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Consideration 4 min read
Facebook Ads Budget for Tradies: How Much Should You Spend?
By Muhammad Furqan · Last updated · Published · Reviewed by Muhammad Furqan
There's no universal Facebook ads budget for tradies, but there is a way to work one out that doesn't involve guessing. Start with what a job is worth, test with $10-30 a day, and judge the result by cost per lead against job value, not by the daily spend figure.
Start with what a job is worth
A blocked drain call-out might net $150 profit; a kitchen renovation might net $8,000. The acceptable cost to generate one enquiry scales with that number. Spending $40 to generate a lead for a $150 job is a bad trade, but the same $40 for a shot at an $8,000 job is an easy one.
Work backward from a test, not a target
$10-20 a day for the first two to three weeks is enough to see whether an offer and audience combination gets any traction at all, without risking a month's marketing budget on an untested ad. Judging a campaign before day four or five isn't a fair test, because Facebook's delivery system needs that long to find who actually responds.
Rough starting budgets by ticket size
| Job type | Examples | Starting daily budget |
|---|---|---|
| Low-ticket, urgent | Blocked drains, no power, lockouts | $10-15/day |
| Mid-ticket | Bathroom repairs, switchboard upgrades, smaller landscaping | $20-30/day |
| High-ticket, considered | Renovations, solar, full landscape builds | $30-50/day, with a longer runway before expecting a steady lead flow |
Trade-specific starting points from our trade guides: electricians can start at $10-20 a day on urgent call-out work; builders at $20-40 a day kept running consistently; solar installers at $30-50 a day sustained for at least a couple of months. See Facebook ads for electricians, for builders and for solar installers.
What's a good cost per lead?
There's no single Australia-wide figure that means much on its own. Cost per lead depends heavily on service area, competition, and how tightly the campaign is targeted. But there's a useful way to judge whether a number is good for a specific business.
Work it out against job value, not a benchmark
A $35 cost per lead sounds high next to a $150 blocked-drain job, until three out of ten of those leads convert into $150 jobs. That's $350 spent to generate $450 in revenue on the low end, before repeat business and referrals from those same customers are counted. The same $35 cost per lead against a renovation enquiry worth $15,000 is close to free.
Rough cost per lead ranges by trade category
These vary significantly by region and competition:
- Urgent, low-ticket services (plumbing call-outs, electrical faults): commonly $15-35 per lead in competitive metro areas.
- Mid-ticket services (bathroom renovations, switchboard upgrades): often $30-60.
- High-ticket considered purchases (solar, full renovations, landscaping): can run $50-150 per lead, offset by a dramatically higher job value.
For wider data, see our Australian tradie lead cost benchmark and the guide on how much tradie leads cost.
What actually moves cost per lead
In order of impact:
- Targeting precision. A service area drawn too broadly wastes spend on people outside it.
- Creative relevance. A generic ad costs more per result than one addressing a specific problem.
- Offer clarity. A vague "contact us" converts worse than a specific, low-friction next step.
The number that matters more than daily spend
Cost per lead against job value. A campaign spending $600 a month that produces four renovation enquiries, one of which becomes a $12,000 job, has paid for itself many times over. The daily spend figure alone tells almost nothing without that context. (That's an illustrative example, not a client result.)
The real question to ask instead of "is this good?"
Is the cost per lead lower than the cost of acquiring a customer through any other channel this business currently uses? For most trades starting out, Facebook lead costs compare favourably against directory listings or pay-per-lead services once conversion rates are factored in.
To read the numbers once the campaign is live, use our Facebook ads metrics glossary. To decide whether Facebook or Google gets the budget first, see Facebook ads vs Google Ads.
Note: Get a budget recommendation built around your actual job values, not a generic industry average. Or get a benchmark specific to your trade and area rather than relying on a national average that doesn't reflect local competition. Get a budget recommendation
Related service: Rather work to a cost per booked job than guess a budget? See lead generation for tradies.