Enter your revenue goal, job value, and close rate to see the monthly ad budget it takes to get there. Already have a budget? Flip the tab to see what it should bring in.
Estimate only. This is a calculator, not a guarantee. Ad results vary a lot from one industry, market, and business to the next, so use these numbers as a starting point and check them against your own results.
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Your revenue goal divided by your average job value, rounded up. An $8,500 goal at $450 a job means 19 jobs.
02
Leads Needed
Jobs needed divided by your close rate, rounded up. If you close 35% of leads, you need 55 leads to land 19 jobs.
03
Monthly Ad Spend
Leads needed times your cost per lead. 55 leads at $45 each comes to $2,475 a month.
04
Daily Spend
Monthly spend divided by 30.4, the average days in a month. That is the number you set in Meta Ads Manager, about $81 a day here.
Have a set budget instead? The calculator runs the same math in reverse: budget ÷ cost per lead = leads, leads × close rate = booked jobs, and booked jobs × job value = revenue. Return on ad spend is revenue ÷ ad spend. The starting numbers are only examples, so swap in your own from past jobs.
Straight answers
Frequently Asked Questions
Short, straight answers about setting a Meta ads budget. If yours is not here, ask us directly.
How much should a local service business spend on Facebook ads?
Start with what you want the ads to bring in, not a random number. If an average job is worth $1,200, you close 30% of leads, and leads cost $50, you need about $167 in ad spend for every booked job. Multiply that by the number of jobs you want each month and you have your budget.
Why does the calculator warn me when I spend under $20 a day?
Meta’s system learns who to show your ads to from the results it gets. At very low budgets it gets only a few leads a week, so it learns slowly and results bounce around. You can still run ads at that level. Keep it to one campaign with one ad set so every lead teaches the same ad set.
How long should I run ads before I judge the budget?
Give a new campaign at least 2 to 3 weeks before making big changes. Meta says an ad set needs about 50 results in a week to finish its learning phase, and most local businesses get fewer leads than that. Changing the budget or ads every few days restarts that learning.
Do I need separate budgets for Facebook and Instagram?
Usually no. One Meta campaign can run on both, and Meta shifts spend toward whichever is getting you leads for less. Start with one budget that covers both and only split them if your results show one clearly doing better.
What if the recommended budget is more than I can afford?
Switch to the “I have a set budget” tab and enter what you can spend to see what to expect. Then look at the other levers. Calling leads back faster and following up more often raises your close rate, and that lowers the budget you need more than almost anything else.
