How the budget is worked out
Leads needed = customers wanted ÷ lead-to-customer rate
Monthly budget = leads needed × cost per lead
In click mode, cost per lead is first estimated as cost per click ÷ landing page conversion rate, and the calculator also shows how many clicks you need.
Example
You want 10 new customers a month and one in five leads becomes a customer, so you need 50 leads. At $35 per lead, that is $1,750 a month, or about $58 a day.
Getting realistic inputs
- Close rate: use your own history for leads from ads, not referrals. Referral leads usually close at much higher rates.
- Cost per lead: if you have no history, run a small test first. Costs vary widely by industry, location, offer and season, so published averages are a poor guide.
- Landing page conversion: 2–10% is common for service pages; specific, fast pages with a clear offer sit at the higher end.
Is the budget enough for Meta to learn?
Meta’s delivery system needs a steady flow of results to optimise. Its guidance is roughly 50 optimisation events per ad set within a week to leave the learning phase. If your budget produces far fewer, the calculator flags it. Options are to consolidate ad sets, optimise for an earlier event with more volume, or accept a slower, less stable learning period. See how long to run a Meta ad before judging it.
Limits of this estimate
- Costs rise as you spend more: the cheapest audiences are reached first.
- Creative quality changes cost per lead more than almost anything else. Budget for testing with the Creative Testing Budget Planner.
- It does not tell you whether the result is profitable. Check that with the Target CPA Calculator.