilities — 99.73",
          "value": 99.73
        },
        {
          "label": "Roofing and roof restoration — 33.17",
          "value": 33.17
        },
        {
          "label": "Air conditioning and heating — 55.37",
          "value": 55.37
        },
        {
          "label": "Property maintenance, lawn and pool care — 15.38",
          "value": 15.38
        },
        {
          "label": "Painting — 90.61",
          "value": 90.61
        },
        {
          "label": "Rubbish removal and scrap metal — 21.08",
          "value": 21.08
        },
        {
          "label": "Security systems and CCTV — 45.14",
          "value": 45.14
        },
        {
          "label": "Towing, detailing and accident management — 40.73",
          "value": 40.73
        },
        {
          "label": "Health and beauty clinic — 71.35",
          "value": 71.35
        },
        {
          "label": "Legal — 35.14",
          "value": 35.14
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "defaults": {
    "revenueTarget": 600000,
    "jobValue": 1200,
    "closeRate": 30,
    "cpl": 69.85,
    "tradeCpl": 112.56
  },
  "exampleResult": {
    "headline": {
      "label": "Monthly ad budget",
      "value": "$9,701",
      "note": "$116,417 over twelve months"
    },
    "outputs": [
      {
        "label": "Jobs needed",
        "value": "500",
        "note": "41.7 a month"
      },
      {
        "label": "Enquiries needed",
        "value": "1,667",
        "note": "139 a month"
      },
      {
        "label": "Budget as a share of revenue",
        "value": "19.4%",
        "note": "Advertising only — no agency fee, no tools"
      },
      {
        "label": "Cost to win one job",
        "value": "$232.83",
        "note": "$69.85 per enquiry ÷ 30% close rate"
      }
    ],
    "workings": [
      {
        "label": "Jobs needed",
        "expression": "$600,000 ÷ $1,200.00 = 500 jobs"
      },
      {
        "label": "Enquiries needed",
        "expression": "500 ÷ 30% = 1,667 enquiries"
      },
      {
        "label": "Total budget",
        "expression": "1,667 × $69.85 = $116,417"
      },
      {
        "label": "Monthly budget",
        "expression": "$116,417 ÷ 12 = $9,701"
      },
      {
        "label": "Share of revenue",
        "expression": "$116,417 ÷ $600,000 = 19.4%"
      }
    ]
  },
  "shareableExample": "https://soudcoh.com/tools/marketing-budget-calculator?revenueTarget=600000&jobValue=1200&closeRate=30",
  "faqs": [
    {
      "question": "How much should a plumber spend on Google Ads in Melbourne?",
      "answer": "There is no published Australian benchmark that answers this, so the honest method is to work backwards from what you want out of it. Across the plumbing accounts we run, the published cost per enquiry sits between $57.21 and $176.78 in Australian dollars, with the one Melbourne account in that set at $74.42. At $74.42 an enquiry and a 30% close rate, one $1,200 job costs about $248 to win, so $10,000 of revenue a month needs roughly 8 jobs, 28 enquiries and about $2,100 of spend. Change any of those three inputs and the answer changes — which is the point of doing it this way rather than quoting a figure."
    },
    {
      "question": "What percentage of revenue should go on marketing?",
      "answer": "Every percentage in circulation — 5%, 7%, 10% — traces to a survey of businesses that look nothing like a service trade, or to nothing at all. We do not publish one. The percentage this tool shows is an output, not a target: it falls out of your job value, your close rate and what an enquiry costs you. If it comes back at 6% and the work is profitable, 6% is your number."
    },
    {
      "question": "Does this include agency fees?",
      "answer": "No. This is media spend only — the money that goes to Google or Meta. Management fees, call tracking, landing pages and CRM licences sit on top, and they are what turns a cost per lead into a real cost per job. The cost per booked job calculator adds them."
    },
    {
      "question": "Why does the budget rise faster than the target?",
      "answer": "In this tool it does not — the arithmetic is a straight line. In a real auction it does, because the cheapest and most relevant searches sell out first. Doubling the enquiries usually costs more than double, so treat this as the floor for an ambitious target rather than the estimate."
    },
    {
      "question": "How long before the spend produces the revenue?",
      "answer": "Longer than the month you spend it in, for two reasons. New accounts start above their settled cost per enquiry — several of our published case studies record exactly that, with cost per enquiry falling 20% to 58% inside the same account. And an enquiry is not an invoice: quoted work often closes weeks later. Fund the first two months as setup."
    }
  ],
  "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"
    }
  ],
  "relatedTools": [
    "https://soudcoh.com/tools/google-ads-budget-forecaster",
    "https://soudcoh.com/tools/cost-per-lead-calculator",
    "https://soudcoh.com/tools/break-even-roas-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"
  }
}