Start with the budget worksheet
The worksheet starts with a fictional example so you can see how the calculations work. Replace the yellow input cells with numbers for one service, service area and planning month. All amounts are in US dollars. There is no universal recommended spend or percentage of revenue.
Use it for Google Search ads that send visitors to your website. Local Services Ads, direct ad calls and other campaign types need their own cost and response assumptions. The completed-job estimates describe the eventual outcome of that month’s inquiries; they are not a same-month cash-collection forecast.
Gather recent job revenue and direct costs, media and fee totals, unique inquiries, qualified inquiries, bookings and completed-job outcomes. Use a group of leads old enough to show its results. If you lack history, label your rates as assumptions and try a weaker scenario before choosing a test budget.
Download the editable budget worksheet (.xlsx)
No email required. Open the file in Excel or import it into Google Sheets, then save your own copy. Replace the yellow inputs and use the notes beside each field. Your entries stay in that copy.
Where to find the numbers for your plan
Record each input’s source and date in the worksheet’s assumption notes. Use records for the same service and area, and keep paid-search inquiries separate from referrals and repeat work. The records below are the starting point for each input.
If you have never run ads, conversion rates from referrals or other channels are only provisional assumptions for paid search. If you cannot support an input, clear its fictional value and leave it blank. The affected results will show “n.a.” until you have enough information to calculate them. A new business can use the worksheet to identify what it needs to measure; the example alone cannot tell it what to spend.
- Expected average CPC: use the matching Google Ads campaign’s cost and clicks, or a relevant Keyword Planner forecast for a new campaign. A top-of-page bid estimate is not an average CPC forecast.
- Inquiries per click: compare that campaign’s clicks with unique calls and forms from those clicks. Reconcile your call/form records with tracking; do not count a contact-page visit or the same inquiry twice.
- Qualification and booking rates: use intake notes, a dispatch log or your CRM. Count which inquiries fit your service and area, then which became the booking type you chose: a job or an estimate appointment.
- Completion rate and job contribution: match bookings to completed-job records and invoices, then use bookkeeping or job-cost records for expected collected revenue and direct delivery costs. A completed job with unpaid revenue still needs a collection assumption.
- Fees and other acquisition costs: check your management agreement, invoices and planned setup or landing-page work. Include only the costs assigned to this plan, and count each once.
- Capacity and spending limit: check the work already booked and the cash available for this plan. Keep capacity tied to this service’s job duration and leave room for existing customers and other channels.
1. Set an acquisition cost limit per completed job
Start with the amount left after delivering a job. Subtract direct labor, materials, subcontractors and other costs that rise with that job from the revenue you expect to collect. Use contribution in dollars, not the invoice total. Do not subtract advertising here; the worksheet accounts for it separately.
Next, choose how much contribution must remain after acquisition to support overhead and your profit goal. This reserve is your business decision. The difference is your maximum all-in acquisition cost per completed job.
For a fictional service job, $1,000 in revenue you expect to collect minus $250 in direct labor, $125 in materials and $25 in other direct costs leaves $600 in contribution. Those direct costs total $400; advertising has not been deducted yet. These are teaching inputs, not typical prices or margins for a trade.
From that $600 contribution, retaining $250 for overhead and profit leaves $350 for acquisition. The $350 must cover media, management and any other acquisition costs assigned to these jobs. It is not a suggested Quips price or an industry benchmark.
Use separate copies for substantially different work, such as emergency repairs and system installations. This worksheet uses first-job economics. Do not enter lifetime revenue as one job’s contribution; recurring work needs a separate model for delivery costs, retention and collection timing.
2. Calculate your lead-to-job conversion rates
A form submission is not necessarily a suitable lead, and a booked appointment is not necessarily a sale. Use distinct stages so the budget does not assume that every conversion becomes revenue.
For the same group of ad-generated inquiries, record qualification, booking and completion outcomes. Deduplicate calls and forms from the same person about the same job. If someone inquires in October and their job is completed in November, keep that outcome with the October inquiry group. Do not divide November’s completed jobs by November’s new inquiries and assume they are the same customers.
Record the date you checked the outcomes. An open estimate or unfinished job is still pending, not automatically a lost job. Wait until the group has had enough time to show its outcome for your sales and delivery cycle, or label the rates provisional. There is no single waiting period that fits every service.
If bookings are estimates, the last rate must include the estimate-to-sale outcome and eventual completion. Use one definition of a booking throughout. The worksheet’s “Media cost per booked job” uses that booking count, including estimate appointments if that is your definition. If you only know qualified-lead-to-completed-job conversion, do not put it in the booking field: the booking count and cost per booking would be mislabeled. Recover the separate stages from your records or leave them unknown.
- Click to inquiry: unique inquiries ÷ ad clicks.
- Qualification: suitable inquiries ÷ all unique inquiries. Define suitable by service, geography and the work you accept.
- Booking: booked jobs or estimate appointments ÷ qualified inquiries.
- Completion: completed, paying jobs ÷ those bookings, including cancellations and unsold estimates.
3. Calculate a starting Google Ads budget
Enter the completed jobs you want from this plan and an expected average cost per click. Use account history for the same service and area where available. For a new campaign, a relevant Keyword Planner forecast can supply an assumption. Use forecast average CPC, not a top-of-page bid estimate or maximum bid. Forecasts are estimates, and small local markets may have less reliable data.
Multiply the inquiry, qualification, booking and completion rates to get completed jobs per click. Then calculate media for your job target: target completed jobs × average cost per click ÷ completed jobs per click. A zero rate cannot support a positive job target.
With the fictional rates below, 10% × 80% × 75% × 90% = 5.4% completed jobs per click. Use 0.054 for that rate in the calculation: 15 target jobs × $10 ÷ 0.054 = $2,777.78 in media before fees. In the worksheet’s percentage inputs, enter 10% or 0.10, not 10.
The worksheet shows this amount in “Media for your job target.” To test it, copy the amount into “Monthly media spend.” You can also enter a different proposed spend, as the $3,000 example below does. Changing the job target alone does not change the proposed-plan results.
The worksheet divides media spend by cost per click, then applies each funnel rate. It assumes the proposed media amount is spent and that cost per click and response rates stay constant. Those assumptions become less reliable as you expand to different searches, areas or spend levels.
Add fixed monthly management fees, any percentage-of-media fee and other acquisition costs for this plan. Include tracking tools, landing-page work, setup costs and applicable taxes where relevant. Enter one-time costs in the month you expect to pay them when checking affordability. Use zero only when a cost genuinely does not apply.
Check all three proposed-plan results: acquisition target, capacity and all-in spending limit. Passing one does not mean the plan passes the others. If the amount needed for your job target fails a check, revise the target or economics before committing. The worksheet also shows media cost per booking and per completed job; keep those labels separate.
4. Review a $3,000 Google Ads budget example
These numbers are fictional teaching inputs, not customer results or expected performance. The example uses $3,000 in monthly media, a $10 cost per click, a 10% inquiry rate, 80% qualification, 75% booking and 90% completion. It assumes $500 in fixed management costs, no percentage fee or other costs, 20 available completed-job slots and a $4,000 all-in spending limit.
At $600 contribution per completed job, the modeled jobs produce $9,720 before acquisition. After $3,500 in acquisition costs, $6,220 remains for overhead and profit. This is contribution, not net profit or cash received. Fractional jobs are planning averages, not a promise of 16 or 17 jobs.
With a $350 acquisition allowance, the modeled $216.05 all-in cost per completed job fits this example. That conclusion depends on the inputs being realistic. A good-looking spreadsheet does not establish market demand.
| Measure | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Clicks | 3,000 ÷ 10 | 300 |
| Unique inquiries | 300 × 10% | 30 |
| Qualified inquiries | 30 × 80% | 24 |
| Bookings | 24 × 75% | 18 |
| Completed jobs | 18 × 90%, capped at 20 | 16.2 |
| All-in acquisition costs | $3,000 media + $500 fee | $3,500 |
| Media cost per booking | $3,000 ÷ 18 | $166.67 |
| Media cost per completed job | $3,000 ÷ 16.2 | $185.19 |
| All-in cost per completed job | $3,500 ÷ 16.2 | $216.05 |
5. Check capacity, cash and a weaker outcome
Enter the completed jobs you have room to accept from this campaign after existing customers and other channels. Use the same service mix and time horizon as the forecast. The worksheet caps completed jobs at that capacity while retaining the full proposed spend and fees. Excess inquiries are not treated as extra revenue.
In the example, media of about $3,704 would model 20 completed jobs at unchanged rates. But the $4,000 all-in cash limit leaves only $3,500 for media after the $500 fee. These are separate planning constraints, not recommendations to spend up to either ceiling. The acquisition-cost target still needs to pass at whatever amount you choose.
Test the same worksheet with a $15 cost per click. Keep everything else unchanged. Expected completed jobs fall to 10.8 and all-in acquisition cost rises to about $324.07. Then reduce qualification to 60% as well: expected jobs fall to 8.1 and all-in cost reaches about $432.10, above the $350 allowance.
If only 10 completed-job slots are available, the original plan is capped at 10 jobs and costs $350 per completed job. Buying more clicks at that point would exceed the target unless another assumption improves. Use spare capacity carefully when jobs differ in duration.
There is no single test budget or number of days that proves a campaign will work. If an affordable plan models very few qualified inquiries, a handful of outcomes may change the apparent cost per job sharply. Consider a narrower service or area and a longer observation period you can afford. Waiting longer does not fix poor economics; do not raise spending just to reach a sample size.
Save your chosen inputs with their date and evidence. Reopen the original example or use a separate saved copy before trying another scenario. If any rate is unknown, leave it blank: the relevant result becomes unavailable. Zero means the measured or assumed rate is actually zero.
6. Convert monthly media spend to a daily budget
For most campaigns using an unchanged average daily budget for a full calendar month, Google uses 30.4 times that budget as the monthly spending limit. A $3,000 monthly media plan corresponds to approximately $98.68 per day. This is an account-setting reference, not an exact daily spend or a forecast of delivered traffic.
For most campaigns using average daily budgets, Google can bill up to twice that budget on an individual day. Starting partway through a month or changing budgets affects the limits. Lowering a budget does not reset spending already incurred; on the edit day, the highest average daily budget chosen that day determines the daily limit. Review the budget report before changing settings.
These daily-budget calculations do not apply to campaign total budgets, which use a set campaign amount and dates. Across campaigns, count each separate or shared budget once. The worksheet’s daily reference is for the combined media plan; do not enter the full amount into every campaign.
Leave enough cash for fees, setup costs and the time between paying for advertising and collecting payment for work. A profitable job forecast does not mean the business can fund that delay. Choose a test amount and review date you can support even if results are weaker than the example.
7. Use real outcomes to decide what changes next
Before spending, test the landing page’s inquiry path and confirm someone can answer and qualify leads. Record media and fees separately. Keep the same definitions for inquiries, qualified leads, bookings and completed jobs when you replace assumptions with actual outcomes.
At the review, investigate the first meaningful gap. Expensive clicks call for a targeting and search review. Many unsuitable inquiries call for a service-area or intent review. Good inquiries that do not book call for an intake and follow-up review. Bookings that do not become paid work call for a sales or fulfillment review.
Increase spending only when the evidence, cash and capacity support the next amount. If a mature group of leads fails your acquisition target, improve the relevant part of the process or reduce exposure before buying more of the same traffic. Small samples and delayed outcomes need cautious interpretation.
Sources
Google documentation checked October 26, 2026.