How much do you need to spend to hit a revenue target?
Start from the revenue you want rather than the budget you can stomach. This works backwards through jobs, then enquiries, then spend, and tells you what the answer is as a share of the revenue it is meant to produce.
Your numbers
The answer
Updates as you type, in your browser. Nothing leaves this page unless you ask us to send you the report.
Monthly ad budget
$13,889
$166,667 over twelve months
Change a number and this link updates with it, so whoever opens it lands on the result you are looking at.
Jobs needed
500
41.7 a month
Enquiries needed
1,667
139 a month
Budget as a share of revenue
27.8%
Advertising only — no agency fee, no tools
Cost to win one job
$333.33
$100.00 per enquiry ÷ 30% close rate
Send me this result
We will turn the numbers above into a PDF with your figures, the workings and what they mean — and hand it straight back to you here, to read or to keep.
Spending 27.8% of the revenue to get it is unusually high. It normally means either the job value is too low for paid search or the close rate is doing too little work.
What to do with this
- To bill $600,000 you need 500 jobs, which needs 1,667 enquiries, which costs $166,667 at $100.00 each.
- That is $13,889 a month and 27.8% of the revenue it is meant to produce. Every job costs $333.33 to win before you have done any of the work.
- Fund the first two months as setup rather than as a twelfth of the year each. Accounts do not arrive at their settled cost per enquiry immediately, and the early figure is always the worse one.
How this was worked out
- Jobs needed
- $600,000 ÷ $1,200.00 = 500 jobs
- Enquiries needed
- 500 ÷ 30% = 1,667 enquiries
- Total budget
- 1,667 × $100.00 = $166,667
- Monthly budget
- $166,667 ÷ 12 = $13,889
- Share of revenue
- $166,667 ÷ $600,000 = 27.8%
The same target under different cost assumptions
| Cost per enquiry | Total budget | Monthly | Share of revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| $75.00 — 25% below your input | $125,000 | $10,417 | 20.8% |
| $100.00 — your figure | $166,667 | $13,889 | 27.8% |
| $150.00 — your comparison input | $250,000 | $20,833 | 41.7% |
| $125.00 — 25% above your input | $208,333 | $17,361 | 34.7% |
Sensitivity examples, not observed client results. The lower and higher rows vary your entered cost by 25%; the comparison row uses your separate input.
What this does, and how the maths works
What it does
- 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.
- Uses editable hypothetical inputs to demonstrate the calculation, then lets you test your own costs.
How to use it
- 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.
- Replace the hypothetical cost per enquiry with your own figure and choose a comparison cost to test.
- Read the monthly budget, then check the share-of-revenue line before you commit to it.
The 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
Reading the answer
- 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.
What it cannot tell you
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.
This calculator, already filled in
Each scenario explains a practical question using hypothetical starting inputs. Replace those inputs with your own records or the assumptions you want to test.
Where every figure on this page came from
Replace the example inputs with your own figures. Sourced inputs link to their reference and identify the original market and currency.
This tool uses editable example inputs. Replace them with your own figures; the result follows the values you enter.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about working with SoudCoh
Have more questions? Let's chat!
Book a callWork backwards from the revenue target, average job value, close rate and cost per enquiry. For a hypothetical example, a $120,000 annual revenue target, $1,000 average job and 25% close rate require 480 enquiries. At an assumed $100 per enquiry, the model returns $48,000 a year, or $4,000 a month in media spend. Replace every assumption with your own figures.
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.
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.
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.
Allow for campaign setup, enquiry handling and the time between a quote and paid work. The calculator uses a straight-line annual model; your cash-flow plan should account for the actual sales cycle and seasonal variation.
Run these next
One number rarely settles anything on its own. These three answer the questions this one raises.
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Calculate cost per click, conversion rate and cost per enquiry from your own numbers, with separately labelled US industry context.
WordStream 2026
Break-even ROAS and max cost per lead
Turn job value, gross margin and close rate into the maximum you can pay for an enquiry, the break-even return on ad spend, and how much headroom your current cost per lead leaves.
Editable example inputs — use your own figures
We will read
your real ones.
Send us the account rather than the estimate. We will tell you what it is actually costing to win a job, which part of the chain is leaking, and whether it is worth fixing — before anyone asks you to sign anything.