Setting a first-year marketing budget for a Burlington trade

Start with the break-even cost per enquiry

Everything rests on one number: the most you can pay for an enquiry and still make money. You need three inputs from your own books.

1. Average job value. Use the last 12 months of invoices, not your hopes.
2. Gross margin. What's left after labour, parts and materials, as a percentage.
3. Close rate. Out of every ten genuine enquiries, how many become paid jobs?

The formula:

Break-even cost per enquiry = average job value × gross margin × close rate

Worked example: a Burlington trade with an average job of $1,200, a 40% margin and a 30% close rate.

• Margin per job: $1,200 × 0.40 = $480.
• Break-even per enquiry: $480 × 0.30 = $144.

If an enquiry costs more than $144, you lose money on the first job. That's not automatically a disaster, because some customers return and refer others, but it's the line to watch.

Add the value of repeat and referral work

Many Burlington customers will need your trade again. If your records show that a typical customer brings in a second job within three years, and one in five refers a neighbour, the true value of a first job is higher than its invoice.

A simple adjustment:

• First-job margin: $480.
• Expected repeat margin over three years: say $240 (half of customers return once).
• Expected referral margin: say $96 (one in five refers a job worth $480 in margin).
• Lifetime margin per new customer: about $816.

With the same 30% close rate, you could justify about $245 per enquiry over the long run. In practice, we set the working ceiling between the two figures, closer to the first-job number in year one, because repeat work is a forecast and the first job is real. Our reviews and repeat-work service is about making that forecast come true.

Decide how many jobs you can take

Budget follows capacity. If your crews can handle 10 more jobs a month without overtime or missed callbacks, that's your target.

• Enquiries needed: 10 jobs ÷ 0.30 close rate ≈ 34 enquiries a month.
• At a $144 ceiling, the maximum monthly enquiry spend is about $4,900.

You won't start there. Early campaigns run at a fraction of the ceiling while you learn what enquiries really cost in each part of Burlington and each Halton town.

Split the money between now and later

There are two kinds of marketing spend, and a healthy first year uses both.

A typical first-year shape for a Burlington trade:

• Months 1–3: ads carry most of the enquiry volume while the profile, website and pages are fixed. Spend is weighted towards paid.
• Months 4–6: organic enquiries start to arrive; review volume builds. Paid spend holds steady but shifts to the most profitable job types and towns.
• Months 7–12: organic and review-driven enquiries take a larger share. Paid spend focuses on urgent work and on testing one new town if the numbers allow.

A month-by-month example

Using the same trade, on the Growth plan at $1,999 a month (see the pricing page; prices are in Canadian dollars, plus 13% HST), with ad spend paid to Google separately:

These ranges are illustrative, not a forecast for your business. Your trade, prices and competition will move them. The point is the shape: steady fee, ad spend that rises then levels off, and enquiries that grow as organic work matures.

Adjust for seasonality

Burlington trades don't all peak at the same time:

• Heating and plumbing often see urgent demand rise in cold snaps, when no-heat and frozen-pipe calls come in.
• Roofing and exterior work tend to concentrate in the warmer months, with storm-related spikes.
• Landscaping is strongly seasonal, with spring planning and autumn clean-ups.
• Electrical and renovation work often follows the housing market and home-improvement cycles more than the weather.

Plan your ad budget around your own peaks. Raise paid spend ahead of your busy season, when people start searching, and lower it when you're booked out. Organic work should continue year-round so it's ready when the season turns.

Measure the right things

A budget is only as good as the tracking behind it. At minimum, record:

• every call, text and email, with its source;
• which enquiries became jobs, and their value;
• cost per enquiry and cost per booked job, by town;
• new reviews and repeat customers each month.

With Google Ads location targeting, you can separate spend by town, which makes the cost-per-job comparison much clearer. Our Google Ads service sets this up from day one.

Mistakes that break first-year budgets

• Starting at full ceiling. Early weeks are expensive while campaigns learn. Start lower.
• Missing calls. An unanswered call is a paid click wasted. If you can't answer on the job, use text-back or a call service.
• Judging after one month. Organic work barely shows by then. Judge paid campaigns after six weeks and organic work after six months.
• Cutting everything in a quiet month. Stopping organic work loses momentum that takes months to rebuild.
• Ignoring capacity. More enquiries than you can handle lowers your close rate and annoys customers.

Your budget worksheet

1. Average job value: $____
2. Gross margin: ____%
3. Close rate: ____%
4. Break-even cost per enquiry: (1) × (2) × (3) = $____
5. Extra jobs you can take per month: ____
6. Enquiries needed: (5) ÷ (3) = ____
7. Maximum monthly enquiry spend: (4) × (6) = $____
8. Starting ad budget (about 30–50% of line 7): $____

If you'd like us to check your worksheet, call, text or email us. The service-radius guide shows how to set different ceilings for different towns.