Cost of Exposure Calculator
How much should a home service company invest in brand advertising?
Your media rep says, “Spend more with me.” Google says, “Increase your daily budget.” The internet says, “5 to 7 percent of gross sales,” a number with no math behind it and no regard for your profit margin or your rent.
This calculator gives you a more grounded answer, one based on the actual economics of your business. It connects three things most budgeting advice ignores: your projected sales, the profit built into your average transaction, and the exposure value of your physical location.
The result is your cost of exposure: the amount you should invest in brand-building advertising to build share of mind, so that when someone needs what you sell, they think of you first. Greater share of mind leads to greater share of market.
This calculator is for brand-building advertising. It includes the media that keeps your name in front of the market before people are ready to buy.
It does not include sales activation, what we often call transactional advertising: sale-driven, click-driven, lead-driven campaigns aimed at people already in the market today. That includes Google Ads, Local Service Ads, retargeting, promotional Meta ads, and other direct-response media.
Most businesses overinvest in sales activation because it feels immediate and measurable. But sales activation only harvests existing demand. It does not create future demand or build share of mind.
Enter your numbers below. The math will speak for itself.
Calculator App Design: Craig Arthur, Wizard of Ads, Australia.
Markup is gross profit above cost, as a percentage of your direct costs.
Your Cost of Exposure
This formula calculates your cost of exposure: the investment needed to build share of mind, so that when someone needs what you sell, they think of you first. It covers brand-building advertising, not sales activation.
✓ Included in This Budget
✗ Budgeted Separately
Note: Rent is already factored into the formula as location-based exposure. This calculator covers media spend only. Consulting and strategy fees are separate.
Your Total Marketing Investment
| Relational (branding) | |
| Sales Activation | |
| Total |
| Relational (branding) | |
| Sales Activation | |
| Total |
Why 60/40? Research by Les Binet and Peter Field, widely regarded as the most rigorous study of marketing effectiveness, found that the optimal balance for long-term growth is approximately 60% relational and 40% sales activation. For businesses with longer purchase cycles, the branding share should be even higher, closer to 65/35 or 70/30, because customers spend far more time not buying than buying. Your job is to be the name they remember when that moment finally arrives.
How your total investment is allocated (60/40 split)
"A business with a good sign in a high-visibility location will need to advertise significantly less than a similar business in an affordable location."
Roy H. Williams, The Wizard of Ads
This is why home service companies typically need to advertise more aggressively than retail businesses. Your shop is in an industrial park. Nobody drives by and thinks, “I need to call a plumber.” Your advertising has to do all the heavy lifting that a storefront location would do for a retailer.