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Free Social Ads Opportunity Calculator
Select your platform, enter your monthly visitors, current leads, conversion rate and average lead value, then set your traffic uplift and CPC assumptions to instantly see your missed traffic, missed leads, missed revenue potential and a recommended test budget.
The Question This Tool Answers
Not “how do I run social ads.” Not “which agency should I use.”
Just the one question that comes before all of that: is there a meaningful opportunity here for my business, and what is it actually worth?
Most business owners either skip social ads entirely because they tried it once and it did not work, or they jump in without any real sense of what success should look like. This tool gives you something in between. A clear, numbers-based picture of what you could be missing before you decide whether it is worth exploring further.
How to Get the Most From Your Results
The tool has two sections worth understanding before you run your numbers.
Your business inputs are the things you already know: your monthly website visitors, your current monthly leads, your conversion rate and your average lead or sale value. Enter these as accurately as you can because they form the baseline the opportunity is calculated from.
Your planning assumptions are the two inputs you control: Traffic Uplift percentage and Estimated CPC. These are not fixed numbers. They are the variables you use to test different scenarios. Try a conservative traffic uplift with a higher CPC and then compare it against a stronger uplift with a lower CPC. The results update instantly so you can explore the range of outcomes before committing to anything.
What Your Results Are Showing You
Missed Traffic
The additional monthly website visitors a social ads campaign could drive based on your traffic uplift and CPC assumptions. This is the top of funnel opportunity you are currently not capturing.
Missed Leads
What that additional traffic would convert into at your current conversion rate. If your site converts at 3% and social ads could bring 400 more visitors a month, that is 12 leads a month currently going nowhere.
Missed Revenue Potential
Your missed leads multiplied by your average lead or sale value. This is the dollar figure on the opportunity. For most businesses this is the number that makes the decision obvious one way or the other.
Test Budget
The estimated monthly spend needed to generate the traffic uplift you modelled. This is your starting point, not a commitment.
Facebook, Instagram or Both - What to Select
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✓ Best for local service businesses and trades
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✓ Reaches audiences skewing over 35
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✓ 17.7 million Australian users
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✓ Lower cost per lead for service campaigns
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✓ Best for visually driven businesses and eCommerce
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✓ Reaches audiences skewing under 40
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✓ Strong for lifestyle, food and beverage and fashion
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✓ Rewards strong creative and product photography
Facebook and Instagram Together
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✓ Lets the algorithm decide where to spend
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✓ More data means better optimisation
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✓ Recommended for most first time campaigns
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✓ Gives the platform the best chance to learn
Is the Opportunity There For Your Business?
The honest answer is that social ads work very well for some businesses and not at all for others. The tool gives you a data-based read on your situation rather than a generic yes or no.
If your Opportunity Level comes back as Worth Testing or stronger and your Missed Revenue figure is meaningful relative to a test budget, that is a signal worth acting on. If the numbers are thin even with optimistic assumptions, that is useful information too because it tells you the budget is probably better spent elsewhere right now.
Either way you leave with a clearer picture than you had before. That is the point.
Want a Second Opinion on Whether Social Ads Make Sense for Your Business?
Our free marketing review looks at your current traffic sources, your audience and your goals and gives you a straight answer on whether Facebook or Instagram ads are worth testing and what that test should look like.
Reviewed by a real human marketer. No automated reports. Delivered within 2 to 3 business days.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Social Ads Opportunity Tool?
It is a calculator that estimates what your business could be generating from Facebook or Instagram ads based on your current website performance. Rather than measuring the ROI of an existing campaign it models the opportunity you are currently not capturing, showing you missed traffic, missed leads, missed revenue potential, a test budget and an overall opportunity level rating.
What does the Opportunity Level rating mean?
The Opportunity Level is the tool’s assessment of how significant the social ads opportunity is for your business based on your inputs. Worth Testing means the numbers suggest a modest but real opportunity that justifies a small test campaign. A stronger rating means the missed revenue potential is significant enough that not testing is likely costing you money. Use it as a directional signal rather than a definitive verdict.
What is the difference between Generate Leads and Generate Sales as a campaign goal?
Selecting Generate Leads tells the tool your campaign goal is enquiries, form submissions or phone calls. Selecting Generate Sales tells it the goal is a direct transaction or purchase. The tool adjusts its opportunity assumptions accordingly because the conversion behaviour and typical CPC differ between the two campaign types. Choose whichever matches what you actually want the campaign to achieve.
What CPC should I enter as a planning assumption?
For most Australian businesses, a CPC of $1.00 to $2.50 is a reasonable starting assumption for Facebook and Instagram. Competitive industries like finance, legal and real estate can sit between $3.00 and $6.00. Retail and eCommerce often sit at the lower end. Try a few different figures to model a conservative and an optimistic scenario and see how it affects your results.
Do I need to spend more on ads to get a better conversion rate?
No. Conversion rate optimisation is about getting more from your existing traffic, not buying more of it. Better design, stronger copy, faster load times and clearer calls to action can all move the needle without touching your advertising budget at all.
What is a realistic starting budget for social ads in Australia?
For most Australian service businesses a starting test budget of $1,000 to $1,500 per month gives the platform enough data to exit the learning phase and optimise effectively. The Test Budget figure in the tool gives you a more specific estimate based on your own inputs.
I tried social ads before and they did not work. Should I use this tool?
Yes. The tool can help you understand whether the opportunity was genuinely not there or whether the test was simply not structured well enough to give a fair result. If the missed revenue figure is significant even with conservative assumptions, the opportunity may still be worth exploring with a better setup. Our case studies show how campaign structure affects results across different business types.
How is this different from the Ad Profit Potential Calculator?
The Ad Profit Calculator measures the performance of a Google Ads campaign you are already running. This tool measures the opportunity of a social ads channel you have not yet tested. One looks backward at existing performance. This one looks forward at potential.
Still have questions?
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