What should Facebook and Instagram ads actually cost you? Pick your industry, set a monthly enquiry target, and get a realistic Meta ad budget in rupees, built on 2026 India click costs instead of dollar benchmarks.
Estimates use 2026 India benchmark click costs and typical conversion rates for your industry. Media spend only, agency fees and GST not included.
The Facebook and Instagram click costs behind this calculator, and the conversion rate each one is divided by to get a cost per enquiry.
| Industry | Meta CPC (FB + IG) | Typical conv. rate | Cost per enquiry |
|---|
Ranges compiled from published 2026 India benchmarks and our own campaign data. Your city and competition shift these.
Your budget is just enquiries you want × cost per enquiry. Cost per enquiry is your click cost divided by the rate at which those clicks turn into enquiries. On Meta the click is cheap and the conversion rate is the expensive part: the benchmarks here run 1.5% to 3.5% by industry, against 2% to 6% for Google Search in the same categories. Halve the conversion rate and you double the budget, with the click price unchanged.
This is the single most common way a Facebook ad budget goes wrong in India. A ₹6 click looks like a bargain next to a ₹60 search click, right up until you divide by a 1.5% conversion rate. That is why the calculator reports a cost per enquiry as well as a budget, and why the per-enquiry number is the one to argue about with an agency.
Meta's delivery system optimises against conversion data it collects from your campaign. A budget that buys only a few dozen clicks a month rarely produces enough of it, so the campaign never gets past the expensive learning stage. If the calculator's low end is beyond what you can spend, organic content and your Google Business Profile usually pay back faster than an underfed ad account.
Run the low-end budget for 4–6 weeks, measure your real cost per enquiry, then scale what works. Committing the high-end number on day one just means paying more for the same learning curve.
Meta leads come from people who were not searching for you, so a share of them will be unqualified. That is a targeting and follow-up problem, not fraud, and it is worth understanding before you judge the cost per enquiry this calculator gives you. We wrote up how to tell the difference in Meta ads fake leads? why your leads are real, just the wrong people.
They are not the same spend and they should not share a budget line.
Use this Meta ads budget calculator when you are planning Facebook and Instagram spend: brand-led demand, visual categories, people who were not looking for you yet, and anything where you need volume at a low click price and are prepared to qualify harder afterwards.
Use the Google Ads budget calculator when the demand already exists and the person is typing your service into a search bar. Clicks cost several times more, conversion rates are roughly double, and the lead usually needs less convincing.
Every result on this page also shows what the same enquiry target would cost on Google Search, using the same benchmark set, so you can see the trade rather than guess at it. If you have a budget already and want the question the other way round — what will this spend bring in — the ad leads calculator runs the same maths forwards.
Two Meta campaigns we run, published exactly as they appear on our portfolio.
Neither is a promise about your account. They are here because they show the shape of the thing: a budget that is small in absolute terms can work hard if the targeting and the offer are right. See the full portfolio.
On the benchmarks behind this calculator, a Meta click in India runs roughly ₹4 to ₹60 depending on the industry. Restaurants, salons and NGOs sit at the low end; legal, insurance, IT and B2B services at the high end. The click price is only half the answer though — what you actually pay per enquiry is the click cost divided by your conversion rate, which is why the calculator asks for your industry rather than quoting one number.
It depends entirely on how many enquiries you want and what your category costs per click, which is exactly what the calculator above works out. The one number that is not category-specific is the floor: below roughly ₹10,000 a month, campaigns rarely gather enough conversion data for Meta's delivery system to optimise against, so the account never improves.
Both. Facebook and Instagram are one ad system — Meta Ads — run from one ad account on one budget, and placements are usually left mixed. The benchmarks here are blended Meta placement costs. We don't publish separate Facebook and Instagram figures because we don't have a split we could defend.
Use this one if you're planning Facebook and Instagram spend. Use the Google Ads budget calculator if you're planning Google Search spend. Google clicks cost more but convert better, because the person was already searching for what you sell. Meta clicks are cheaper and reach people who weren't looking, so conversion rates are lower and the leads need more follow-up. Most businesses end up running both, and this calculator shows the Google equivalent of your result so you can compare.
Because Meta traffic is interruption traffic. The conversion rates used here run from 1.5% to 3.5% by industry, against 2% to 6% for Google Search in the same categories. That gap isn't a flaw in Meta, it's what buying attention rather than intent looks like — and budgeting on a Google-like conversion rate is one of the most common ways Indian advertisers end up disappointed.
It uses 2026 India benchmark click costs and typical conversion rates by industry, so treat the output as a realistic planning range, not a quote. Your city, audience size, creative and landing page all move the real number. We keep the assumptions conservative so surprises land in your favour.
No, this is media spend only: the money paid to Meta. Agency management in India typically adds ₹5,000–₹25,000 per month depending on scope, or a percentage of spend for larger accounts, and GST is charged on top.
Send us your calculator result and we'll tell you, honestly, whether Meta is the right first move for your business, and what we would run.
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