Profit Instrument

What Can You Afford to Pay Per Lead?

Before spending a dollar on ads, know your numbers. This calculator finds your break-even cost per lead and what a healthy ad budget should bring back.

Free — no signup

Your numbers

Average revenue from one job or sale.

What remains after direct costs (materials, labour).

Out of 10 leads, how many become paying customers?

Used to project what a budget should return. Set $0 to skip.

Your advertising thresholds

Recommended cost per lead

With a 30% profit reserve

Break-even per lead

Break-even per customer

Above break-even, every lead loses you money. The recommended cost keeps 30% of gross profit as a safety margin.

Make every ad dollar work

Knowing your thresholds is step one. The Growth Score™ then evaluates where your budget returns the most — local SEO, your Google profile, reviews or paid ads.

Get My Free Growth Score™

Why break-even math comes before any ad campaign

The most common way local businesses lose money on Google or Facebook ads isn’t bad ads — it’s paying more for a lead than that lead can possibly return. That ceiling is simple math: your average sale, your margin and your close rate set it, not the ad platform.

Know your recommended cost per lead before you launch and you can judge any campaign, agency or quote in seconds: above the line, walk away; below it, scale up.

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<iframe src="https://allianceoptima.ca/tools/break-even-cpa-calculator?embed=1" width="100%" height="640" style="border:1px solid #e2e8f0;border-radius:12px" title="Break-Even CPA Calculator — Alliance Optima" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<p style="font:12px system-ui,sans-serif;text-align:center;margin:6px 0"><a href="https://allianceoptima.ca/tools/break-even-cpa-calculator">Break-Even CPA Calculator by Alliance Optima</a></p>