CPC Ad Budget Calculator

CPC (Cost Per Click) campaign budgeting involves calculating how many clicks your budget will buy, and projecting the conversions and revenue those clicks will generate. Understanding the relationship between budget, CPC, click volume, conversion rate, and ROI is essential for running profitable paid search or display campaigns.

This calculator runs forwards from the traffic you want: tell it how many clicks a day you are aiming for and what a click costs, and it works out the budget that implies.

Budget formula: Daily budget = Target clicks × Average CPC, and Total budget = Daily budget × Campaign days

Conversions formula: Conversions = Clicks × Conversion Rate

Revenue from campaign: Revenue = Conversions × Average Order Value (AOV)

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): ROAS = Revenue ÷ Budget

Break-even CPC formula: Max CPC = AOV × Conversion Rate × Target Margin

If you would rather go the other way, from a budget you already have to the clicks it buys, divide instead: Clicks = Budget ÷ CPC. The CPC calculator linked below does that directly.

Where:

• Budget: total campaign spend (daily or total)
• Average CPC: cost per click (varies widely by keyword and competition)
• Conversion Rate: percentage of clicks that result in a purchase or lead (typical e-commerce: 1–3%)
• AOV (Average Order Value): average revenue per conversion
• Target Margin: profit margin you need to maintain (e.g. 0.30 = 30%)

Industry average CPC benchmarks (Google Ads):

• Legal: $6–$15 per click
• Financial services: $4–$12 per click
• Insurance: $8–$20 per click
• E-commerce: $0.50–$3 per click
• Travel: $1–$5 per click
• B2B software: $3–$10 per click

Worked example:

E-commerce store aiming for 56 clicks a day over a 30-day month. Average CPC: $1.20. Conversion rate: 2.5%. Revenue per conversion: $85.

• Daily budget = 56 × $1.20 = $67.20, so $2,016 for the month
• Total clicks = 56 × 30 = 1,680
• Conversions = 1,680 × 2.5% = 42 orders
• Revenue = 42 × $85 = $3,570
• ROAS = $3,570 ÷ $2,016 = 1.77×

Now the part that decides whether to run it. At a 30% margin the campaign keeps $3,570 × 0.30 = $1,071 in contribution against $2,016 of spend, so it loses about $945. The break-even bid is $85 × 0.025 × 0.30 = $0.64, and you are paying $1.20, nearly double.

A ROAS above 1 is not the same as profitable. It only means revenue exceeded spend, and revenue is not margin.

Fixing it takes more than a small nudge. Holding the $1.20 bid, the conversion rate has to reach $1.20 ÷ ($85 × 0.30) = 4.7% before the campaign breaks even, not the 3.5% that feels like a reasonable stretch. Going the other way, at 2.5% conversion the bid has to fall to $0.64. Most campaigns in this position need both.