Funnel budget planner: sales, leads, clicks and ad spend

From sales goal to budget: how many leads and clicks you need and how much to spend on ads, with scenarios and rounding always up.

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Currency

Media cost mode

Sales goalHow many sales you want in the period (whole number).

Lead-to-sale rate (%)Out of 100 leads, how many buy. Check your CRM or history.

Click-to-lead rate (%)Out of 100 clicks, how many become a lead: the page conversion rate.

CPC (cost per click)What each click costs, on average.

Average ticket (optional)Average value of each sale. Fill it in to see projected revenue and ROAS.

Result

Total budget: $15,000.00
Leads needed: 500
Clicks needed: 10,000
Cost per lead (CPL): $30.00
Implied CPA: $300.00
Projected revenue: $30,000.00
Projected ROAS: 2.00x

Leads, clicks and impressions are rounded up: you cannot buy half a lead.

Funnel needed

Clicks10,000
Leads500Page conversion: 5.00%
Sales50Lead to sale: 10.00%

Scenarios

Both conversion rates (click to lead and lead to sale) go down or up by 20%. CPC, CPM and CTR stay fixed.

Scenario	Leads needed	Clicks needed	Total budget	Implied CPA	Projected ROAS
Pessimisticrates -20%	625	15,625	$23,437.50	$468.75	1.28x
Baserates 0%	500	10,000	$15,000.00	$300.00	2.00x
Optimisticrates +20%	417	6,950	$10,425.00	$208.50	2.88x

How to plan an ad budget from a sales goal

How much should you spend on ads to hit a sales goal? You work backwards: how many sales you want, how many leads you need to produce them, how many clicks you need to produce those leads and, finally, what those clicks cost. This planner runs that chain for you and shows the budget, the cost per lead (CPL) and the CPA it implies.

The result is only as good as the rates you enter. That is why the page also shows three scenarios, with conversion rates 20% lower, unchanged and 20% higher. You see how much the budget swings if the campaign performs a little worse or a little better than your history suggests.

Set the sales goal. Enter how many whole sales you want in the period. The funnel is calculated backwards from this number.
Fill in the funnel rates. Use the lead-to-sale rate (out of 100 leads, how many buy) and the click-to-lead rate (the page conversion rate). Take both numbers from your recent history.
Enter the media cost. Type the average CPC or, if you prefer, choose the CTR and CPM mode and enter the click-through rate and the cost per thousand impressions.
Optionally, enter the average ticket. With the average value of each sale, the tool projects revenue and ROAS for the planned budget.
Read the scenarios. Compare the budget in the pessimistic, base and optimistic scenarios. Plan your cash for the pessimistic one and treat the optimistic one as a bonus.

Everything is calculated here, in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to any server and we use no third-party cookies.

How the calculation works

The funnel is solved backwards and every stage is rounded up, using integer arithmetic. If 7 sales at a 3% rate call for 233.33 leads, the plan uses 234: there is no such thing as a third of a person, and rounding down would always leave the goal slightly short. Money math uses whole cents.

In CTR and CPM mode, clicks still have to be converted into impressions, and the budget comes from the cost per thousand impressions. If the result goes past the safe limit for whole numbers, the tool warns you instead of showing a wrong value. In the scenarios, the two conversion rates change while CPC, CPM, CTR and ticket stay as they are.

Leadssales ÷ lead-to-sale rate (rounded up)
Clicksleads ÷ click-to-lead rate (rounded up)
Impressions (CTR and CPM mode)clicks ÷ CTR (rounded up)
Budget with CPCclicks × CPC
Budget with CPMimpressions × CPM ÷ 1,000
CPL and implied CPAbudget ÷ leads and budget ÷ sales
Projected ROASsales × ticket ÷ budget

Examples

A 50-sale goal with CPC

A goal of 50 sales, 10% of leads buy, 5% of clicks become a lead and CPC is $1.50. That is 500 leads and 10,000 clicks, for a budget of $15,000.00. CPL is $30.00 and implied CPA is $300.00. With a $600.00 ticket, revenue is $30,000.00 and ROAS is 2.00x.

CTR and CPM mode

A goal of 30 sales, 5% of leads buy, 25% of clicks become a lead, CTR is 1.20% and CPM is $30.00. That is 600 leads, 2,400 clicks and 200,000 impressions. The budget is $6,000.00, with a CPL of $10.00 and a CPA of $200.00.

Why round up

For 7 sales at a 3% lead-to-sale rate, the math gives 233.33 leads. The plan uses 234 leads. With a page that converts 10% of clicks, that is 2,340 clicks.

Sensitivity: one point less on the page

In the first example, if page conversion falls from 5% to 4%, clicks rise from 10,000 to 12,500 and the budget goes from $15,000.00 to $18,750.00: 25% more for one percentage point. In the default scenarios, the budget ranges from $10,425.00 (optimistic) to $23,437.50 (pessimistic).

Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate how much to spend on ads for a sales goal?

Divide the sales goal by the lead-to-sale rate to get leads, divide leads by the click-to-lead rate to get clicks, and multiply clicks by CPC. With 50 sales, 10% and 5% rates and a $1.50 CPC, the budget is $15,000.00. The planner does this and rounds each stage up.

Where do I find my lead-to-sale and click-to-lead rates?

In your own data from the last few months. Click-to-lead is leads divided by clicks in your ads dashboard or analytics, for the same page and channel. Lead-to-sale is sales divided by leads in your CRM or order sheet, looking at the leads from the same period. Use periods long enough to have volume, because a handful of sales makes the rate unstable.

How does the funnel change for e-commerce, lead generation and info products?

The shape changes because the middle stage changes. In e-commerce the click usually goes straight to purchase, so click-to-lead becomes the purchase rate and lead-to-sale sits at 100%. In lead generation (services, B2B), the page converts into a contact and sales closes a fraction, so lead-to-sale is low and CPA comes from the whole funnel. Info products have both steps, a capture page and then a launch or email sequence, and ticket size and repeat purchases weigh on ROAS. In every case, use rates from your own history rather than market averages.

Why does the planner round leads and clicks up?

Because you cannot buy half a person, and rounding down leaves the goal short. With 7 sales at a 3% rate the math gives 233.33 leads, but only 233 leads yield 6.99 expected sales. With 234 the goal is met. The tool does this with whole numbers, never through decimals.

Why does a small drop in conversion raise the budget so much?

Because each rate sits in the denominator of a stage, so the effect compounds down the funnel. Going from 5% to 4% on the page looks small, but it raises clicks by 25%, and the budget grows in the same proportion. If both rates fall 20%, the budget rises 56.25% in the basic example. That is why the scenarios table exists.

What is the difference between implied CPA and CPL?

CPL is the cost of each lead (budget divided by leads). Implied CPA is the cost of each sale (budget divided by sales) and already includes the drop between lead and sale. With a $30.00 CPL and 10% of leads buying, CPA is $300.00.

Can I use CTR and CPM instead of CPC?

Yes. Choose the CTR and CPM mode: the impressions needed come from clicks divided by CTR, and the budget is impressions times CPM divided by a thousand. It is useful for reach media, where cost is per impression and the click is a consequence.