What does this tool do?

It runs nine checks that decide whether Google Ads is a fit for your business, and works out the most you can afford to pay per click from your gross profit, close rate, and landing page conversion rate. It gives one of three answers: the gate clears, fix one thing first, or don't run Google Ads yet.

Why does it so often tell me not to run ads?

Because Google Ads captures demand that already exists rather than creating it, and plenty of good businesses don't have that demand in a form they can buy profitably. Two or more unresolved gates is the point where the useful recommendation is to keep your money. That is a verdict on channel fit, not on the business.

How is the break-even cost per click calculated?

Gross profit per customer, multiplied by your close rate, multiplied by your landing page conversion rate. That gives what one click is worth at break-even, where every dollar of gross profit goes back to Google. The target figure shown alongside it leaves roughly two thirds of the margin with you. Compare both against real market rates in Keyword Planner.

Is my data stored anywhere?

No. Everything runs in your browser, nothing is sent to us, and there is no signup. The copy button puts the result on your clipboard so you can keep it.

What if I clear the gate?

Clearing it means the channel is viable, not that a campaign will succeed. What decides that is account structure, measurement you trust, and whether you optimize toward a conversion that means something. The article behind this tool covers the first two weeks and what to hold an agency to.

Free tool

Google Ads viability gate

Nine checks decide whether Google Ads can work for your business. Miss two or three and the answer is no. Free, runs in your browser, nothing stored, and its most common answer is to keep your money.

1 · The arithmetic behind gate 2

Three numbers decide whether the economics can work. Fill them in and the maximum you can afford per click falls out. Optional: skip it and answer gate 2 from judgment instead.

Gross profit per customerRevenue minus cost of delivery, one closed customer

Close rateQualified leads that become customers

Landing page conversionVisitors that become a lead

2 · The nine gates

0/9 answered

Answer these straight rather than optimistically. An unsure counts against you, because a gate you cannot confirm is a gate you have not cleared.

1. Enough high-intent search volume
Google Ads captures demand that already exists. It cannot create it. A few dozen relevant searches a month in your service area means there may be no inventory to win.
How to answer: Not total volume: searches from people who could realistically buy. Check Keyword Planner for your two or three core money terms in your actual geography.
2. Economics that survive the click costs
If a customer costs more to buy than the gross profit they create, the channel loses money at every volume. No amount of optimization fixes negative unit economics.
How to answer: Work backwards from gross profit per customer to what you can afford per click. The calculator below does the arithmetic once you fill in the three numbers.
3. A budget that buys enough attempts to learn
Below a certain volume you are reading noise, not results. The same budget is generous in one market and trivial in another, which is why there is no published dollar minimum.
How to answer: Roughly 100 or more genuinely relevant clicks a month, and preferably enough volume for 10 to 20 meaningful conversions. High-value B2B and niche services are the common exceptions.
4. A shared definition of a good lead
If every form fill enters Google as equally valuable, Google gets very good at finding whoever fills out forms most cheaply. That is not necessarily your buyer.
How to answer: Can sales and marketing both state what separates a qualified lead from a tyre-kicker, in one sentence, the same way? If not, this gate is a no.
5. Tracking proportional to your sales cycle
A long cycle is not disqualifying. A long cycle where the only signal Google sees is a form submission means optimizing against a weak proxy for revenue.
How to answer: Trace the chain: click, lead, qualified lead, opportunity, customer, revenue. If it breaks before revenue and your cycle runs long, you need CRM discipline and offline conversion data first.
6. A sales process that is not already the bottleneck
Ads will not fix unanswered phones, untouched forms, or a two-week quote. Buying more leads to solve a sales-operations problem is a faster way to waste money.
How to answer: How long until a new lead gets a human response? If the answer is measured in days, or nobody knows, fix that before buying more leads.
7. A website that can close the click
Paid traffic makes a bad conversion experience more expensive rather than curing it. Sometimes the right move is spending the first month's ad budget on the landing page.
How to answer: Does the page a searcher lands on state the offer, the proof, and the next step without scrolling twice? Does it load fast on a phone?
8. Non-brand that can stand on its own
If the only campaign that works is your own company name, that is brand defense. Legitimate, but it is not a scalable acquisition channel and nobody should describe it as one.
How to answer: Set brand searches aside entirely. Is there a category or service search you could win profitably? If the whole case rests on your own name, answer no.
9. Tolerance for testing losses
Search terms need testing, ads need to fail, landing pages need comparing. There is tuition before there is a return.
How to answer: If losing roughly $2,000 to learn that an offer does not convert would hurt the business, this gate is a no and the money is better kept.

3 · The verdict

0 of 9 answered

Answer every gate to get a verdict. An unsure counts against you here, because a gate you cannot confirm is a gate you have not cleared.

Where this gate comes from

It is the qualification step we run before selling anyone a campaign, published in full rather than kept as a sales tool. The article behind it carries the rest of the method: why reported brand ROAS overstates what paid search contributed, what the first two weeks on an account should look like, and where we refuse to compete.

If you would rather we ran it, paid media sits beside the organic work as the demand-capture layer, at published prices, including the part where recommending a spend cut does not cut our fee.

FAQ

What does this tool do?: It runs nine checks that decide whether Google Ads is a fit for your business, and works out the most you can afford to pay per click from your gross profit, close rate, and landing page conversion rate. It gives one of three answers: the gate clears, fix one thing first, or don't run Google Ads yet.
Why does it so often tell me not to run ads?: Because Google Ads captures demand that already exists rather than creating it, and plenty of good businesses don't have that demand in a form they can buy profitably. Two or more unresolved gates is the point where the useful recommendation is to keep your money. That is a verdict on channel fit, not on the business.
How is the break-even cost per click calculated?: Gross profit per customer, multiplied by your close rate, multiplied by your landing page conversion rate. That gives what one click is worth at break-even, where every dollar of gross profit goes back to Google. The target figure shown alongside it leaves roughly two thirds of the margin with you. Compare both against real market rates in Keyword Planner.
Is my data stored anywhere?: No. Everything runs in your browser, nothing is sent to us, and there is no signup. The copy button puts the result on your clipboard so you can keep it.
What if I clear the gate?: Clearing it means the channel is viable, not that a campaign will succeed. What decides that is account structure, measurement you trust, and whether you optimize toward a conversion that means something. The article behind this tool covers the first two weeks and what to hold an agency to.