Plan your campaign
Loaded benchmark for this platform
Your plan
Estimates from your inputs and 2026 platform benchmarks. Real costs vary by audience, creative, season, and bidding. Q4 typically runs 25 to 60 percent higher.
How to set an ad budget that is tied to a result, not a guess
Most people pick an ad budget by feel: "let's try ₦200,000 and see." Then they are surprised when it does not produce sales. The fix is to start at the other end, with the result you want, and work backward. That is exactly what this calculator does.
The formula behind the budget
Every paid campaign is a chain. Budget buys clicks, a share of clicks become leads, and a share of leads become customers. Reverse it and you get the budget:
So if you want 20 customers, close 10% of leads, and your page converts 5% of clicks, you need 20 ÷ 0.10 ÷ 0.05 = 4,000 clicks. At a ₦1,520 (about $0.95) Meta CPC, that is roughly ₦6,080,000 in spend. Now the number is defensible.
2026 cost benchmarks by platform
The tool loads these as starting points so you are not guessing at costs. Replace them with your own account data whenever you have it, your real numbers always beat any benchmark.
| Platform | Typical CPC | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Meta (FB / IG) | $0.78 – $1.14 | Demand gen, retargeting, lowest cost reach |
| Google Search | ~$2.69 | High-intent, people already searching |
| TikTok | $0.50 – $1.50 | Awareness, younger audiences, video |
| $2 – $6 | B2B, targeting by job title and company |
Higher cost is not always worse. A LinkedIn click costs more, but for B2B the cost per qualified lead often beats cheaper platforms. Match the platform to your buyer, then let this tool size the budget.
Why your daily budget matters as much as the total
The tool splits your total into a daily figure for a reason. Spread too thin, an ad set never gathers enough data to optimise (the "learning phase"), so the algorithm guesses and your cost per result climbs. If your daily number looks too small to be realistic, it is usually better to run fewer campaigns with enough budget each than many starved ones.
Things this calculator helps you avoid
- Budgets with no goal. A number you cannot tie to customers is just hope.
- Ignoring conversion rate. Doubling your landing-page CVR halves the budget you need, often cheaper than chasing lower CPCs.
- Forgetting seasonality. Q4 ad costs jump 25 to 60 percent as everyone competes for holiday shoppers. Plan testing for Q1 to Q2.
Want this planned and run for you properly? Shakeworld manages paid advertising for businesses that want results, not just spend. The calculator stays free regardless.
Ad budgeting, answered
Work backward from a goal, not a guess. Decide how many customers or leads you want, then divide by your conversion rate to get the clicks you need, and multiply by your cost per click. This calculator does that math for you and shows the budget required, using real 2026 platform costs you can adjust.
For testing, most platforms need enough daily spend to exit the learning phase. On Meta a practical starting point is often a few thousand naira (around 20 to 50 dollars) a day per ad set; LinkedIn needs more because clicks cost more. The key is running long enough to gather data, not starting so small the algorithm never learns.
Budget = clicks needed times cost per click. Clicks needed = your customer goal divided by your landing-page conversion rate divided by your lead-to-customer close rate. So if you want 20 customers, close 10% of leads, and your page converts at 5%, you need 4,000 clicks. At a 1 dollar CPC, that is a 4,000 dollar budget.
It varies by platform. Based on 2026 benchmarks, Meta averages around 0.78 to 1.14 dollars, Google Search about 2.69 dollars, TikTok 0.50 to 1.50 dollars, and LinkedIn 2 to 6 dollars, with B2B and finance running higher. This tool loads these as starting points, and you can replace them with your own.
Both views help. Cost per click tells you traffic cost; cost per lead tells you what an actual enquiry costs after your page converts. This calculator lets you plan either way, set a customer or lead goal and it returns the budget, clicks, leads, and expected cost per result.
Yes, fully free with no signup. It runs in your browser, so nothing you type is sent anywhere. It is part of ShakeKit, a free set of marketing tools by Shakeworld. Use it as often as you like to plan campaigns before you spend.
Plan the budget. Then make it work.
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