← all free tools
What $500 of advertising buys
The same $500 on every channel, run through the benchmarks this site cites everywhere. Assumes a 2% conversion rate and $50 per sale — change them in the calculator.
| Channel | Clicks | Sales | Cost per sale | Enough to learn from? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Google Ads (search) | 92 | 1.8 | $272 | 92 clicks cannot distinguish a 0.0% conversion rate from a 4.9% one. Any result you get at this budget is mostly noise. |
Meta (Facebook / Instagram) | 449 | 9.0 | $56 | 449 clicks cannot distinguish a 0.7% conversion rate from a 3.3% one. Any result you get at this budget is mostly noise. |
Display / programmatic Nielsen Norman Group on banner blindness · 2007, re-confirmed since | 31 | 0.6 | $806 | 31 clicks cannot distinguish a 0.0% conversion rate from a 6.9% one. Any result you get at this budget is mostly noise. |
Newsletter sponsorship | 15 | 0.3 | $1,667 | 15 clicks cannot distinguish a 0.0% conversion rate from a 9.1% one. Any result you get at this budget is mostly noise. |
A twelve-hour slot on this board | — | — | — | Ours, so weigh it accordingly. The board is young and small, and the honest limitation is reach rather than price. |
How it works
$500 does not buy enough clicks on any paid channel here to measure a 2% conversion rate. It can still buy a placement you judge by the quality of the visitors, not the numbers.
Clicks come from each channel's typical price; impressions-based channels use their published click-through rate. Flat-fee channels buy whole placements, so a budget below one placement buys nothing.