Cost of Exposure Calculator
How much should an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical company spend on 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 that ignores your profit margin and your rent entirely.
This calculator gives you the right answer — one grounded in the actual economics of your business. It reconciles three things no one else connects: your sales, the profitability of your average transaction, and what your physical location is already doing for you.
The result is your cost of exposure — the investment needed to build mental availability so that when someone needs what you sell, they think of you first.
Enter your numbers below. The math will speak for itself.
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 mental availability so that when someone needs what you sell, they think of you first. It covers branding and awareness media, not demand capture.
✓ Included in This Budget
✗ Separate From This Budget
Why the distinction? Branding media creates future customers — people who will think of you when they eventually need what you sell. PPC, LSAs, and paid social intercept people who are already searching. Both matter, but they serve different purposes and should be budgeted separately. Think of it this way: your branding budget fills the pipeline, your digital spend harvests from it. Without branding, your growth is capped — digital can only capture the demand that already exists. You'll never grow beyond the number of people actively searching today. Branding is what creates tomorrow's demand.
A note on consulting fees: This budget is for media spend — the dollars that go to stations, platforms, and vendors to buy exposure. Strategy and consulting fees are a separate investment, the same way your accountant or attorney fees are separate from the cost of running your business.
Where your total exposure budget is allocated
"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.