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Google Ads budget calculator

Google Ads is paid by the click, and what a click costs depends on your sector. Pick yours to see typical UK costs per click, then set a budget to see the clicks, enquiries and customers it should buy and what each costs, or set a goal to see the budget it needs.

Clicks and enquiries a budget buys
Your cost per enquiry and customer
The budget a goal needs

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Your sector

Monthly ad budget

Or: enquiries you want a month (optional)

Visitors who enquire (optional)

Typical for your sector: about 7%.

Enquiries that become customers

What a customer is worth

Trades (plumber, electrician, builder)

£1,000 a month should buy about 222–666 clicks and 15–46 enquiries, at £21–£64 each.

£1.50£4.50

Typical UK cost per click in your sector.

222–666Clicks a month

15–46Enquiries a month

£21–£64Cost per enquiry

In your full report

Customers and revenue a month
The budget your goal needs
Your return on the ad spend

Rather have a person look at it? We will go through your numbers with you on a free 30-minute call.

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What does a Google Ads click cost in my sector?

Google runs an auction each time someone searches. What you pay depends on how many businesses bid on that search, what a customer is worth to them, and how relevant Google finds your ad and page.

That is why a legal click can cost ten times what an online shop pays. The table shows the typical UK ranges the calculator uses, the share of visitors who usually enquire, and the cost per enquiry that follows.

Typical UK Google Ads costs by sector
Sector	Cost per click	Visitors who enquire	Cost per enquiry
Trades (plumber, electrician, builder)	£1.50–£4.50	7%	£21–£64
Home services (cleaning, removals)	£1.00–£3.50	6%	£17–£58
Health and clinics	£1.50–£5.00	5%	£30–£100
Beauty and aesthetics	£0.80–£3.00	6%	£13–£50
Legal	£4.00–£15.00	4%	£100–£375
Finance, mortgages, insurance	£3.00–£12.00	4%	£75–£300
Property and estate agents	£1.50–£5.00	3%	£50–£167
B2B services	£3.00–£10.00	3%	£100–£333
Software (B2B)	£4.00–£15.00	2.5%	£160–£600
Education and training	£1.00–£4.00	4%	£25–£100
Hospitality and venues	£0.50–£2.00	5%	£10–£40
Online retail (per sale)	£0.40–£1.50	2%	£20–£75
Automotive	£0.80–£3.00	4%	£20–£75
Events and weddings	£0.80–£3.00	4%	£20–£75
Accountants and consultants	£2.50–£8.00	4%	£63–£200

Typical UK ranges for 2026, the figures the calculator uses. Not quotes: your own costs depend on your area, your competitors and your ads.

How do you work out a Google Ads budget?

Start from the enquiries you want, not a round number. Twenty enquiries a month at £21–£64 each, the typical range for trades, needs about £429–£1,286 a month.

Then check it against what a customer is worth. If one in three enquiries becomes a £600 job, each enquiry is worth about £200, so paying £64 for one leaves room for profit.

Enquiries wanted × cost per enquiry = monthly budget.
Cost per click ÷ share of visitors who enquire = cost per enquiry.
Enquiries × share who buy × customer value = revenue.
Any management fee is extra; it is not paid to Google.

How long does Google Ads take to work?

A new campaign can bring its first enquiries within days, but the first two to four weeks are mostly learning. Google is finding which searches, times and places turn into enquiries, and you are adding the searches that waste money to a negative list.

Judge a campaign after a month and a few hundred clicks, not after a week. Below about 100 clicks, a handful of enquiries either way can move the cost per enquiry by a third or more.

How do you lower your cost per enquiry on Google Ads?

The quickest gains are usually in the searches you pay for and the page people land on. Searches for jobs, free advice or towns you do not serve can take a share of the budget; adding them as negative keywords stops that waste from the next day.

Google also rewards relevance. An ad that matches the search and a page that answers it earn a better Quality Score, Google's 1 to 10 rating, and can win better positions for less.

Add negative keywords for searches that never buy.
Show ads only where and when you can serve customers.
Send each group of searches to a page about that service.
Put the phone number and a short form near the top of the page.
Track calls as well as forms, so bidding learns from both.

How the tool works

Pick your sector; the typical UK cost per click fills in.
Set a monthly budget, or the number of enquiries you want.
Adjust how many visitors enquire and how many enquiries become customers, if you know.
See clicks, enquiries, customers, cost per lead and return, as ranges.

How Scale Oxford helps

Want us to set up and run your Google Ads?

We build campaigns around the searches that bring customers in your area and track every call and form. Then we tune bids, negative keywords and landing pages each week to bring the cost per enquiry down. Google Ads management starts at £700 a month, and the ad spend is paid to Google on top.

We plan the budget from the enquiries you want and the real costs in your sector.
We set up conversion tracking for calls and forms before the first click is paid for.
We report cost per enquiry and per customer each month, not just clicks.

Book a free call See our Google Ads service

Case study · BoConceptScale Oxford brought the cost of each online sale from Google Ads down by 43% for BoConcept. The account was counting some sales twice and missing others, so Google was bidding on the wrong numbers. We fixed the tracking before touching a single bid.↓ 43%Lower cost per sale↑ 81%Higher return on ad spend↑ 162%More revenue from Google AdsRead the case study →

Questions people ask

How much does Google Ads cost per month in the UK?

Small local businesses commonly spend £500–£2,000 a month on clicks, plus any management fee. What matters more than the total is the cost per enquiry: for most UK service businesses it lands between £20 and £120.

What is the average cost per click in the UK?

Roughly £0.50–£2 for retail and hospitality, £1.50–£5 for local services and trades, and £5–£15 or more for legal, finance and B2B software. The calculator uses ranges by sector.

What is the minimum budget for Google Ads?

Google has no minimum, but below about £10–£15 a day most campaigns get too few clicks to learn from. Start where you can afford at least 100–200 clicks a month.

Is the management fee included?

No. This is the ad spend paid to Google. An agency or freelancer usually charges £250–£1,500 a month on top; see our agency cost calculator.

Is Google Ads worth it for a small business?

Usually, when people search for what you sell and a customer is worth several times your cost per enquiry. A trades business paying £21–£64 per enquiry for jobs worth £500 or more has plenty of room for profit. It is harder when a sale is worth little or few people search for the service.

What is a good conversion rate for Google Ads?

For UK service businesses, 3–7% of visitors enquiring is typical, and online shops often see about 2% of visitors buying. A rate well below that usually points to the landing page or the searches, not the ads.

Should I use Performance Max or search campaigns?

For most local service businesses, start with search campaigns, where you choose the searches and can see what you pay for. Performance Max spreads spend across Search, YouTube, Display, Gmail and Maps, which can suit shops with a product feed but shows less of where the money goes.

Can I run Google Ads only in my local area?

Yes. You can target a town, a postcode area or a radius around your address, and exclude places you do not serve. Choose the option that shows ads to people in or regularly in your area, not just people interested in it.

Why are my Google Ads getting clicks but no enquiries?

Usually the searches are wrong or the page loses people. Check the search terms report for searches that never buy, then open the landing page on a phone: the phone number, the form and the first line should show without scrolling. Also check the tracking, because a form that sends but is not counted looks the same as no enquiry.

How do I track enquiries from Google Ads?

Set up conversion tracking for form sends and calls, using the Google Ads tag or key events imported from GA4. Calls from the ad itself can be counted with a Google forwarding number. Without tracking, automated bidding has nothing to learn from.

Is Google Ads or SEO better for a small business?

They do different jobs. Google Ads brings enquiries within days but stops when you stop paying; SEO takes three to six months or more but keeps bringing visits with no cost per click. A common plan is ads first, SEO alongside, then less reliance on ads as rankings grow.