# SEO / AEO ROI Calculator | Advisors Marketing & SEO See if SEO / AEO pays for your business. Enter your average sale, margin and close rate to see what it takes to break even and the plan to start with. Free, no email needed. The calculator runs in the browser. Inputs: industry, average sale, repeat or recurring business, gross margin, close rate (not for online stores), locations and services. ## Plans compared - Local Search / LLM Optimization: $299/month, month-to-month, 3 months recommended - Monthly SEO / AEO: $750/month, month-to-month, 3 months recommended - SEO / AEO "Staff Member": $4,000/month, month-to-month, 3 months recommended ## How it works ### The intent This calculator is intended to help you as the business owner to understand if spending money on SEO / AEO might pencil out for your business. It's not guaranteed, but giving you the data you need to make an informed decision is always best. We don't want to recommend a service that in the long run, gives little chance of making you more money than it took to acquire the revenue you got. This is purely a service to you as the business owner. ### What one new customer is worth Your average sale, plus repeat purchases or a recurring plan if you have them, times your gross margin. We use first-year profit for break-even, so a long customer relationship never makes a plan look cheaper than it is in year one, and show the lifetime figure next to it. ### What it takes to break even Each plan's monthly fee divided by first-year profit per customer gives the new customers a month that cover it. Divided by your close rate, that becomes leads a month. Plans compared: Local Search / LLM Optimization ($299/month), Monthly SEO / AEO ($750/month), SEO / AEO "Staff Member" ($4,000/month). ### The ramp-up Our planning assumption, not a published figure: no results in months 1 to 3 while the groundwork is done, half in months 4 to 6, full from month 7. Published break-even times for SEO run from about 5 to 15 months depending on the industry, at much larger agency budgets (First Page Sage). ### Fit and the recommended plan Our rule of thumb, based on what a customer is worth against the fee: a plan covered by half a new customer a month or less (one every two months) is a strong fit, up to 2 customers a month workable, more than that weak. Several locations or 6 or more services point to the Staff Member plan when about 2 customers a month cover it. Online stores start on Monthly SEO / AEO. Otherwise, full SEO / AEO when one customer a month or fewer covers it, and the Local plan when it takes more. We confirm the plan and price on a free call. ## FAQ ### How do I calculate the ROI of SEO / AEO? Work out the profit from one new customer (average sale times gross margin, plus repeat business), then divide the monthly SEO / AEO fee by it. That is how many new customers a month cover the fee. Divide by your close rate to get the leads you need. ### Is SEO / AEO worth it for a small business? It depends on what a customer is worth. A $6,000 HVAC replacement at 40% margin is $2,400 of profit, so one new job every three months covers a $750 plan. A $60 service at 50% margin needs about 25 new customers a month for the same plan. High-value services usually break even on very few wins. Low-ticket businesses need volume or repeat customers to make the math work. ### How long does SEO / AEO take to pay for itself? Plan on little in the first 3 months while the groundwork is done, partial results in months 4 to 6, and fuller results after that. Published break-even times run from about 5 months (construction) to 14 months (legal), at agency budgets far larger than ours. That is why we recommend giving SEO / AEO at least 3 months, on a month-to-month plan. ### How does SEO / AEO compare with Google Ads? Ads bring leads the day they start and stop when the budget stops. SEO / AEO takes months to build, then keeps bringing leads without paying per click. ### Why does the calculator ask for my numbers instead of using industry averages? Because published averages for sale size, margin and close rate are thin and vary widely within an industry. Your own numbers give a far better answer. Where a good published figure exists, we show it next to the question as a guide. ## Sources - First Page Sage, SEO ROI Statistics 2026. Published 2025-09-25, campaigns 2021 to 2025. Vendor data; assumes agency fees around $120,000 a year. - [Housecall Pro, HVAC Industry Trends](https://www.housecallpro.com/resources/hvac-industry-trends/). Posted 2026-03-24. Average HVAC repair ticket on the platform, 2025. - [EnergySage H1 2025 report (via pv magazine USA)](https://pv-magazine-usa.com/?p=18665). Reported 2025-09-03. Median residential system price before incentives; predates the end of the federal tax credit. All sources checked 2026-10-17. --- Canonical page: https://seomarketingadvisors.com/seo-roi-calculator/ Site index: https://seomarketingadvisors.com/llms.txt ยท Agent directory: https://seomarketingadvisors.com/agents.json