How to calculate a Google Ads budget before launching ads

“How much money do you need for Google Ads?” is the question we hear most often. The answer “it depends on the niche” helps nobody, so below is a formula that calculates the budget from your goal rather than from a random figure like “let’s try 100 thousand”.

After reading the article you will be able to build your own calculation in half an hour: how many leads you need, how many clicks that will take and what budget can be considered reasonable. All the figures in the examples are illustrative, so substitute your own.

The budget is a result, not a starting point. Start with the question: how many new clients or sales do you need per month?

Say you want 10 new clients. Then there is a chain of four links:

1. Clicks to the website.
2. Leads (calls, forms, messenger messages).
3. Clients from leads.
4. Revenue and profit.

Each link has its own conversion rate. If you do not know it, the calculation will be only an estimate. That is fine, but honestly call it an estimate.

Budget = the number of clients needed × the cost of a client.

The cost of a client breaks down further:

• cost per click (CPC) — how much you pay for a visit;
• website-to-lead conversion (CR1) — what share of visitors leave a request;
• lead-to-client conversion (CR2) — what share of leads become a payment.

Then:

1. Cost per lead (CPL) = CPC ÷ CR1.
2. Cost per client (CPA) = CPL ÷ CR2.
3. Budget = CPA × number of clients.

The example below shows how this works.

This is an example, not a forecast: a click costs 150 ₸, 5% of website visitors leave a request, and 20% of requests reach payment. You need 10 clients per month.

1. CPL = 150 ÷ 0.05 = 3,000 ₸ per lead.
2. CPA = 3,000 ÷ 0.2 = 15,000 ₸ per client.
3. Budget = 15,000 × 10 = 150,000 ₸ per month.

Now let us check it against the economics. If the average check is 60,000 ₸ with a gross margin of 40%, you earn 24,000 ₸ from one client. A client costs 15,000 ₸, so 9,000 ₸ remains on each before other expenses. The advertising pays off, but the margin is small.

Let us change one figure: website conversion of 2% instead of 5%. Then CPL = 7,500 ₸, CPA = 37,500 ₸, and every client brings a loss. The website affects the budget no less than the ad settings do.

If you do not have statistics yet, the figures come from three sources:

• The Google Ads Keyword Planner shows an approximate cost per click for your queries in your region. This is a range, not a guarantee.
• Your sales: how many leads usually become clients, what the average check is, what the margin is. Ask the sales team rather than estimating “by eye”.
• A test period. The first 2–4 weeks are data collection. Include them in the budget as the price of information.

In Kazakhstan the cost per click differs noticeably by niche and city: lawyers, clinics and real estate are usually more expensive than local services with low competition. So it is better not to use other people’s “average figures” from the internet.

Google Ads algorithms need data. With too small a budget:

• in a month you get a couple of dozen clicks and zero leads;
• the conclusion that “advertising does not work” is based on noise;
• you cannot compare ads and keywords because each variant has two clicks.

Estimate it yourself: if you need at least 20–30 leads during the test period and the CPL is around 3,000 ₸, the test will take 60–90 thousand ₸ of advertising budget. With less than that you will get information you cannot trust.

Important: the advertising budget and payment for a specialist’s work are different things. At Webman, setting up and managing PPC advertising starts from 200,000 ₸, while the money for impressions is paid directly to Google separately. Details are on the PPC advertising page.

Let us break down the full monthly budget:

• the advertising budget (clicks);
• the work of a specialist or agency;
• website improvements if conversion is low;
• analytics: call tracking services, if you use them;
• a reserve for testing new ads, 10–15% of the click budget.

Businesses often include only the first item and then are surprised that advertising “ate” more. Make a full estimate before the start.

Do not spread the money over all possible queries. The rule we apply:

1. Hot queries (“order”, “price”, “buy”, “in Astana”) get the main share, as a rule most of the budget.
2. Brand queries (your company name) go in a separate campaign: they are cheap and protect you from competitors.
3. Broad informational queries (“how to choose…”) are launched later and with a small share, once the hot ones are already working.
4. Remarketing to those who have been on the website is added after the audience has accumulated.

This way the money first goes where the purchase decision has already been made. We wrote separately about why advertising may not show or may spend the budget quickly: see the blog section.

A budget is not “launch and forget”. The minimum control:

1. Spend by campaign and by day: are there any sharp spikes.
2. The search terms report: which phrases really bring clicks; add the unnecessary ones to negative keywords.
3. The number of leads and their source: whether analytics matches what the sales team sees.
4. CPL and CPA by campaign, not only the overall figure.
5. Impression share and position for hot queries.

Make decisions not by individual days but by accumulated statistics: if you have gathered 10 clicks in a week, it is too early to draw conclusions.

If the calculation showed the budget is large, you have four levers, and only the first two give a lasting result:

• Website conversion. A clear offer, a price or “from”, a form with two fields, call and WhatsApp buttons. Improving from 2% to 4% halves the CPL without changing the ads.
• Lead handling. A reply within minutes and a call script raise the share of leads that reach a sale.
• Traffic quality. Negative keywords, exact matches, excluding irrelevant regions and devices.
• Bids and schedule. Showing during working hours, device adjustments.

Start with the first two: they concern your half of the process, which a contractor cannot fix without you.

Before launching, calculate the number that protects you from losses: the maximum acceptable cost of a client (break-even CPA).

Acceptable CPA = average check × margin × share of repeat purchases over the evaluation period.

For simplicity, take a one-time purchase. Example: a check of 60,000 ₸, a margin of 40%, so the profit from a sale is 24,000 ₸. This is the ceiling. If advertising brings clients at a higher cost, you lose money. If cheaper, you earn the difference.

If a client buys several times, the ceiling is higher: count profit over 6–12 months. But be careful: rely on real repeat sales from your CRM, not on hopes.

Now check the ceiling against the calculation. If the expected CPA is 15,000 ₸ and the ceiling is 24,000 ₸, there is a margin. If the expected CPA is 37,500 ₸ and the ceiling is 24,000 ₸, it is too early to launch advertising: first improve the website, the price or the sales team.

Copy the list and fill in your own figures:

1. How many clients you need per month: ____
2. Average check, ₸: ____
3. Margin, %: ____
4. Profit per client (check × margin), ₸: ____
5. Approximate CPC from the planner, ₸: ____
6. Website-to-lead conversion, %: ____ (if unknown, take a cautious estimate)
7. Share of leads that reach payment, %: ____
8. CPL = item 5 ÷ item 6: ____
9. CPA = item 8 ÷ item 7: ____
10. Monthly budget = item 9 × item 1: ____
11. Compare item 9 and item 4: if CPA is higher than profit, fix the funnel first.

Send this list to a colleague from sales: he or she knows half of the figures.

Demand is not constant. Construction, renovation, cleaning, flower delivery and education have seasons, and at the peak a click costs more because there are more competitors. The rules are simple:

• look at demand dynamics in Google Trends for your query and region;
• raise the budget before the season, not in the middle of it when the auction is already expensive;
• outside the season do not “turn everything off”: keep brand and the hottest queries.

The city also matters. Astana and Almaty are more competitive, and a click there is usually more expensive than in smaller cities. If you work across Kazakhstan, split campaigns by region to see the cost of a lead in each.

Distinguish two situations. The first: there is little data, dozens of clicks, no leads. Here you need to wait and continue the test. The second: hundreds of clicks, but leads are several times fewer than expected. This is a signal to look for the cause.

Check in order:

1. Whether the queries are relevant: open the search terms report and see whether there are random ones.
2. Whether the ad matches the page: if you promise “from 330,000 ₸” and the page has no price, the client leaves.
3. Whether the form and phone work: make a test request yourself.
4. Whether goals are tracked correctly in analytics.
5. How quickly and how well managers respond to inquiries.

Only after that change bids and budget. Increasing spend while the funnel leaks means paying more for the same losses.

Prepare a one-page note with five points: the client goal, the acceptable cost of a client, the 4-week test budget, the success criteria and the point at which you will stop or scale the campaign. For example: “If in four weeks CPA is below 20,000 ₸ with at least 15 leads, we raise the budget by a third; if above 30,000 ₸, we stop and improve the website”. Rules like these, written in advance, protect against emotional decisions in both directions. This is an example of the format; you set the thresholds by your own margin.

1. Counting from an amount you “don’t mind losing”. Advertising must pay off, not be an expense just in case.
2. Not knowing the margin. Turnover and profit are different things; payback is counted on profit.
3. Ignoring the speed of replying to leads. A lead that gets a reply a day later is most often lost.
4. Judging the result after 3 days. You need a sample, not intuition.
5. Launching ads on a weak website. The website first, traffic second. If the page does not convert, the website should be improved or rebuilt.
6. Not setting up goals. Without tracking calls and forms you will not learn the real cost of a lead.

• Start with the goal: how many clients you need per month.
• Use the chain CPC → CPL → CPA and check it against your margin.
• Allow 2–4 weeks for the test and do not draw conclusions from a small sample.
• The advertising budget and payment for a specialist are separate expense items.
• Website conversion and the speed of manager replies affect the cost of a client no less than Google Ads settings do.

If you want us to do the calculation for your niche, send us your situation: you can leave a request on the PPC advertising page, and we will come back with a budget estimate and a test plan. And to see how advertising and SEO are connected, read our article on local SEO.