There’s no single answer to “how much should I spend on ads?” that fits everyone. But instead of picking a random number, you can find a sensible starting budget by working back from your goal.
Work back from your goal
First decide how many new customers you want each month. Then think about how much you can afford to pay to win one customer. Multiplying these two numbers gives a rough monthly budget.
Monthly budget ≈ Target number of customers × Acceptable cost per customer
For example, if you want 20 new customers a month and each customer leaves you an average profit of ₺2,500, spending ₺500 per customer makes sense. The starting budget is then 20 × 500 = ₺10,000. You can try this with different numbers using our Ad Budget Calculator.
Measure a customer’s value correctly
Don’t judge a customer by their first purchase alone. A returning café customer or a service client on an annual contract brings in far more than the first sale. Once you know a customer’s total value, how much you can put into ads becomes clear too.
Meta or Google?
- Google Ads: When people are already searching for you (“dental clinic near me”, “emergency locksmith”), it’s the fastest channel. The demand is there; you just show up in front of it.
- Meta (Instagram and Facebook): Strong for products and services people don’t search for yet but want when they see them: restaurants, fashion, beauty, events. It creates demand.
If your budget is limited, start with one channel and expand to the other as you get results. Running both on small budgets often means neither collects enough data.
The first month is a test period
Ad platforms need time to learn who your customers are. High costs in the first 2–4 weeks are normal. Don’t change the budget often during this period; every change restarts the learning process. Collect at least a few weeks of data before making decisions.
Things as important as the budget
- Does the page the ad leads to load quickly and say clearly what to do?
- Are conversions (forms, calls, orders) measured correctly?
- Are incoming requests answered quickly?
Adding budget to a weak page or an unmeasured campaign won’t fix results; it only grows the loss.
When to increase it?
If your cost per customer is below your target and stable, increase the budget gradually, by around 20–30% at a time. Sudden large increases can make costs spike.