There's no magic number, but there is a simple framework. Your budget should be set by three things: what a job is worth to you, what a click costs in your market, and how many new jobs you can actually handle.
Start with your job value, not your budget
Most owners pick a budget that 'feels safe', say $500/month, and then judge ads as 'not working' when it doesn't transform the business. The math usually explains why.
Work backwards instead. If your average job is worth $800 and you close half of your leads, a lead is worth about $400 to you. If leads in your market cost $40-80 from Google Ads, every dollar in is producing five to ten back. The question stops being 'how little can I spend' and becomes 'how many jobs do I want.'
Know your market's click costs
Click prices vary wildly by trade and city. A rough sense of common ranges for local service searches:
- Cleaning, lawn care, detailing: roughly $5-15 per click
- Tree service, auto repair, electrical: roughly $10-30 per click
- Plumbing, HVAC, roofing emergencies: $25-60+ per click in competitive metros
If clicks cost $20 and roughly one in five turns into a lead, a lead costs about $100. A $500 budget buys five leads a month, fine for a solo operator, invisible for a company trying to grow. That's not an opinion about ads; it's arithmetic.
The minimum that's worth it
As a rule of thumb, your monthly ad spend should buy at least 15-20 clicks per week in your market. Below that, Google's system doesn't get enough data to optimize, and one bad week looks like a catastrophe instead of noise.
For most trades that means a floor of roughly $1,000-1,500/month in ad spend. If that's out of reach right now, you're often better off putting the money into your Google Business Profile and reviews first, then coming back to ads when the budget can compete.
Cap it with your capacity
The happiest problem in marketing is having to turn ads off because the schedule is full. Before scaling spend, know your ceiling: how many additional jobs per week can your crew actually absorb without quality slipping?
Budget = (jobs you want per month) × (cost per lead in your market) ÷ (your close rate). That one formula, with honest numbers in it, beats any generic recommendation.
What we tell clients
When someone asks us for a number on a strategy call, we benchmark their market's real click costs, estimate cost per lead, and give them the budget that matches their goal, and if their budget can't compete in their market, we say so before they spend a dollar. Sometimes the honest answer is 'not yet.'
Questions about your specific situation? Talk to us. Straight answers are free.