A reasonable PPC budget is determined by what one booked job is worth to you, what it costs to generate a qualified lead in your market, and how many leads you can actually handle each month.
We set PPC budgets the same way we’d set any sales budget: start with your unit economics (average profit per job or new patient), then work backward from realistic conversion rates and expected click costs in your niche and service area. In Orlando and Central Florida, costs can swing a lot by category (dental, legal, and emergency home services are usually more competitive than many trades), by radius (Downtown vs. broader metro), and by how “ready to buy” the search is. That’s why “$X per month” advice is rarely useful without doing the math.
| Budget driver | What it changes | How we use it to set budget |
|---|---|---|
| Goal volume (leads or booked calls) | How much traffic you need | Monthly budget rises with lead target and grows faster if conversion rates are low. |
| Average click cost (CPC) | Cost to buy enough clicks | Higher CPC means you need more spend to hit the same lead goal. |
| Landing page conversion rate | Clicks needed per lead | Higher conversion rate reduces needed spend; weak pages increase waste. |
| Lead-to-customer close rate | True cost per new customer | If your team closes 30% of leads, you need about 3 to 4 leads per new customer. |
| Service area and schedule coverage | Available impressions | Tight radius and limited hours can cap volume, so budget hits a ceiling. |
| Competition and seasonality | Volatility in CPC and volume | Plan for higher spend during peaks, then taper when demand drops. |
| Setup, tracking, and ongoing management | Performance stability | Budget needs room for proper conversion tracking, ad testing, and account cleanup. |
Here’s the simplest budgeting framework you can use right now:
- Step 1: Pick a monthly goal: “We want 20 qualified leads” or “We want 10 booked appointments.”
- Step 2: Estimate your lead-to-customer close rate (from your CRM or call logs). If you close 25%, then 20 leads might equal about 5 new customers.
- Step 3: Decide what you can pay per lead (target CPL) or per new customer (target CPA) while still keeping healthy profit.
- Step 4: Add a testing cushion (often 10% to 20% early on) because the first month is where you find what converts.
Example: if you want 30 leads and your target CPL is $60, your ad spend target starts around $1,800/month, then you add a testing cushion and management. If clicks are expensive or your landing page converts poorly, that same 30-lead goal can cost far more, so improving the page can be the cheapest “budget increase” you’ll ever buy. This is also why we care so much about conversion tracking and call attribution, since you can’t manage what you can’t measure; our guide on metrics to track applies to PPC as well.
If you want the budget to stay efficient, match the spend to your capacity. Many local businesses can’t answer every call or follow up fast, and PPC will punish slow response times with lower lead quality and higher cost. When you’re ready, our PPC management process starts by mapping your highest-intent searches, tightening geo and scheduling, and fixing the landing page flow so your budget goes toward calls you can actually turn into revenue. If you already have traffic but it’s not converting, pairing PPC with a conversion-focused web design update often moves results faster than simply adding more spend.
