How much should I spend on PPC?

Work back from a target, not a round number. Decide what a lead, sale or booking is worth, multiply by how many you need, and divide by a realistic conversion rate and cost per click for your industry. That gives a floor; this calculator turns a monthly budget into the clicks and conversions it should produce so you can check the maths both ways.

How much should I spend on Google Ads?

Enough to get statistically useful data on your core search terms without starving them. For most UK accounts that means a budget that can absorb 15–30 conversions a month at your industry cost per acquisition, so Smart Bidding has signal to learn from. Below that, results stay noisy and hard to optimise.

How much should I spend on Meta or LinkedIn ads?

Meta needs enough budget to exit the learning phase on each campaign (roughly 50 conversions a week across the account is the usual guide), so creative testing has room to work. LinkedIn costs more per click but reaches specific job titles, so budgets are set by how many qualified decision-makers you need to reach, not by volume.

Is there a minimum budget for PPC to work?

There is no hard floor, but very small budgets struggle to gather enough conversion data to optimise. As a rough guide, paid search starts to behave predictably from a few thousand pounds a month; paid social needs enough to test more than one creative angle at a time.

How do I set a budget from my targets?

Target cost per acquisition × number of conversions needed = required spend, before wastage. If you need 40 leads and your benchmark cost per lead is £50, that is roughly £2,000 of efficient spend plus headroom for testing and the searches that do not convert.

What is a good cost per click in my industry?

It varies widely. On Google Search the typical UK cost per click ranges from under £1.20 in low-competition sectors to over £6 in legal, finance and home improvement. The benchmarks-by-industry table on this page shows the average for each sector.

What is a realistic cost per lead?

Cost per lead depends on channel, industry and how good your conversion tracking and landing pages are. Benchmarks here run from the low teens to over £100 per lead on paid social, and similar spreads on search. Treat the benchmark as a starting point and expect your own number to move as the account is optimised.

Why do benchmarks vary so much?

Competition, seasonality, creative quality, geography and tracking accuracy all move the numbers. Two businesses in the same industry can see very different costs depending on how tightly the account is run and how well the offer matches the search.

Are these UK benchmarks?

The figures are built from industry benchmark studies and adjusted for geography: UK costs sit a little below US costs on search. Choose your target market in the calculator and the model adjusts accordingly.

Google vs Meta vs LinkedIn: where should I start?

Start where demand already exists. If people are searching for what you sell, lead with Google Search to capture that intent, then layer Meta to create demand and retarget, and add LinkedIn when you need to reach specific B2B job titles. Most plans use two or more together.

How do I split my budget across channels?

A common B2B starting split is roughly 65% search, 25% LinkedIn, 10% Meta; ecommerce tends to balance search and Meta more evenly. The right split depends on your objective, business type and budget; the recommended-mix table on this page shows the model defaults.

Should I add Microsoft Ads, TikTok or programmatic?

Often, yes, once the core channels are working. Microsoft Ads can add cheap incremental search demand; TikTok and programmatic extend reach and demand creation. They are worth testing when the fundamentals (tracking, search-term control, creative) are solid rather than as a first move.

How accurate is this forecast?

It is a benchmark-led planning estimate, not a promise. It is built to get the order of magnitude right and to show a sensible channel split, so you can plan a budget and a mix before you spend. Real performance is set by your account structure, tracking, creative and offer.

Is the calculator free?

Yes. It is free to use with no login. Enter your industry, market, objective and monthly budget and it returns an estimated outcome and channel mix.

Can I share or export the results?

Yes. You can copy the forecast summary to your clipboard or share a link to your scenario, including a full-report view, so colleagues can see the same numbers.

What do impressions, clicks and conversions mean here?

Impressions are how many times your ads could appear, clicks are visits to your site, and conversions are the leads, sales or visits your objective is set to. The glossary on this page defines the rest (CPC, CPA, CPL, CTR, CVR, ROAS).

Can Clean Digital manage this for us?

Yes. We are a Google Premier Partner and an employee-owned, Edinburgh-based PPC agency running paid search, Google Ads, paid social and programmatic for clients across the UK and internationally. A free budget review turns this directional plan into a real one against your own account data.

What is a free budget review?

A senior specialist goes through your accounts, tracking and spend and comes back with where the budget is leaking, what is worth scaling, and the changes worth making first. No obligation, and you keep the findings.

Free PPC budget tool · updated 2026

Paid media spend calculator

Plan your PPC budget by channel, industry and country, and see the impressions, clicks and leads or sales it should produce. The benchmarks behind it are the same ones our team uses to run paid search and Google Ads campaigns.

Use the calculator Get a free budget review

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£160M+ ad spend managed
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How much should you spend on paid media?

There is no universal "right" budget; it is set by your margins, what a customer is worth, how much demand exists, and how competitive your market is. The reliable way to find it is to work back from a target.

01

Decide what a conversion is worth

Average order value or the value of a qualified lead, after your margin. This is the number every budget works back from.

02

Work out how many you need

Set a monthly target for leads, sales or bookings: what the business actually needs from paid media, not a round spend figure.

03

Divide by a realistic cost

Use your industry cost per click and conversion rate (see the benchmarks below) to turn that target into a budget, then add headroom for testing.

How to split the budget across channels

A practical starting split by objective, business type and budget: capturing existing demand on Search, then creating and refining it on social. Your forecast uses the same logic.

ObjectiveBusinessBudget/moGoogleMetaLinkedIn

LeadsB2B£0.5k–£3k65%10%25%

LeadsB2B£3k–£7k55%15%30%

LeadsB2B£7k+45%20%35%

LeadsB2C£0.5k–£3k70%30%0%

LeadsB2C£3k–£7k60%40%0%

LeadsB2C£7k+50%50%0%

SalesEcommerce£0.5k–£3k60%40%0%

SalesEcommerce£3k–£7k52%48%0%

SalesEcommerce£7k+45%55%0%

TrafficMixed£0.5k+25%65%10%

TrafficB2B£0.5k+30%40%30%

SalesMixed£0.5k+50%45%5%

See how we manage paid search

Google vs Meta vs LinkedIn

The three channels the calculator models, what each is best at, and roughly what a lead costs on each. Most plans use two or more together.

Google Search

High intent

Capturing people already searching for what you sell

CTR: 6.5%
CPC: £3.84
CVR: 8.5%

Google Ads management

Meta (Facebook & Instagram)

Demand creation

Creating demand and retargeting at scale

CTR: 2.1%
CPC: £1.99
CVR: 8.1%

paid social management

LinkedIn

B2B targeting

Reaching specific job titles and B2B decision-makers

CTR: 0.4%
CPC: £2.96
CVR: 16.1%

LinkedIn ads management

Paid media terms, explained

Impressions: The number of times your ads were shown.
CTR (click-through rate): Clicks divided by impressions: how often people who see the ad click it.
CPC (cost per click): The average amount you pay for each click to your site.
CPM (cost per mille): The cost of one thousand impressions, used mainly for awareness and reach.
CVR (conversion rate): The share of clicks that turn into a conversion (a lead, sale or booking).
CPA (cost per acquisition): The average cost of one conversion: total spend divided by conversions.
CPL (cost per lead): CPA for lead-generation accounts: the cost of one enquiry or form fill.
ROAS (return on ad spend): Revenue generated for every £1 of media spend: the headline ecommerce metric.
Blended metric: A figure averaged across channels, which can hide weak channels behind strong ones.
Impression share: The share of available impressions you won versus the total you were eligible for.

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Paid media spend calculator

Calculator inputs

Plan results

Need this tailored?

How much should you spend on paid media?

Decide what a conversion is worth

Work out how many you need

Divide by a realistic cost

How to split the budget across channels

PPC benchmarks by industry

Google vs Meta vs LinkedIn

Google Search

Meta (Facebook & Instagram)

LinkedIn

How the forecast works

Benchmark baselines

Objective & geography rules

Channel mix allocation

Outcome forecast

The plan is a start. The result is the job.

Paid media terms, explained

Paid media budget calculator FAQs

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Google Ads management

Paid search management

Conversion tracking & analytics

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