In my experience most tradies start Facebook ads somewhere around $30 to $50 a day, which is roughly $900 to $1,500 a month in ad spend. On top of that you pay someone to run the ads (or you give up your own time), and you need a way to follow up every lead fast. The number that actually matters isn't the ad spend, it's what each booked job costs you.
The three parts of the real cost
When a tradie asks me what Facebook ads cost, they usually mean the number Meta charges their card. That's only one part. There are three:
- Ad spend. What you pay Meta to show your ads. You set a daily budget and you can change it or switch it off any time.
- Management. Someone has to build the campaigns, write the ads, edit the creative, watch the numbers and make changes every week. That's either an agency or you at 9pm after a day on the tools.
- Follow-up. Leads from Facebook need a reply in minutes, not tomorrow. That means a CRM, an instant text-back and something chasing quotes that go quiet. Skip this part and the first two are wasted.
Most people budget for the first one, think about the second and forget the third. The third is usually where the money leaks.
What does a lead cost?
Cost per lead depends on your trade, your area, your offer and the size of the job. A $400 carpet clean and a $40,000 renovation won't cost the same to generate an enquiry for, and they shouldn't. Two real examples from our clients:
- Cleana Carpets in Melbourne: about $10 a lead on jobs worth around $400. Joe spent $19,000 on ads and brought in $77,000 in revenue, a 4x return at scale.
- All Pro Pressure Washing: 145 leads at $22 each, with an average job of about $850. Munya spent $3,200 over two months and booked $23,000 in jobs, a 7.7x return.
All Pro paid more than double per lead and still got the better return, because the jobs were bigger. Bigger jobs can carry a higher lead cost. That's why I don't chase the cheapest lead.
Why cost per booked job beats cost per lead
A $5 lead that never answers the phone is worth nothing. A $40 lead that books a $2,000 job is a bargain. Cheap leads often come from broad targeting, vague offers and forms that are too easy to fill in, and that's how you end up with a phone full of tyre-kickers.
The maths I use with every client is simple:
- Cost per booked job: total ad spend divided by the jobs booked from those ads.
- Return on ad spend: revenue from those jobs divided by what you spent.
- Job size changes everything. If your average job is $850, you can afford to pay a lot more per booked job than someone doing $150 gutter cleans.
At the far end, RKS Renovations closed a $42,000 renovation from $474 in ad spend, an 88.6x return. One lead that mattered. Cost per lead tells you nothing about that.
So when you compare agencies or look at your own results, ask about booked jobs and revenue, not just leads.
How much should you spend to test?
You need enough budget for Meta to find the right people, and enough time to see real jobs come through, not just enquiries. In my experience:
- Under about $20 a day is hard to learn from. Results trickle in so slowly you can't tell what's working.
- Somewhere between $30 and $50 a day is a sensible test for most service trades in one metro area.
- Give it at least four weeks before you judge it. Jobs quoted in week one often book in week three.
- Only scale once jobs are booking and you can actually handle more work.
For reference, Pristine Pressure Washing runs on $50 a day, and Nick and Matt bring in a consistent $30,000 a month from it, a 20x return. You don't need a huge budget. You need the right budget, a good offer and someone answering the phone.
What to expect in month one
Month one is about getting the machine running and learning what your market responds to. Roughly, it goes like this:
- Setup: ad account, pixel, lead form or landing page, CRM and text-back all connected before a dollar is spent.
- Launch: most of our clients see leads in the first 24 to 48 hours of ads going live.
- Weeks one and two: we watch which ads, offers and suburbs bring in leads that actually book, and cut what doesn't.
- Weeks three and four: quotes from earlier leads start turning into jobs, and you get your first real read on cost per booked job.
Some clients hit the ground running. Clean Coast Pressure Washing booked $18,000 in jobs in Hogan's first month from $900 in ad spend, and Sam at CAF Pressure Washing went from $0 to $15,000 in his first month. Others take a few weeks of testing creative before it clicks. Anyone who promises you a number before they've looked at your business is guessing.
The costs most tradies don't plan for
- Your time. Every lead needs a call, a quote and often a site visit. Make sure there's room in your week before you turn the ads on.
- Creative. Ads live or die on the photos and videos. Before and after shots from your own jobs are worth more than anything a designer can make.
- Slow follow-up. If leads sit for hours, you pay for them twice: once to Meta and again in lost jobs. I cover this in why your leads go cold.
- The wrong channel. If people in your trade only look for you when something breaks, Facebook may not be the first place to spend. See Facebook ads vs Google ads for tradies.
So what will it cost you?
Ad spend you control. Management fees vary a lot between agencies, and I'd rather give you a straight answer for your situation than a number that doesn't fit. If you want to know what it would look like for your trade and area, have a look at how I run Facebook ads for tradies and book a call. I'll tell you straight whether it's worth doing, and if it isn't, I'll tell you that too.
