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A Google Ads budget calculator should work backwards: from the leads you want to the money it takes, not from an amount that sounds safe. Want 20 leads a month, and does 5 percent of ad visitors enquire? Then you need 400 clicks. At EUR 2.50 a click that is EUR 1,000 a month, or a daily budget of EUR 32.89. Already have a budget? Switch the calculator to the budget you have and it works the other way round.
It goes past the click. Add your margin per customer and the share of leads that sign, and you see what a new customer costs, whether the campaign makes money, and the highest cost per click you can afford. How Google bills and how the auction sets your price is covered in our guide to Google Ads cost.
The Google Ads budget in four steps
The sum never changes. Here it is with the worked example the calculator opens with: EUR 2.50 a click, 5 percent conversion, a 6.64 percent click-through rate and 25 percent of leads becoming customers.
| Step | Formula | Worked example |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Clicks | leads divided by conversion rate | 20 / 5% = 400 clicks |
| 2. Media budget | clicks times cost per click | 400 x 2.50 = EUR 1,000 a month |
| 3. Daily budget | monthly budget divided by 30.4 | 1,000 / 30.4 = EUR 32.89 |
| 4. Cost per customer | budget divided by leads times closing rate | 1,000 / (20 x 25%) = EUR 200 |
The click-through rate tells you how many people must see the ad: 400 clicks at 6.64 percent means 6,025 impressions. On the search network you pay per click, not per impression, so this is a reality check rather than a cost. If your terms are not searched 6,000 times a month in your market, no budget buys those 400 clicks. Google's Keyword Planner shows the volume, once your account has billing details.
Daily budget, monthly cap
You set an average daily budget. On a busy day Google may spend up to twice that, on a quiet day less, and by the end of the month you never pay more than 30.4 times the daily budget. That is why the calculator divides by 30.4, not by 30.
| Monthly budget | Average daily budget | Highest day | Cap per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| EUR 500 | EUR 16.45 | EUR 32.89 | EUR 500 |
| EUR 1,000 | EUR 32.89 | EUR 65.79 | EUR 1,000 |
| EUR 2,000 | EUR 65.79 | EUR 131.58 | EUR 2,000 |
| EUR 5,000 | EUR 164.47 | EUR 328.95 | EUR 5,000 |
A Monday at EUR 60 on a EUR 33 daily budget is no fault. Steer on the month, not the day.
Every step in the funnel costs more
6,025impressions
400clicks
2.50EUR per click
20leads
50EUR per lead
5customers
200EUR per customer
Media budget per month
EUR 1,000
400 clicks × EUR 2.50
What Google may spend in a day
Over the month never more than 30.4 times the daily budget: EUR 1,000.
Worked example at EUR 2.50 a click and 5 percent conversion. The narrower the row, the dearer each step: the price of a click is small, the price of a customer is not. Row widths are not to scale.
Click prices in Belgium, and why your market differs
Public click prices per sector are rare in Europe. A Belgian agency publishes the ranges from its own campaigns of 2024 to 2026, and the calculator takes the middle of each range as a starting point. There is no European source for conversion and click-through rates per sector, so those come from LocaliQ's 2026 averages for US search campaigns. Together they give a first cost per lead, to replace with your own figures as soon as you have them.
| Industry | Click in Belgium | Conversion (US) | Cost per lead at the middle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construction and renovation | EUR 1.50 to 5.00 | 8.05% | EUR 40.37 |
| B2B and business services | EUR 1.50 to 5.00 | 4.85% | EUR 67.01 |
| Dentists and medical | EUR 1.00 to 4.00 | 10.67% | EUR 23.43 |
| Lawyers and legal | EUR 3.00 to 8.00 | 5.55% | EUR 99.10 |
| Finance and insurance | EUR 3.00 to 8.00 | 2.64% | EUR 208.33 |
| Restaurants and hospitality | EUR 0.50 to 2.00 | 8.05% | EUR 15.53 |
| Car repair and service | EUR 0.50 to 2.00 | 15.51% | EUR 8.06 |
| Online store and retail | EUR 0.30 to 1.50 | 4.01% | EUR 22.44 |
For comparison, the US average click in the same LocaliQ data is USD 5.42. Click prices follow the competition in each auction, so they differ by country, language and city: a law firm in Munich bids against other advertisers than one in Ghent. Belgium itself is two markets, Dutch in Flanders and French in Wallonia and most of Brussels, and each language needs its own campaign, ads and landing pages. Budget every country and language on its own line; one shared budget lets the dearest market eat the rest. If you sell into Belgium from abroad, a multilingual website comes before the first click.
The first month of a new campaign
- Before launchMeasure first, advertise secondSet up forms, calls and quote requests as conversions and test that they arrive. Without measurement no bid strategy can aim at leads.
- Days 1 to 7Learning statusA new bid strategy learns. Google says that never takes more than 7 days, but the system needs 1 to 2 conversion cycles to settle on your goal. Do not react to daily figures.
- Weeks 2 to 4Clean the search termsRead the report of real searches. Exclude what does not fit, such as free, jobs or do it yourself, and send each ad to the page for that service.
- After 30 daysJudge on 30 conversionsGoogle recommends judging a bid strategy over 30 days with at least 30 conversions. Reach that and a target CPA makes sense. If not, stay on Maximize conversions or manual bids.
Bid strategy, Performance Max and AI Max
How Google spends your budget depends on the bid strategy. Google groups them into conversion strategies (Smart Bidding), click strategies and visibility strategies. For a business that wants leads, five matter.
| Strategy | What Google does | Choose it when |
|---|---|---|
| Manual CPC | You set a maximum bid per keyword | You have few conversions and want to steer each term |
| Maximize clicks | As many clicks as the daily budget allows | You do not measure conversions yet |
| Maximize conversions | As many conversions as possible, spending the full budget | You measure conversions but have fewer than 30 a month |
| Target CPA | Conversions around a cost per lead you set | You reach 30 or more conversions in 30 days |
| Target ROAS | Conversion value around a return you set | You sell online and track the value of each sale |
The cost per lead from the calculator is a sound first target CPA. According to Google, changing a budget or a target does not restart learning; a new strategy, new conversion goals or added keywords do.
Performance Max is a campaign type that uses all of Google's ad inventory from one campaign: Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps. Google proposes up to three budget levels, the lowest being the minimum recommended. For a local service business on a small budget, a plain search campaign is usually the better start, because you see per search term what works. For an online store with a product feed, Performance Max is a sensible second step.
AI Max is a layer inside an ordinary search campaign. It matches search terms more broadly, adapts headlines and descriptions to the query and picks the landing page on your site. Google is folding Dynamic Search Ads into it, with automatic upgrades from February 2027; see Dynamic Search Ads move to AI Max. Since AI Max writes from your pages, a clear landing page matters more than before.
Four businesses worked through
Four worked examples of our own, with the figures the calculator fills in per industry. Type them in and you get the same result.
A renovation company that wants 20 leads
At EUR 3.25 a click and 8.05 percent conversion, 20 leads take 249 clicks: EUR 809.25 a month, EUR 26.62 a day. If one in four leads becomes a job with EUR 1,500 margin, the campaign brings 5 customers at EUR 161.85 each. The highest click price without a loss is EUR 30.19, so there is room to bid.
A law firm with 10 new cases a month
At EUR 5.50 a click and 5.55 percent conversion, 10 leads take 181 clicks, or EUR 995.50 a month. If 30 percent become clients, that is 3 clients at EUR 331.83. Legal clicks are dear, which is why firms pair ads with SEO that keeps working when the budget stops.
An online store with EUR 1,000
Choose Budget you have. At EUR 0.90 a click you buy 1,111 clicks; at 4.01 percent that is about 44.6 orders, at EUR 22.44 an order. With EUR 25 margin per order (closing rate 100 percent, as an order is already a customer) you keep EUR 113.78, and the highest click price without a loss is EUR 1.00. Ten cents more and you earn nothing. Check product margins with the margin calculator and returns with the ROAS calculator.
A B2B service firm with an agency
30 leads at EUR 3.25 and 4.85 percent conversion need 619 clicks, or EUR 2,011.75 in media. With EUR 750 management that is EUR 2,761.75 a month. If one lead in five signs, each customer costs EUR 460.29. At 30 leads you also reach the 30 conversions Google recommends for judging a target CPA.
What an agency adds to the media budget
What you pay Google and what you pay an agency are two separate bills. A Dutch price guide from 2026 puts Google Ads management at EUR 500 to 1,500 a month on top of ad spend, with EUR 750 to 2,500 for the setup; some agencies charge 10 to 20 percent of ad spend instead. A Belgian agency publishes packages from EUR 2,795 a month for ads alone. Enter the fee in the calculator and it counts in your cost per customer. The pricing models are compared in digital agency cost.
The same Belgian agency advises at least EUR 1,000 a month of ad budget in Flanders, and EUR 2,000 to 5,000 for B2B with a long sales cycle. Google itself sets no minimum.
What the calculator leaves out
- Your real cost per clickThe calculator works with an average. In the auction every term, hour and region has its own price.
- Search volumeWhether enough people search shows only in Keyword Planner or in your first weeks.
- VATIn the EU, Google Ireland invoices a business with a valid VAT number without VAT, and you self-assess it at your own country's rate. Without a VAT number, set the question to no and enter your rate.
- Meta and other channelsFacebook and Instagram have their own prices, see Facebook ads cost.
- What organic search can bringPart of your leads can come without a click price; SEO vs GEO explains where search is heading.
- The rest of your budgetHow Google Ads sits beside your website, SEO and content, you work out with the marketing budget calculator.
Clicks, budget and VAT
What is the minimum budget for Google Ads?
Google sets none. A Belgian agency advises at least EUR 1,000 a month in Flanders. If you want Google to bid on a target cost per lead, aim for 30 conversions a month: at EUR 2.50 a click and 5 percent conversion that is EUR 1,500.
How do I calculate a daily budget for Google Ads?
Divide the monthly budget by 30.4. For EUR 1,000 that is EUR 32.89 a day. Google may spend up to twice that on a busy day, but never more than 30.4 daily budgets in a month.
What is a good cost per lead?
One that stays below your margin per customer divided by your closing rate. If a customer brings EUR 1,000 margin and one lead in four signs, a lead may cost up to EUR 250. The calculator shows that limit as the highest click price without a loss.
Can one budget cover several countries?
Better not. Click prices and conversion rates differ by country and language. Give each market its own campaign and budget, so one market cannot eat the budget of another.
Do I pay VAT on Google Ads in the EU?
With a valid EU VAT number Google Ireland invoices without VAT and you self-assess it at your own rate. Without one, VAT is added.
Are my figures stored?
No. The calculator runs in your browser. Your figures only sit in the page address, so you can share the result.