Free contractor tool
Enter your total monthly budget and your primary goal. Get a suggested split across Google Ads, Facebook/Instagram, SEO, Reviews/GBP, and Website/Content with dollar amounts and a one-line rationale for each channel.
Suggested monthly allocation
| Channel | % | $/mo | Rationale |
|---|
How to use this tool
Budget allocation is not one-size-fits-all. Here is how to think about each goal setting and when to use it.
Best if: your calendar has open slots, you need to hit a revenue target this quarter, or you are just launching. Most of the budget goes to Google Ads and LSA-style spend because those channels can ring your phone within 48 hours of launch. SEO and content are still funded at a maintenance level so you are not starting from zero later.
Best if: you have a baseline of work coming in and want to grow 20-40% over the next year without over-depending on paid ads. Paid channels still anchor the lead flow, but SEO and content get enough investment to start compounding. Reviews and GBP optimization protect your local search ranking as competitors improve.
Best if: your schedule is reasonably full, you want to own your market 2-3 years from now, and you are willing to invest in channels that pay off slowly. SEO, reviews, GBP, and content all compound. Contractors who commit to this path for 18-24 months often see their cost per lead drop dramatically as organic channels carry more of the load.
Common questions
A common guideline is 5-10% of gross revenue for established contractors and up to 15% for businesses in growth mode. A $500K/year contractor might spend $2,500-5,000/month on marketing. What matters most is that your budget is large enough for each active channel to generate meaningful data, usually at least $1,000-1,500/month per paid channel.
The "more leads now" goal weights your budget toward paid channels like Google Ads that can generate calls and form fills within days of launching. Less goes to SEO and content, which take months to show results. This is the right setting if you have capacity to take on more jobs right now and need the phone to ring this month.
Steady growth balances paid ads for near-term leads with increasing investment in SEO and content to reduce cost per lead over time. Long-term brand puts more weight on SEO, reviews, Google Business Profile, and content, which compound over years. Long-term brand is the right goal if your calendar is already reasonably full and you want to own your market without being as dependent on ad spend.
Your Google Business Profile and review count directly affect how often you show up in local searches and map results. Investing in review generation tools, reputation management software, and GBP optimization is some of the highest-ROI spend a local contractor can make. Contractors with 100+ Google reviews consistently see more calls from organic map traffic than those with fewer reviews.
Give paid channels at least 60-90 days before cutting them. Most campaigns need time to exit the learning phase and for you to optimize the landing page and follow-up process. SEO needs 6-12 months before you can judge it fairly. Before cutting a channel, check whether the issue is the channel itself or the follow-up speed and sales process after leads arrive.
More free tools
Now that you have a budget split, see what each channel could produce for your business:
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