"How much should I spend?" is the first question nearly every trade and local service business asks about Google Ads. It is also the one most often answered with a guess. The right budget is not a fixed figure. It is the amount that buys enough of the right enquiries to fill the capacity you have, at a cost per job your margins can carry.
Below we show what £500, £1,000 and £3,000 a month typically buy, using published 2026 UK estimates, and a five-minute way to work out your own number.
Start with the maths, not the budget
Every Google Ads budget breaks down the same way:
Budget ÷ cost per click = clicks
Clicks × conversion rate = enquiries
Enquiries × booking rate = jobs
Change any of the three rates and the same budget produces a very different result. That is why two plumbers on £1,000 a month can have completely different experiences of Google Ads.
For UK trades, published 2026 estimates put most clicks between £3 and £15 (Trade2Base), with a broad "home services" average of about £3.12 per click and £38.05 per lead according to one agency's UK account data (Ridley Digital, 2026). Emergency work, boiler installation and roofing sit at the top of the range; garden and cleaning services tend to sit lower.
What £500 a month buys
Illustrative example using a £6 average click.
£500 a month is a sensible test budget for a single trade in a tight area. Trade2Base suggests a minimum test budget for trades of £300 to £500 a month, and that matches what we see: below about £300, a couple of expensive days can use up the week, and Google's bidding has very little data to learn from.
At this level, focus is everything. Pick one service, ideally the one with the best margin or the most urgent demand, target only your core postcodes, and run ads during the hours you can answer. Do not split £500 across five services and a 30-mile radius.
Suits: sole traders, new businesses testing demand, one high-value service in one town.
What £1,000 a month buys
At £1,000 you can usually run two or three campaigns properly: for example, emergency work and planned work, or two core services. That split matters, because it lets you see the cost per job of each type of work and move money between them.
You will also start to have enough conversions to judge keywords on results rather than hunches. Around 15 to 20 tracked enquiries a month is the point where patterns in the search terms report begin to mean something.
Suits: established trades with one or two vans, businesses with clear seasonal peaks, anyone moving from a test to a steady pipeline.
What £3,000+ a month buys
At £3,000 and above you are buying reach: several services, a wider area, perhaps Local Services Ads alongside Search and a remarketing layer. You also have enough conversion data for automated bidding to work properly. Many practitioners wait until an account produces around 30 conversions a month before setting a target cost per acquisition, because below that the algorithm is guessing.
The risk at this level is different. The money is rarely wasted on clicks; it is wasted on enquiries nobody answers in time, or on volume your team cannot take on. Before scaling to £3,000, check you can handle 50 enquiries a month and that someone follows up every one the same day.
Suits: multi-van businesses, companies covering a region, high-ticket installers (solar, roofing, kitchens) with a sales process.
Work out your own number in five minutes
- Capacity: how many extra jobs a month can you actually take on? Say 10.
- Booking rate: what share of real enquiries do you book? Say 40%. So you need 25 enquiries.
- Cost per enquiry: use your own data, or a cautious estimate of £40 to £80 for most trades. 25 × £60 = £1,500.
- Margin check: divide that budget by the 10 jobs: £150 per job. Is that affordable against your average job value and margin?
- Adjust: if not, raise the booking rate, improve the landing page or pick higher-value work before raising the budget.
| Extra jobs wanted | Booking rate | Enquiries needed | Budget at £40 per enquiry | Budget at £80 per enquiry |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 50% | 10 | £400 | £800 |
| 10 | 40% | 25 | £1,000 | £2,000 |
| 20 | 40% | 50 | £2,000 | £4,000 |
Your target cost per job
A common rule of thumb in trade benchmarks is to aim for a cost per booked job of around 10 to 15% of the job value (Trade2Base, 2026). On a £3,000 installation that allows £300 to £450 per job; on a £150 callout it allows £15 to £23, which is often unrealistic on paid search unless repeat work follows. Knowing which side of that line your services sit tells you where the budget should go.
When spending more stops helping
- Your impression share is already high. If your ads show for most eligible searches in your area, more budget mostly buys more expensive clicks, not more customers.
- Search terms are getting worse. As budgets rise, broad and AI-assisted matching reach further. Watch the search terms report for drift.
- Calls are going unanswered. Research by Moneypenny found 69% of callers who reach voicemail hang up without leaving a message. More spend just means more missed calls.
- The diary is full. Lift prices or narrow to better jobs instead.
Scale in steps
When the numbers say grow, increase budgets by about 20 to 30% at a time and give each change two to three weeks to settle. Big jumps make automated bidding reset its learning and can push cost per lead up for a while. Remember that ad spend and agency management fees are separate lines; a £1,000 budget means £1,000 to Google, plus any management cost.
For what clicks cost in your trade, see how much it costs to advertise on Google in the UK, or read whether Google Ads is worth it for a small business.
Budgets by trade: typical starting points
| Trade | Typical monthly budget (2026) | Typical CPC | Typical job value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emergency plumber | £400 to £800 | £4 to £12 | £150 to £300 |
| Boiler installation | £500 to £1,200 | £8 to £20 | £2,500 to £4,000 |
| Domestic electrician | £300 to £600 | £3 to £8 | £300 to £2,000 |
| Roofer | £400 to £1,000 | £5 to £15 | £1,500 to £8,000 |
| Drainage contractor | £200 to £500 | £2 to £7 | £150 to £600 |
| AC installer (spring/summer) | £200 to £400 | £3 to £8 | £1,200 to £3,000 |
Source: Trade2Base 2026 UK trade benchmarks. Indicative ranges.
Daily budget versus monthly budget
Google Ads works on an average daily budget. It can spend up to twice the daily amount on a busy day, but over a calendar month it will not charge more than about 30.4 times your daily budget. For planning, divide your monthly figure by 30.4: £1,000 a month is roughly £33 a day. If the campaign regularly hits its limit before lunchtime, it is under-funded for its keywords and area.
Budget mistakes that waste money
- Too many campaigns for the budget. Five campaigns on £600 a month means £4 a day each: not enough to learn anything.
- Too wide an area. A 30-mile radius on a small budget runs out early and spreads thin.
- Raising budgets during a bad month. If cost per booked job is rising, fix the cause first; extra budget amplifies problems.
- Switching off completely in quiet months. A reduced budget keeps the account's learning and your visibility.
Ad spend versus total cost
When comparing options, include everything: ad spend, management fees, call tracking, landing page costs and the time spent handling leads. A £1,000 ad budget with a £499 management fee is a £1,499 monthly investment. If that produces eight extra jobs at £400 gross profit each, it returns £3,200 in profit before overheads. Run the same sum for your own numbers.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good monthly Google Ads budget for a small UK business?
For one service in a tight area, £300 to £500 a month is a common minimum test budget. Most established trades running two or three campaigns spend around £800 to £1,500.
Is £500 a month enough for Google Ads?
Often yes, if it is focused on one service, your core postcodes and the hours you can answer. Spread across many services or a wide area it usually is not.
How do I calculate my Google Ads budget?
Multiply the extra jobs you can take on by the enquiries needed per job (1 divided by your booking rate), then by your cost per enquiry. Check the result against your job value and margin.
Does spending more on Google Ads always bring more leads?
No. Once your ads already show for most relevant searches, extra budget buys pricier clicks. More spend also does not help if calls go unanswered or your diary is full.
Related guides
- How Much Does It Cost to Advertise on Google in the UK?
- Is Google Ads Worth It for a Small Business?
- Google Ads Not Converting? Causes and Fixes
Sources
- Trade2Base, "Google Ads budget for tradespeople" (8 June 2026)
- Ridley Digital, "How much do Google Ads cost in 2026? UK benchmarks by industry" (June 2026, updated Sept 2026)
- Small Business UK, Moneypenny research on unanswered calls and voicemail
Not sure what your budget should be?
Ask for a free Google Ads review. We will look at your current costs, conversion rates and capacity, and give you a budget figure with the maths behind it.