Most Australian tradies should start Google Ads at roughly A$1,500 to A$3,000 a month in ad spend, then scale based on results. The right number is the one where each booked job costs you less than its profit. Work backwards from your average job value, not from a budget someone else picked.
There is no universal "right" Google Ads budget for a tradie — but there is a right way to set yours. Instead of guessing, work backwards from what a job is worth to you and what you can afford to pay to win one.
Work backwards from your job value
- Take your average job value and your profit margin — say a A$2,000 job at 40% margin is A$800 profit.
- Decide what you would happily pay to win that job. If you would pay A$150 to land A$800 of profit, that is your target cost per booked job.
- Estimate how many clicks it takes to win a job (your conversion and close rates). If 1 in 10 clicks becomes a booked job and clicks cost A$15, that is A$150 per job — exactly your target.
- Multiply by how many jobs you want per month to get your starting budget.
Budget is an output, not a guess. Once you know your target cost per booked job and your close rate, the monthly spend falls out of the maths — and you can scale it up the moment the numbers work.
A sensible starting point
If you are starting cold without conversion data, A$1,500–A$3,000/month in ad spend is a common, workable range for a single-trade business in an Australian metro area. Start at the lower end, let the account gather two to four weeks of conversion data, then scale spend on the campaigns and suburbs that actually produce booked jobs.
Why going too low backfires
A budget that is too small starves the account of the data Google needs to optimise, so it never finds its stride. It is usually better to run a focused campaign on fewer suburbs at a workable budget than to spread a tiny budget thin across a whole city.
Don’t forget the management fee
Your ad spend is separate from the cost of running the account. Scalepoint’s Google Ads management starts at A$990/month + ad spend (ex GST), and your budget goes directly to Google from your own card — we never mark it up. Factor both into your numbers so the cost per booked job is honest.