How to set an ad budget for a Richmond Hill trade, with numbers you can check

The four numbers you need

Before you spend anything, write down:

1. Average job value. Total revenue from a typical job, before costs. Use last year's invoices, not a hopeful guess.
2. Close rate. Out of every ten leads (calls, texts, emails), how many become paid jobs?
3. Marketing share. The share of revenue you're willing to spend to win a job. Many trades work in a range of 8% to 15%, but your margins decide.
4. Capacity. How many extra jobs can you take next month without hurting quality?

If you don't know your close rate, track it for a month before running ads. It is the number most owners get wrong.

Step 1: Calculate your break-even cost per lead

The formula is simple:

Maximum cost per lead = average job value × close rate × marketing share

Three Richmond Hill examples:

These are illustrations. Use your own figures.

What it means: the drain cleaner must run very efficient campaigns or rely more on local SEO and repeat business. The basement finisher can afford a much higher cost per lead, but needs a longer sales process and strong proof.

Step 2: Adjust for repeat and referral value

Some customers are worth more than their first job. A furnace customer may buy a maintenance plan, a water heater and a cooling system over several years, and may refer neighbours.

A careful way to include that:

• Estimate the extra revenue a typical customer brings over three years.
• Count only half of it, to stay conservative.
• Add that to your average job value before recalculating.

Example: a furnace customer worth $6,000 on day one who typically adds $2,000 more over three years. Count $1,000 extra, giving $7,000. At a 30% close rate and 10% share, your ceiling rises from about $180 to about $210.

In Richmond Hill, where many customers hire through family and community networks, referral value can be meaningful. But estimate it from your own records, and build a reviews and referrals routine so you can actually measure it.

Step 3: Set geography by drive time

Richmond Hill is long from north to south, and the Official Plan treats both Yonge Street and Highway 7 as regional corridors. Drive time, not distance on a map, decides how many jobs a van can do in a day.

A practical approach:

1. Mark your base on a map.
2. Draw the area you can reach in about 25 minutes at a typical working hour.
3. Make that your primary area, with full bids.
4. Add a secondary ring, including neighbouring municipalities such as Markham, Vaughan or Aurora where you already work, with lower bids.
5. Exclude areas you wouldn't take a same-day call in.

Set each area up so you can see its own cost per lead. If southern Richmond Hill brings leads at $60 and a far ring brings them at $150, you'll know where to move money.

Step 4: Set a first-month test budget

Your test budget should buy enough leads to judge the campaign. A rough rule:

Test budget = target leads × expected cost per lead

If you want 20 leads and expect to pay about $100 each, budget about $2,000 in ad spend for the first month. If your expected cost is uncertain, start with your break-even ceiling as the estimate.

Then check against capacity. Twenty leads at a 30% close rate is about six jobs. If you can only handle four extra jobs, reduce the budget.

Step 5: Budget for a second language

If you plan a multilingual campaign, budget it separately:

• Translation: a one-off fee for ads and a landing section, plus small fees for updates. Get a written quote from a qualified translator.
• Ad spend: a separate test budget, often smaller at first, so you can compare it fairly with English.
• Staff time: the person who answers calls and texts in that language.

Judge it on the same ceiling. If the second-language campaign brings cheaper leads but closes less often, fix the handoff before adding budget. Our translation guide covers how.

Step 6: Review every month

A short monthly review keeps campaigns honest:

When to stop: if a campaign has had a fair test (four to six weeks and enough leads to judge) and its cost per lead is still well above your ceiling after adjustments, stop it. Spending more rarely fixes a campaign that can't clear the bar.

Step 7: Put the whole budget on one page

Add up every monthly cost:

• plan fee (see pricing)
• ad spend
• translation (one-off and monthly)
• tools such as call tracking

Then divide by your expected booked jobs. If the result is below your marketing share of an average job, the plan works on paper. If it isn't, change something before you start.

Common mistakes

• Budgeting from a round number. "$1,000 a month" means nothing until you know what a lead is worth.
• Judging by clicks. Only calls, texts, emails and booked jobs count.
• Spreading across all of York Region. Tight geography usually beats broad reach.
• Ignoring missed calls. Every unanswered call is a lead you paid for and lost.

How we help

We work through these numbers with you on the first call and set your ceiling in writing. See Google Ads for the service, and contact to call, text or email. We're a marketing and consulting service, not a contractor.