5 Tips to Set Your Google Ads Budget for Your Coworking Space

Updated November 10, 2025

“How much should I spend on Google Ads for my coworking space?”

It’s one of the first questions coworking operators ask, and one of the trickiest to answer.

Plenty of marketing blogs throw out blanket recommendations, but coworking isn’t generic. As a result, your Google Ads budget can’t be either.

At Spacefully, we’ve seen budgets range anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000+ per month, per location. 

That’s a huge spread, but it’s not random. It’s calculated. And the good news is, there’s a framework you can use to figure out what’s right for you.

Here’s what you need to know.

5 Factors in Your Google Ads Budget Formula

We promise that, later on in this article, we’ll give you a clear-cut answer to the question of how much you should invest in Google Ads.

But first, we need to set the stage.

Instead of asking yourself, “How much should I spend on Google Ads for my coworking space?” a smarter question is this:

What budget do I need to hit my goals in my specific market, with my specific business?

Your budget comes down to a five-point formula:

1. Goals
2. Achievability 
3. Market Geography
4. Product Mix 
5. Pricing and Competition
6. Sales Cycle and Revenue Timing

Let’s break these down and then show how they add up to your real number.

1. Goals

Advertising should never exist in a vacuum. Everything starts with your goals.

Think about questions like these:

• Do you need to fill 10 private offices in 3 months?
• Are you targeting new coworking members or selling day passes?
• Do you want to promote all services at once, or focus on specific offerings right out of the gate?
• Is brand awareness part of your plan, or do you need leads now?

Whatever those goals might be for you, start there. This will help you reverse-engineer your budget.

If you’re unclear on your goals, you’ll either overspend unnecessarily or underspend and miss growth opportunities.

Want to dive deeper into this subject? Check out our resource: Money and More: 7 Impactful Google Ads Goals for Coworking Spaces.

2. Achievability 

Here’s a caveat to keep in mind:

Your goals need to be grounded in what’s actually achievable through Google Ads in your market.

At Spacefully, we use our Blueprint strategy to analyze search volume and competition in your specific area. This helps us understand what’s realistic given the Google Ads platform’s limitations in your geography.

What’s that mean, exactly? 

There’s a ceiling to what Google Ads can deliver, especially from a search standpoint. 

As you target audiences farther from your location, the likelihood of conversion drops because commute distance becomes unrealistic. That’s why we inventory your market’s ceiling and see how it aligns with your goals.

If your goals exceed what Google Ads can realistically deliver in your timeframe, we’ll be transparent about that. 

It’s important to be realistic about this.

You may need to adjust your timeline, diversify into other marketing channels, or reconsider which services you’re prioritizing.

The key is translating your goals into a forecast based on real-time data so you can make informed decisions about your investment and expected return.

3. Market Geography

Building on that last point, many operators rely on the classic formula of targeting a 15- to 20-minute radius around their location. 

It’s a logical place to start, and it’s absolutely valid. We agree that 20 minutes is about as far as most people will travel for a coworking space. 

But there’s a caveat: 

This generalized radius only tells part of the story. 

In fact, a cut-and-dry radius can mislead you for any number of reasons. At Spacefully, we’ve seen ad radius be altered by things like: 

• Water, forests, or farmland 
• Traffic patterns that influence who’s willing to travel where
• Convenience and alignment with daily routines
• Dense urban areas that often require tighter targeting than sprawling suburbs

That’s why we always dig a little deeper. 

We start with satellite views, study roads, analyze traffic flows, and most importantly, ask our clients for local insights. 

Nobody knows your market quirks better than you.

Smart geography analysis saves budget by avoiding wasted clicks from areas unlikely to produce customers.

For most coworking spaces, targeting a local radius makes sense. But there are exceptions where expanding your geographic reach can be strategic.

Google Ads offers two targeting options: “presence only” (people physically in your area) and “presence and interest” (people searching for your location from anywhere).

Consider a virtual office example: someone sitting on a beach in Mexico might be searching for a virtual office address in Miami. With presence-only targeting, you’d never reach them. But with presence and interest targeting, you can capture that lead.

This strategy works well for:

• Virtual offices and virtual mail services with international appeal
• Prestigious addresses that attract out-of-area customers
• Locations in tax-efficient states
• Spaces near borders or in cities with strong brand recognition

The key is understanding where your customers actually come from. If you’re in a rural area, stick to radius targeting. If you’re in a sought-after location with services that travel well digitally, consider expanding beyond your immediate geography.

4. Product Mix

Not all coworking services cost the same to advertise. Here’s how it usually plays out:

• Private offices tend to cost more per lead because prospects take longer to decide
• Day passes and meeting rooms convert quickly and are cheaper to acquire, but are one-off revenue streams with no guarantee of repeat buying 
• Virtual offices and memberships often cost less per lead but usually bring in smaller monthly payments

That’s why your budget needs to account for what you’re selling and how much demand there is for it in your market.

5. Pricing and Competition

Two coworking spaces in the same city might need drastically different ad budgets, purely because of pricing and competition.

This can be swayed by factors like:

• Higher-than-average pricing usually demands more budget to prove value to prospects
• Competitive or lower pricing can reduce your cost to acquire leads
• Unique offerings can carve out a niche and lower competition and cost
• Your pricing’s attractiveness compared to local competitors determines how aggressive your advertising must be

Pricing isn’t just about revenue; it’s also a lever in running cost-effective ads. 

If your prices are higher, you may need a stronger budget to educate prospects on why you’re worth the premium.

6. Sales Cycle and Revenue Timing

A big part of setting your Google Ads budget is understanding how the cost of a lead relates to the revenue that customer will bring your business over time.

Some coworking services bring in revenue quickly. 

For example, day passes and meeting rooms are often booked the same day someone clicks your ad. They help you see fast returns and keep cash flowing.

However, there’s no guarantee those bookings will recur with any predictability. 

Other services, like private offices or team suites, can take longer to close. Businesses might need weeks or months to decide on a space. 

Those conversions usually cost more to acquire, but their lifetime value is much higher.

For example:

• Let’s say your average cost per lead is $250
• You close about 20% of your leads
• That means it takes 5 leads to win one new office member
• So your cost to acquire that member is $1,250

That might sound expensive. But here’s why it often makes sense:

• That new office member might sign a 12-month agreement at $2,500 per month
• Over a year, they’re worth $30,000 to your business

So, even if you spent $1,250 to get them, the return is strong.

It’s the same story for services like virtual offices. 

You might spend $250 to acquire a customer who pays $40 each month. That cost might feel high upfront, but if the customer ends up staying for 9 months or longer, the investment pays off many times over.

When you plan your budget, think about more than just the cost of each lead. Consider how much revenue your average customer generates over time. That’s what turns marketing from a cost into an investment.

How to Calculate Your Budget Based on Your 5 Factors

We promised we’d give you a more defined answer about how much you should spend on Google Ads for your coworking space. 

And now, we’re going to give it a shot.

The truth is that there’s no universal number. But there is a way to figure it out, based on your business.

Here’s how to think about it:

First, get clear on your goal. For example:

“I want to fill two private offices this month.”

Next, figure out how many people you’ll need to reach to make that happen.

Start with your close rate. If you usually sign a deal with 1 out of every 5 people who contact you, that’s a 20% close rate.

That means you’ll need 10 leads to close two new customers.

Then, estimate your cost per lead. Depending on your market, a lead might cost you around $250. 

So, your starting budget would be:

10 leads × $250 per lead = $2,500

But that’s just the beginning. You’ll adjust that number depending on:

• How competitive your market is
• Whether you’re advertising lower-cost day passes or high-ticket offices
• How fast you want leads (check out this article to learn more about the Google Ads timeline)

Here’s why it often makes sense:

Even if you spend $2,500 to sign two new office members, those customers might each pay $2,500 a month. Over a year, that’s $60,000 in revenue from those two customers.

So, the cost to get them is usually well worth it.

That’s why some coworking spaces spend $1,000 a month and others spend $10,000 or more. It all depends on your goals, your market, and how much value each customer brings to your business.

Is There a Maximum Budget for Google Ads?

We’re all about transparency, so we want to be clear that, yes, there’s absolutely a ceiling to how much you should spend on Google Ads.

We never recommend writing a blank check to Google because Google will spend it fast, whether it’s effective or not.

Several metrics tell us when you’re hitting your market’s ceiling:

• Impression share: This shows what percentage of available searches your ads are appearing in. If you’re already showing up for 90% of relevant searches in your area, increasing budget won’t help.
• Top impression share: This tells you how often your ads appear in the top three or four placements. If you’re dominating those top spots, more budget won’t improve visibility.
• Inflated cost per click: This is a big red flag. When you see Google paying double, triple, or quadruple your typical cost per click, it means the algorithm is stretching to find additional clicks. It’s trying too hard, and that’s a symptom that your budget may be too high for your search area.

When you hit that ceiling in search, you have options:

• Shift budget to other campaign types like Display or Performance Max to reach different audiences
• Focus on different services or offerings
• Look at seasonality and year-over-year trends to time your spending more strategically

The goal isn’t to spend as much as possible. It’s to spend as efficiently as possible to hit your goals.

What If You’re Working with a Small Budget for Google Ads?

Not every operator has $10,000 a month to throw at Google Ads. And that’s okay.

But, the same way that there can be a maximum budget for Google Ads, there is such a thing as a budget that’s too small to be effective.

When your budget is stretched too thin, you run into a data problem: 

You won’t generate enough leads to understand what’s working, which makes optimization nearly impossible. 

It becomes a double-edged sword: 

Spend too little and you don’t get enough leads → the leads you do get might not be high quality → you lack the data to improve performance.

Does that mean you shouldn’t do Google Ads with a small budget?

Absolutely not.

But if you have a small budget to work with, it’s wise to focus your limited budget on a single campaign type rather than spreading it across multiple campaigns. 

For example, if you’re working with a modest budget, put everything into a search campaign first. 

Search campaigns tend to have higher costs per click, but they also bring in more qualified, in-market audiences.

Once that campaign is performing well and generating sufficient data, you can layer in additional campaign types like Performance Max to expand your reach.

Here’s how to stay effective on a lean budget:

• Prioritize services that deliver cash quickly, like day passes or small offices
• Avoid overly broad keyword targeting that wastes budget on irrelevant clicks
• Be cautious with brand-awareness campaigns unless you’re prepared to invest for the long haul
• Track cost per lead and results religiously, so you know where every dollar goes

Running Google Ads without clarity burns through your funds before you see real ROI. Smart budgeting protects your cash and your growth.

Search Campaigns vs. Performance Max: Which Should You Prioritize?

Ready to get in the weeds a bit? We’ll try to avoid making your eyes glaze over with boredom.

If you’re new to Google Ads or working with a tighter budget, understanding campaign types matters.

Here are the two main ones: 

• Search campaigns: These campaigns are keyword-driven. When someone searches for “coworking space near me” or “private office downtown,” your ad can appear in those search results. These audiences are actively looking for what you offer. They’re in-market and ready to convert.
• Performance Max (PMAX): This type of campaign works differently. It leverages Google’s display network, showing your ads across YouTube, Gmail, partner websites, and even Google’s Discover feed. PMAX relies on audience signals rather than specific keywords, which means you’re reaching people who might be interested but aren’t necessarily searching right now.

Recently, PMAX has started showing up in search results too, which can create some overlap with search campaigns. 

But when used correctly, focusing on audience signals, PMAX complements your search efforts by reaching prospects at different stages of the funnel.

Our recommendation?

Start with search. Always.

Search is the nucleus of your campaign. It helps Google’s algorithm understand exactly who you’re targeting and what your space offers. 

This is especially important for coworking spaces, because Google can sometimes misinterpret your business, thinking you’re advertising warehouse space, hotels, or even residential apartments.

Once your search foundation is solid and you have budget to expand, layer in PMAX to broaden your reach. But never lead with PMAX, especially on a new account.

Google Ads are the fastest way to generate leads and fill your coworking space. In most cases, the proverbial juice is worth the squeeze. The trick is deciding how much you’re willing and able to spend to achieve your goals.

We’ll be honest…

If this feels like a complex subject, that’s because… well, it is. If you’re still feeling unsure about how to set your Google Ads budget, we can help! Book a free introductory call with Spacefully today. 

We’d be happy to explain how Google Ads can help fill your coworking space, generate more revenue, and create a waiting list so you’re never scrambling to fill vacancies.