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Digital Marketing ROI Calculator for Service Businesses

See what $1,000–$10,000 a month in marketing should actually return — leads, customers, revenue, payback — calibrated to your industry. Change the inputs, results update live.

Industry-calibrated benchmarks Transparent math — no hidden assumptions Share your scenario via URL

Your numbers

Enter what you know. We'll fill the rest from industry benchmarks — override anything in "Advanced".

Sets benchmark cost-per-lead and conversion rate. You can override below.
Google Ads + Meta + LSA combined. Not agency fee.
What you pay your agency (or would pay yourself) to run campaigns, build landing pages, track leads.
Average revenue per customer on their first job / visit / case.
How long a typical customer stays. Used to compute lifetime value (LTV).
Leave at industry default or override.
Of 100 qualified leads, how many become paying customers.
Share of customers who book again during their lifetime. Impacts LTV.
Estimated annual revenue from marketing
$0
Change your inputs on the left.
Leads / month ?
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New customers / mo ?
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CAC ?
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LTV ?
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LTV : CAC ?
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Payback period ?
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12-month projection

Cumulative revenue vs cumulative spend, assuming steady monthly inputs.

Cumulative revenue Cumulative spend Break-even

Estimates only. Real results vary with offer, landing page quality, speed to lead, seasonality, geography, and campaign execution. See methodology for the math and benchmark sources. Copy sharable link.

How to read your result

Walk through the math — the HVAC example

Say you run an HVAC business. You're putting $3,000/month into Google Ads and paying an agency $1,500/month to manage it. Average first-job revenue is $450, and you keep customers for about 3 years. Here's what the calculator is telling you, line by line.

Example$3,000 ad spend · $1,500 fee · HVAC · $450 ACV · 3-year lifetime

  1. 35 leads/month. HVAC benchmark cost-per-lead is $85. $3,000 ÷ $85 = 35.3 leads. If your CPL is actually $120, you'd get ~25 leads — override it in Advanced.
  2. 9.8 new customers/month. HVAC benchmark lead-to-customer rate is 28%. 35.3 × 0.28 ≈ 9.8 customers. If your phone team answers slowly, you'll be closer to 20% (≈ 7 customers). That's the single biggest lever in the whole model.
  3. $4,410 revenue/month, $52,920/year. 9.8 × $450 = $4,410/mo. This is gross revenue before you subtract the $54,000/yr you spent on ad budget + agency.
  4. CAC = $459. ($3,000 + $1,500) ÷ 9.8 = $459 per customer. That's what it costs you to land one. First-job revenue ($450) almost covers it alone — the profit comes from repeat work.
  5. LTV = $923. $450 × (1 + 0.35 × 3) = $922.50. One first job ($450) plus 35% repeat × 3 years (≈ $472 in follow-ups). If you don't have a re-engagement system, LTV collapses to just $450 and the whole model breaks.
  6. LTV : CAC = 2.0 : 1. $923 / $459 ≈ 2.0. Below 3:1 means you're growing but not fast. Above 3:1 means "pour fuel on it". Below 1:1 means every new customer is a loss.
  7. Payback ≈ 1 month. First-job revenue ($450) almost covers CAC ($459) immediately. You recoup the acquisition cost on the initial service call — anything after is pure profit.
Verdict for this scenario: Healthy but not explosive. Before scaling to $6K/mo in ad spend, fix whichever input is weakest — usually speed-to-lead (improves conversion) or a follow-up offer (improves LTV). Moving conversion from 28% → 35% alone adds ~$13,000/year with zero extra ad spend.

Lever 1 · Cost per lead

Drop CPL from $85 to $60 and you get 15 more leads/mo. Usually comes from better landing pages, negative keywords, local targeting.

Lever 2 · Conversion rate

Move lead-to-customer from 28% to 35% and you get 2.5 more customers/mo. Usually comes from speed-to-lead, phone training, and follow-up automation.

Lever 3 · LTV / repeat rate

Raise repeat rate from 35% to 55% and LTV jumps +$270 per customer. Usually comes from reminders, loyalty, and memberships.

Scroll back up to the calculator and try toggling each lever — the KPIs update live, so you can see exactly how much one percentage point is worth in dollars per year.

Want someone to actually do this?

We stand up a live dashboard on your real numbers within 48 hours — no install, no contract. If the math above excites you, we'll show you what's plausible for your specific business.

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Methodology

The math — nothing up our sleeve

Leads, customers, revenue

leads = ad_spend / CPL
customers = leads × conversion%
revenue = customers × ACV
Monthly revenue × 12 = annual. If your agency charges separately, we subtract it from revenue to get true margin.

CAC, LTV, payback

CAC = (spend + fee) / customers
LTV = ACV × (1 + repeat% × lifetime_yrs)
payback_mo = CAC / (ACV × repeat_mo)
Healthy service-business target: LTV ≥ 3× CAC, payback < 6 months.

Benchmarks — where they come from

Cost-per-lead and lead-to-customer rates are midpoints of published Google Ads industry benchmarks (WordStream, Thrive Agency, LocaliQ, 2024–2025 service-business reports), cross-checked against SMRTLV client aggregates. Ranges are wide — we use honest midpoints and let you override.

Industry benchmarks used

Midpoints. Actual CPL and conversion vary by geography, season, offer, and channel mix.

IndustryAvg CPLLead → customerTypical first-job