How to split a Brampton ad budget between English, Punjabi and Hindi

Why population share is the wrong starting point

The tempting shortcut is to match your budget to the Census. In the 2021 Census Profile for Brampton, 21.7% of residents reported Punjabi as a mother tongue, 17.5% spoke it most often at home, and 3.0% reported Hindi as a mother tongue. So why not put about a fifth of your budget into Punjabi and a few percent into Hindi?

Three reasons:

1. Mother tongue isn't search language. Many people whose first language is Punjabi search in English, especially on a phone in a hurry. A Punjabi ad only reaches people Google thinks understand Punjabi; its help page says it uses signals such as search terms and language settings to decide.
2. Residents aren't your customers. A commercial roofer, a basement renovator and an emergency plumber each serve a different slice of the city.
3. The phone decides the result. A language campaign is only as good as the person who answers the call.

Population figures tell you a test is worth running. Your results tell you how big it should become.

Step 1: Work out your break-even cost per lead

Every budget decision starts here. You need three numbers:

• Average job value: the typical invoice for the service you're advertising.
• Gross margin: what's left after materials and labour.
• Booking rate: the share of genuine leads that become paid jobs.

Break-even cost per lead = job value × margin × booking rate.

For a Brampton HVAC contractor advertising furnace replacements: $6,500 × 30% × 25% = about $488. You don't want to spend the full margin on marketing, so you might set a working ceiling at a third of that, about $160 per lead.

Step 2: Calculate booking rates by language, if you can

If you already get calls in Punjabi or Hindi, check your records. Of the last 50 leads, which language did each customer use, and which booked?

These are example figures, and with samples this small you should treat any pattern with caution. Still, if your own records look like this, it suggests that customers who can speak their own language on the first call book more readily. A higher booking rate raises your break-even cost per lead for that language. Using the furnace example, a 38% booking rate gives a break-even of $6,500 × 30% × 38% ≈ $741, and a working ceiling near $247.

If you have no records, start tracking now. Our lead follow-up service sets this up.

Step 3: Size the test

A test needs enough leads to tell you something. As a rough rule, aim for at least 20–30 leads per language over the test period.

If your working ceiling is $200 per lead and you want 25 Punjabi leads in 90 days, you need about $5,000 over three months, or roughly $1,700 a month. If that's too much, test fewer services in fewer wards rather than spreading a small budget thinly. One service in two ward pairs gives a clearer answer than five services across the city.

These are illustrations, not recommendations for your business.

Step 4: Keep the languages separate

Every language needs:

• its own campaign or ad group, so budgets don't blend
• ads written by a native speaker, not machine-translated; our translator briefing guide explains how
• its own landing page in that language
• its own call tracking number, so calls can be counted

Google's help page notes that, as of September 2026, Search campaigns match ads based on the language the ads are written in. A Punjabi ad in a mixed campaign is still a Punjabi ad, but you lose the ability to read its numbers.

Step 5: Judge at 90 days by cost per booked job

At the end of the test, compare languages on one number: cost per booked job.

In this example, Punjabi is clearly earning its keep, so you would shift more budget to it, perhaps to 25–30%, while watching that the people taking Punjabi calls aren't overloaded. If the result were reversed, you'd look first at follow-up and landing pages before cutting the language.

What to do when a language underperforms

A weak result doesn't automatically mean the language is wrong for your business. Before cutting it, check four things in order:

1. Who answered the calls? If Punjabi callers reached voicemail or an English-only staff member, the test measured your phone handling, not the market.
2. Did the landing page match the ad? An ad in Punjabi that opens an English page loses most of its advantage.
3. Was the offer the same? A free estimate in English and a paid one in Punjabi isn't a fair comparison.
4. Was the copy natural? Ask a native-speaking customer to read the ad and the page aloud.

If all four were sound and the numbers still don't work, pause the language and put the budget back where it earns more.

Common traps

• Judging after two weeks. Early results swing wildly, especially for high-ticket trades.
• Counting clicks. A cheap click from the wrong audience is still wasted.
• Changing everything at once. If you change the ads, landing pages and budget together, you won't know what worked.
• Ignoring capacity. A successful Punjabi campaign can overwhelm the one team member who speaks Punjabi.
• Forgetting seasons. Compare like with like. A furnace campaign in October and one in May will never look the same.

Where this fits

This method is the core of our Google Ads and multilingual campaigns services. The plan fees are on the pricing page. If you'd like a second opinion on your numbers, call, text or email with your average job value, booking rate and current spend by language.