Google Ads Cost Calculator
| Campaign type | Suggested % | Budget | Forecast clicks | Forecast revenue |
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Google Ads is the second-largest paid-media channel for most DTC ecommerce brands after Meta, and it operates on completely different mechanics. Meta is intent-creating: you are paying to interrupt someone scrolling and persuade them they want your product. Google captures intent already in motion — someone searched, you appeared, you got the click. That difference shows up everywhere in the math: Google CPCs are typically 2 to 5 times higher than Meta CPMs per equivalent impression, but conversion rates are also 2 to 4 times higher, so the net efficiency is comparable for most brands. The right channel mix is usually both, not one.
This calculator forecasts Google Ads results from five inputs: monthly budget, expected blended CPC, expected site conversion rate for paid traffic, average order value, and contribution margin. From those it derives clicks, conversions, revenue, ROAS, CPA, and the net profit after variable cost — which is the number that actually matters for whether the channel is making you money. A 3.5x ROAS at 50 percent contribution margin nets you 75 cents in profit per dollar spent. The same 3.5x ROAS at 25 percent margin loses you 12 cents per dollar. Use the breakeven ROAS calculator to find your specific cutoff.
The suggested split across Search, Shopping, and Performance Max is a starting point, not a recommendation. The right mix depends heavily on your category, brand awareness, product feed quality, and search-volume capture. As a general framework: Search captures direct demand and brand defense (highest CPC, highest CR), Shopping captures comparison-shoppers (medium CPC, medium CR, scales well), and Performance Max blends inventory across YouTube, Discovery, Display, and Shopping (lowest CPC, lowest CR, hardest to attribute cleanly). Past $30K per month most operators split PMax from Shopping using feed exclusions to prevent cannibalization.
For deeper paid-media planning use the CAC calculator to model true acquisition cost including post-click costs, the ad budget allocator to split spend across all channels not just Google, and the Meta vs Google Ads comparison to think through where each dollar belongs. If you are running negative-keyword cleanup, the negative keyword ROI calculator helps quantify the savings.