Most small business owners I speak to have one question before they'll even consider Google Ads: "Will it actually make me money?"
It's exactly the right question. PPC isn't free, and if the numbers don't work, no amount of clever ad copy will save you. So rather than give you a vague "it depends" answer, I've built a calculator that lets you run the maths on your own business — with your numbers, your market, and your average job value.
Use it below, then read on for a guide to what realistic inputs look like, what the results actually mean, and how to tell whether PPC makes sense for your business right now.
The PPC ROI calculator
Industry
Your inputs
Estimated results
Break-even analysis
Estimates only \u2013 actual results vary by campaign quality, targeting, and market competition. Management fees not included in spend figure.
UK industry benchmarks sourced from PPC Chief Google Ads Benchmarks 2026.
How to use the calculator: a guide to realistic inputs
The calculator is only as useful as the numbers you put into it. Here's what each input means and what realistic figures look like for UK small businesses.
Monthly ad spend
This is the budget you're committing to Google Ads each month — the amount you actually pay for clicks, not including any management fees.
A sensible starting point for most small service businesses is £500–£1,000 per month. Below £500 and you'll struggle to generate enough data to optimise meaningfully. If you're in a competitive market (emergency trades, legal, financial services), you'll likely need more to get traction.
Cost per click (CPC)
This is what you pay each time someone clicks your ad. It's set by Google's auction system and varies significantly by industry and location.
As a rough guide for UK markets:
- Plumbers and emergency trades: £2–£6 per click
- Builders and construction: £1.50–£4
- Legal services: £5–£15+
- Salons and beauty: £0.50–£2
- General local services: £1–£3
If you're not sure what CPC to expect in your market, a keyword planning tool or a brief conversation with a PPC specialist will give you a more accurate figure before you commit budget.
Landing page conversion rate
This is the percentage of visitors who take an action on your website — filling in a contact form, calling you, booking an appointment. It's one of the most important numbers in the whole calculation, and one that most business owners underestimate the impact of.
A well-optimised landing page for a local service business typically converts at 5–12%. A generic homepage might convert at 1–3%. If your website isn't set up to convert visitors into enquiries, your PPC spend will underperform no matter how good the ads are — this is where web design and PPC work together directly.
Average job / sale value
The average revenue you generate per new customer. Be honest here — use your actual average, not your best-case scenario.
For tradespeople this might be £300–£800 for a standard job. For a solicitor it could be £1,500–£5,000+ per matter. For a salon it might be £60–£150 per visit. The higher your average job value, the more you can afford to spend acquiring each customer.
Lead-to-customer close rate
Of all the enquiries you receive, what percentage become paying customers? This is your sales conversion rate, not your ad conversion rate.
Most service businesses close 20–50% of their genuine enquiries. If you're closing less than 20%, the issue may be in how you handle leads rather than how many you're generating — worth considering before scaling ad spend.
Understanding your results
Estimated ROI
The headline figure. Anything above 0% means you're making more than you're spending. A 100% ROI means you've doubled your money. Most well-managed PPC campaigns for service businesses target 200–400% ROI, though this varies considerably by industry and how competitive your market is.
If the calculator is showing a negative ROI with your current numbers, that doesn't necessarily mean PPC won't work — it usually means one of the inputs needs improving, most commonly the landing page conversion rate or the close rate.
Cost per lead
What you're paying for each enquiry. This is a useful sanity check. A plumber paying £40 per lead with a £500 average job value and a 35% close rate is in a very healthy position. A consultant paying £200 per lead with a £400 average project value is not.
Benchmark your cost per lead against your job value, not against what competitors are paying — their business economics aren't yours.
Break-even analysis
This section answers a specific question: given your conversion rates and job value, how many clicks do you actually need before you cover your ad spend? And does your budget generate enough clicks to get there?
If the status shows "below break-even", it typically means one of three things:
- Your budget is too low for your CPC to generate enough clicks
- Your conversion rate is too low and needs work before you scale spend
- Your average job value is too low relative to your acquisition cost — worth reviewing your pricing or targeting higher-value jobs
A "marginal" result isn't necessarily a problem. It means you're covering spend but not yet generating the kind of return that makes PPC compelling. Small improvements to conversion rate or close rate can shift this significantly.
What these numbers don't tell you
The calculator gives you a useful estimate, but there are a few things worth bearing in mind.
It assumes consistent conversion rates. In reality, conversion rates vary by campaign, keyword, ad copy, landing page, and season. A well-managed campaign improves over time as you gather data and cut underperforming keywords.
It doesn't account for management fees. If you're working with a PPC management agency, add their monthly fee to your spend figure to get your true cost. A good agency should more than cover their fee through better campaign performance, but it's an important number to include in your calculations.
It doesn't capture lifetime value. If a new customer comes back repeatedly — a regular salon client, a business that uses your services quarterly — the real value of acquiring them is much higher than a single job value. If your customers have strong retention, your actual ROI will be considerably better than the calculator suggests.
It assumes the traffic is well-targeted. Poorly set-up campaigns waste budget on irrelevant clicks. A £1,000 budget on a well-structured campaign will significantly outperform the same budget on a broad, unmanaged one. The calculator assumes your clicks are reasonably well qualified.
Is PPC worth it for your business?
Run your numbers through the calculator and look at two things:
First, is the estimated ROI positive with realistic inputs? If yes, PPC is likely viable.
Second, is the break-even status green or amber? If it's red, look at which input is pulling the numbers down — usually conversion rate or job value — and ask whether that's fixable before committing budget.
PPC works best when it's part of a joined-up approach alongside SEO. Ads give you immediate visibility while your organic rankings build, and data from your campaigns — which search terms convert, which don't — feeds directly into your content and keyword strategy. If you want both running in sync, take a look at our SEO and PPC packages.
For more on the fundamentals of how PPC works before you start spending, my beginner's guide to PPC advertising covers the mechanics in plain English. And if you're specifically a tradesperson or run a local service business, the Google Ads for trades post goes into more specific detail on what realistic results look like in those markets.
Get a more accurate forecast for your business
The calculator gives you a useful starting point, but every market is different. CPCs, conversion rates, and close rates vary by location, competition, and how well your website is set up to convert visitors.
If you'd like a more tailored view of what PPC could realistically generate for your specific business, get in touch and I'll work through the numbers with you — no obligation, just a straight conversation.
