Work out a social media budget from your sales target

Key takeaways

A social media budget from your sales target starts with the customers you need, not the money you have. Work back through your close rate to the enquiries required, multiply by a realistic cost per enquiry, then add production time and tools. The answer tells you whether the target is affordable.

• Start with new customers needed per month from social media.
• Divide by your close rate to get the enquiries required.
• Multiply enquiries by cost per enquiry to get ad spend.
• Add production and tools, typically 60–75% of the total.

How does the sales target method work?

Decide how much revenue social media should bring in, divide by your average sale to get customers, then divide customers by the share of enquiries you convert. That gives the enquiries you need. Your cost per enquiry, from past campaigns or a test, turns that number into a monthly ad budget.

• Social media budget for a UK small business
• Cost per lead by channel: comparing social media and offline

What does a worked example look like?

Illustrative figures: a firm wants £6,000 a month from social, with an average job of £1,200. That is five customers. Closing one in four enquiries means 20 enquiries. At £25 per enquiry, ads cost £500 a month. Add production and tools of about £900, and the monthly social budget is £1,400.

• £6,000 target ÷ £1,200 average job = 5 customers.
• 5 customers ÷ 25% close rate = 20 enquiries.
• 20 enquiries × £25 = £500 ad spend.
• £500 ads + £900 production and tools = £1,400 a month.

Where do you get a cost per enquiry if you have none?

Run a small, planned test for four to six weeks with one offer, one audience and tracked links, then divide spend by enquiries. Until then, use a cautious estimate and treat the first month as learning. Never borrow another sector's figure: costs per enquiry vary widely by price point and location.

• How to test an advertising channel in six weeks

What if the answer is unaffordable?

Then the target, the offer or the channel needs to change. Raise the close rate with faster replies, raise the average sale, lower the cost per enquiry with a better landing page, or take part of the target from referrals and search. Cutting the budget while keeping the target only guarantees a miss.

• Lead qualification process: spend sales time on real buyers

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: an owner sets a monthly ad budget, then expects a sales figure that the budget could never produce. Running the sum backwards usually shows the gap within minutes, and the discussion moves from spending more to closing more of the enquiries that already arrive.

• See client work
• Social Media Marketing for UK businesses

Sales target checklist

• Write the revenue you want from social media each month.
• Divide by average sale to get customers needed.
• Divide by close rate to get enquiries needed.
• Multiply by a tested cost per enquiry.
• Add production time and tools, then compare with what you can fund.

• What share of your marketing budget should social get?
• How to estimate what competitors spend on social ads

Next step

Fill in the four numbers: target revenue, average sale, close rate and cost per enquiry. If one is unknown, that is the first thing to measure before setting the budget.