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Marketing budget
calculator.

Take a share of yearly revenue, divide by 12, then divide by your cost per lead. The budget is only right if a lead earns more than it costs.

Your numbers

Last year, or what you expect this year.

Opens on 7.5%, the middle of a 7 to 8% rule of thumb for firms under $5 million. SBA.gov community post, June 2012, archived copy

For an agent: your commission after the split.

What is left of a job after labor and materials. For an agent, 100%.

Your own number if you have one. Medians by trade are below.

Out of every 100 leads, how many pick up or reply.

Of the leads you reach, how many turn into a job or a client.

Your answer

Estimate

Fill in your numbers

The answer opens here as you type. No email needed.

  • Yearly revenue, still needed
  • Share of revenue for marketing, done
  • Average job value, still needed
  • Gross margin, still needed
  • Expected cost per lead, still needed
  • Share of leads you reach, still needed
  • Share of those that book, still needed
Email me this

This is an estimate worked from the numbers you typed. It is not financial or legal advice.

Email me the budget

  • Your monthly budget, and the leads and jobs it buys
  • The most you can pay for a lead at your margin
  • A sheet you can print before you sign the next ad contract
Jobs or deals a month
Spending on leads a month

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Reading the answer.

Budget a month

What the share of revenue allows. It says nothing yet about whether that money comes back.

Most you can pay for a lead

Gross profit from one average lead. Pay more than this and every new lead loses money, however large the budget.

Jobs a month

Set this against your crew. Budget that buys more jobs than you can staff is better spent answering the leads you already get.

The math.

A sample shop with $1,000,000 in revenue sets aside 7.5% and pays $130 a lead. Its leads cost almost twice what they earn at these numbers.

The formula

Budget a month
revenue × share / 12
Most you can pay for a lead
reached × booked × job value × margin
Leads a month
budget a month / cost per lead
Jobs a month
leads a month × reached × booked

This is an estimate worked from the numbers you typed. It is not financial or legal advice.

The sample numbers

Yearly revenue
$1,000,000
Share of revenue for marketing
7.5%
Average job value
$1,200
Gross margin
40%
Expected cost per lead
$130
Share of leads you reach
70%
Share of those that book
20%

What they come to

Marketing budget a month
$6,250
At these numbers
Each lead loses money
Most you can pay for a lead
$67.2
Leads a month
48.08
Jobs a month
6.73

The sources.

LocaliQ, home services search ads

Roofing and gutters
$228.15
General contractors
$165.67
Painting
$138.38
Plumbing
$129.02
Heating and furnaces
$129.02
Air conditioning
$127.74
Landscaping
$117.92
Electricians
$93.69
Handyman services
$54.05
Cleaning
$46.99

Open the source

LocaliQ, real estate search ads

Real estate broker
$162.39
Residential real estate agent
$157.59
Homes for sale by agent
$142.59
Property management
$76.71

Open the source

An SBA.gov community post from June 2012 gives 7 to 8% of revenue as a general rule for small businesses under $5 million, assuming margins of 10 to 12%.

SBA.gov community post, June 2012, archived copy

The same post says many businesses allocate 2 to 3% for run-rate marketing, and that the share depends on the industry, the size of the business and its growth stage.

SBA.gov community post, June 2012, archived copy

Home services rows are medians from 3,211 US search ad campaigns run by LocaliQ customers, April 2024 to March 2025. They are not Angi or Thumbtack prices.

LocaliQ, home services search ads

Real estate rows are medians from 894 US search ad campaigns run by LocaliQ customers, April 2025 to March 2026. They are not portal or referral prices.

LocaliQ, real estate search ads

Your questions

Is 7.5% the right share for my business?

It is a starting point, not a finding. It comes from a rule of thumb that assumes margins of 10 to 12%. Change it to your own share and watch what happens to leads and jobs.

Does this split the budget across channels?

No. We found no source that supports a split by channel for these trades, so the page does not print one.

What if my expected cost per lead is above the most I can pay?

More budget makes it worse. Raise the booked share, raise the job value, or find a cheaper source before you spend more.

Should a new business use the same share?

The same 2012 post says start-up marketing runs higher than run-rate marketing, so read the result as a floor in your first years.

More tools.

Lead cost calculator

Divide what a lead source costs by the jobs it books, then set that against the profit on a job. If the profit is bigger, the source pays.

Open the tool

Markup and margin calculator

Markup is on cost. Margin is on price. A 50% markup is a 33.33% margin, and a 20% margin is a 25% markup.

Open the tool

Three plans.

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You always keep your name, logo, photos, copy and domain. We keep the code and the system behind the site.

Automated

$1,500 a month

No lead lost.

Every lead answered and booked, and we keep it running.

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  • It asks what you would ask, then books the estimate, showing or measure
  • Anything it can’t handle goes straight to you
  • Follow-ups that stop when they book or go cold

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Every stage handled.

Everything in Automated, and we run every stage for you.

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Every stage

  • Every stage built and run by us, from lead to growth

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  • Unlimited landing pages and lead magnets, with an alert on every form
  • Email campaigns to your lead list, no cap from our side
  • Campaigns on the social platforms your customers use, on your accounts

Measure

  • A dashboard for every lead, job and customer
  • A private site with a stat assistant that keeps watch on your customers

No AI brain or agents of your own.

The partnership

$7,500 a month

We run the whole cycle.

Everything in Automated, plus us working it and building on it.

Get started, The partnership

Get found

  • Content for Google and AI answers, as much as it moves your numbers
  • Unlimited landing pages and lead magnets, with an alert on every form
  • Email campaigns to your lead list, no cap from our side
  • Campaigns on the social platforms your customers use, on your accounts

Your AI brain

  • One AI brain on your phone: leads, jobs and customers in one place. Ask it anything
  • Connected to your forms, email, calendar and records, so it does the work
  • Hosting and tech run by us: domain, updates, monitoring. Accounts stay yours
  • Skills for your trade: lead questions, follow-up, booking, review requests

Run the work

  • Custom AI helpers for replies and booking, with a person where needed
  • Internal tools built for how you really run
  • Two builds in progress at any time, in the order you pick

Measure

  • One shared live board: every lead and job, where it came from, what it’s worth

Ad budgets and paid software stay on your accounts. Designed image and video posts start once you’re comfortable with AI drafts.

Free website

Sample inbox
  • Roof leak, kitchenyourcompany.example, 9:12pm
  • Looking for a roofer8:47pm
  • Skylight leak, upstairs6:30pm
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