Short answer
There is no single minimum: it depends on what a click costs in your industry and how many customers you want. The practical formula is: monthly budget = customers you want ÷ close rate ÷ your page's conversion rate × cost per click. Estimate the cost per click with Google's Keyword Planner, start with an amount that lets you gather data for at least a month, and adjust with real results.
"How much do I need to spend?" is the first question almost every business owner asks about Google Ads. The honest answer is "it depends", but not in a mysterious way: it depends on four numbers you can estimate yourself.
Why there's no single number
Google Ads works like an auction. Every time someone searches, advertisers compete to show up, and the price of a click changes with your industry, your city, the competition and the quality of your ads. A term like "car accident lawyer" can cost many times more than "basketball lessons for kids".
The formula in four steps
1. Decide how many customers you want per month
Start from the end: how many new customers a month would make the investment worth it?
2. Estimate your close rate
Out of every 10 people who message or call you, how many end up buying? If you close 2 out of 10, your close rate is 20%.
3. Estimate your page's conversion rate
Out of every 100 visits that come from an ad, how many leave their details, message or call? If you don't know yet, use a conservative assumption and correct it with the first month's data.
4. Look up the cost per click
Google Ads' Keyword Planner shows, for each search, a range of what it usually costs to appear at the top of the page in your location. Use a value from the middle of the range.
An example with numbers
These numbers are only an example, to show the calculation:
| Input | Example value | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Customers you want per month | 10 | — |
| Close rate | 20% | You need 50 contacts |
| Page conversion rate | 5% | You need 1,000 clicks |
| Estimated cost per click | USD 1 | Budget: USD 1,000 a month |
If the result doesn't fit your budget, it doesn't mean Google Ads isn't for you. It means you need to pull a lever:
- Lower the initial goal and grow as you see results.
- Focus on the searches with the most buying intent and on a single city or area.
- Improve your landing page. If conversion goes from 5% to 10%, the budget you need is cut in half.
How the daily budget works
In Google Ads you set an average daily budget. On some days Google may spend up to twice that amount if it sees more opportunities, but over the month it won't charge more than the daily budget multiplied by 30.4. To go from monthly to daily, divide your monthly budget by 30.4.
What isn't media spend
The Google Ads budget is what you pay Google for clicks. Separately, account for account management, the landing page and measurement. Without reliable measurement, you won't know which part of your spend is bringing customers.
The most expensive mistakes
- Spreading a small budget across many campaigns. None of them gathers enough data to learn.
- Broad keywords without negatives. You end up paying for searches that have nothing to do with your business.
- Judging the campaign in one week. Give it at least a month before drawing big conclusions.
- Not measuring conversions. Optimizing for clicks isn't the same as optimizing for customers.
How we do it at Typers
In the assessment we run this calculation with your real data and propose a starting budget. Then, in your Client Cockpit, you see every day how much you've spent against plan and what each result costs you. Learn more about how we manage Google Ads with AI.