A useful Google Ads budget starts with the customers your business can serve profitably, rather than a round monthly amount or a competitor’s advertised package. For a South African service business, the challenge is connecting the cost of attracting an enquiry with the likelihood that it becomes suitable, paying work.
A campaign can deliver a low cost per form submission while creating expensive work for your sales team. It can also look costly at first because customers take time to decide. The right budget needs a commercial model, a clear test and reliable follow-up.
Separate the costs before comparing proposals
“R10,000 a month for Google Ads” is incomplete information. Ask what the amount actually pays for. Your media budget funds advertising on Google. A management fee pays for the agreed campaign work. Initial setup, tracking repairs, content or landing-page development may be separate. Confirm applicable taxes and payment terms in the proposal.
- Advertising spend: the budget allocated to your campaigns.
- Management: the agreed research, campaign delivery, optimisation and reporting.
- Setup and measurement: account structure, conversion definitions and implementation where needed.
- Website work: landing pages, forms or development outside the management scope.
A cheaper fee is only comparable when the deliverables and responsibilities are comparable. Ask who reviews search terms, who fixes an enquiry form, and whether reporting distinguishes genuine enquiries from contact-button clicks.
Work backwards from a realistic business goal
Start with the number of additional customers you can serve. Then estimate how many suitable sales conversations you need to win those customers, and how many valid enquiries are likely to become those conversations. Use your own recent sales records where possible. Label assumptions when the evidence is missing.
Illustrative example only: imagine a business aiming to win two customers. If one in four qualified enquiries becomes a customer, it needs eight qualified enquiries. If 40% of valid enquiries qualify, it needs 20 valid enquiries. At an assumed media cost of R300 per valid enquiry, the advertising requirement would be R6,000.
Those figures are planning inputs, not industry averages, Lead Agency prices or predicted campaign results. A different qualification rate or sales process changes the answer substantially. If only 20% of valid enquiries qualify, the same assumptions require 40 valid enquiries and R12,000 in media spend.
Check the economics beyond the advertising dashboard
In the first illustration, suppose management costs a hypothetical R2,500 for the month. The R6,000 media budget plus that fee totals R8,500 before any other project costs or applicable taxes. With two customers, the combined acquisition cost is R4,250 per customer. The media-only acquisition cost is R3,000. Both numbers are useful, but they answer different questions.
If those customers generate R20,000 in total revenue at a 40% gross margin, their gross profit is R8,000. That would leave R500 less than the R8,500 marketing cost before other overheads. Revenue alone would make this example look healthier than its immediate economics. Repeat purchases might change the longer-term picture, but should be supported by retention evidence, not assumed to rescue the model.
Understand what a daily budget means
For most campaigns using an average daily budget, Google explains that the daily spending limit can be twice that budget and the monthly spending limit is generally 30.4 times it. A daily budget is therefore not a promise that every day costs exactly the same. Different budget types and budget changes need their own checks. Review Google’s current budget guidance alongside the settings in your account.
Plan the total across campaigns. Splitting a modest budget across many services, towns and campaign types can leave each with too little useful evidence. Begin with a commercially important offer and the locations you can genuinely serve, then expand when the results justify it.
Give the first test a decision to answer
A useful initial test asks whether a defined offer can attract relevant enquiries at an economically workable cost. Agree the search themes, location coverage, exclusions, landing page and success definition before launch. Check that a successful enquiry is recorded and reaches the right person.
Then review more than the headline conversion count: which search terms produced suitable requests, which services people wanted, and whether your team contacted them and recorded an outcome. A small sample should inform the next test, rather than support a sweeping claim about what the channel can achieve.
Questions to ask before you approve the spend
- What is included in the fee, and what remains additional?
- What counts as a valid enquiry and a qualified enquiry?
- Which assumptions come from our records, and which are untested?
- Who owns the account and who follows up enquiries?
- When will we review the evidence, and what would make us change the plan?
The objective is a budget you can explain and learn from. Use our marketing brief worksheet to gather the inputs, explore our Google Ads management service, or discuss your campaign.
Prepared by The Lead Agency. Source checked 18 October 2026: Google Ads: Budgets overview. All financial examples above are hypothetical, exclude unlisted costs and do not represent an offer or forecast.