The most a chauffeur company can pay for a Google Ads enquiry is the margin on one booking, minus the profit it wants to keep, times the share of enquiries it wins. A 200 euro transfer at 30 percent margin, keeping 20 euros, supports 40 euros per booking and 10 euros per enquiry at one win in four. Compare that limit with the cost per conversion in the account each month, and count bookings as well as enquiries; at Irish Transfer about 67 euros of ads stood behind each booking from June to August 2026.
Advertising is paid out of the margin left after the driver, fuel, vehicle costs and any subcontractor. Take a 200 euro airport transfer with a 30 percent margin: it leaves 60 euros to cover everything else, including the ads that brought the booking in. Four steps turn that into the most you can pay Google for one enquiry.
How much margin does one booking leave?
margin per booking = average fare × margin %
most you can spend per booking = margin per booking − the profit you want to keep
If you want to keep at least 20 euros from that 200 euro transfer, the booking can cost you up to 40 euros in advertising. Use your own average booking rather than one route: at Irish Transfer the average booking in 2026 was 691 euros, because tours and golf days sit in the same average as airport runs, and that changes the limit by several times. The pricing guide covers how to get the margin number right, including the empty return leg.
How do you turn that into a cost per enquiry?
Ads produce enquiries, and only some of them become bookings, so scale the limit by how often you win:
most you can spend per enquiry = most you can spend per booking × share of enquiries you win
If you win one enquiry in four, each enquiry can cost up to 10 euros. Win one in three and the same booking supports about 13 euros per enquiry, which is why the speed of your replies changes what you can afford to pay Google. Irish Transfer won 24 percent of its enquiries in August 2026.
How do you check the limit against your account?
Google Ads reports cost per conversion. If a conversion is a real enquiry form, as the conversion tracking guide sets out, compare that figure with the limit you just worked out, campaign by campaign. At Irish Transfer, at about 2,400 euros a month of ads, one enquiry cost 16.15 euros from June to August 2026, and the cost per enquiry fell from 22.94 to 18.00 euros between August 2025 and August 2026 while ad spend rose 95 percent, so each enquiry got cheaper even as the budget grew. A campaign above the limit is either buying the wrong searches or sending them to the wrong page; the negative keywords guide and the landing page guide cover the two fixes.
What should you count: enquiries or bookings?
Both, and bookings decide. An enquiry limit keeps the budget honest week to week; the booking count tells you whether the limit was right. Mark in your booking system which enquiries came from Google Ads and which of them booked, so you can divide the month's spend by the month's bookings. At Irish Transfer that was about 67 euros of ads behind each booking from June to August 2026, against the 691 euro average booking. Count completed trips, because cancellations and no-shows do not pay for anything.
Why is the first booking worth more than this sum shows?
Repeat customers, corporate accounts and partner referrals often book again without new ad spend, so the first booking from an ad can be worth two or three trips over a year; the repeat customers guide covers how to make that happen on purpose. That is a reason to set the limit from the margin on the booking rather than from the profit you want to keep on day one, as long as you measure the repeat share rather than assume it.
The cost per lead calculator runs the whole calculation on your figures, and the Know which ads pay page shows what Irish Transfer's limit and results looked like quarter by quarter.
Questions owners ask
How do you calculate the maximum cost per lead for a chauffeur company?
Average booking times margin, minus the profit you want to keep, gives the most one booking can cost in ads; multiply by the share of enquiries you win for the most one enquiry can cost.
Why does reply speed change what you can pay per click?
Because the limit per enquiry is the limit per booking times the win share. Winning one enquiry in three instead of one in four raises the same limit by a third.
Should the limit use one route or the average booking?
The average booking, because tours and golf days sit in the same average as airport runs. At Irish Transfer the average booking was 691 euros in 2026.
What if the account’s cost per conversion is above the limit?
The campaign is buying the wrong searches or sending them to the wrong page. Add negative keywords and give each route its own landing page before cutting the budget.
Should you count enquiries or bookings?
Both. The enquiry limit keeps weekly spend honest; the month’s spend divided by completed bookings shows whether the limit was right.