Every home service owner wants the same comparison. What does an electrician pay per lead. What does a roofer pay per lead. What does the pest control guy down the road spend on Google Ads. The answers exist, but they get distorted by vertical-specific dynamics that don’t transfer cleanly. A plumbing CPL of $90 is healthy. A landscaping CPL of $90 is bordering on broken.
This piece breaks down 2026 advertising costs across the seven major home service verticals (HVAC, plumbing, roofing, electrical, landscaping, pest control, garage door) by channel. The figures come from our own accounts, public benchmarks, and operator conversations. The framing assumes you’re tracking real calls and form fills, not click counts or chat opens.
If you’re benchmarking your own spend, use this as a starting frame and adjust for your specific metro and channel mix.
How to Read These Numbers
A few notes before the breakdown.
CPL ranges assume clean tracking of phone calls over 60 seconds, form submissions with real phone numbers, and booked appointments. Spam, sales calls, wrong-area calls, and chat opens that don’t reach a phone number are excluded.
ROAS figures assume average industry margins and full attribution from lead source through booked job through completed work. Most operators tracking ROAS without back-office integration overstate ROAS by 20 to 40 percent because they don’t deduct unconverted leads or cancellations.
All figures are for mid-size metros (population 200,000 to 2 million). Adjust down 15 to 30 percent for rural markets and up 25 to 40 percent for dense urban metros.
HVAC
Typical monthly ad spend for a $2M to $5M HVAC business: $7,500 to $14,000.
CPL by channel:
– Google Ads search: $88 to $130
– Local Services Ads: $35 to $75
– SEO (effective, year-3): $30 to $80
– Facebook lead forms: $55 to $120
– Direct mail: $85 to $180
– Aggregators (Angi, HomeAdvisor): $30 to $45 shared
Average ticket: $450 service call, $7,500 install
ROAS at healthy mix: 2.0x to 3.5x on tracked paid media
HVAC has the most seasonal demand swing of any home service vertical. Summer (cooling) and deep winter (heating) drive emergency volume. Shoulder seasons need pulled-forward maintenance offers and replacement campaigns to keep CPL stable. Accounts that don’t shift mix seasonally see CPL spike 40 to 60 percent in shoulder months.
Plumbing
Typical monthly ad spend for a $2M to $5M plumbing business: $6,000 to $12,000.
CPL by channel:
– Google Ads search: $75 to $115
– Local Services Ads: $30 to $65
– SEO (effective, year-3): $25 to $70
– Facebook lead forms: $60 to $130 (limited use)
– Direct mail: $90 to $170
– Aggregators: $25 to $40 shared
Average ticket: $385 service call, $4,800 sewer line or water heater install
ROAS at healthy mix: 2.2x to 3.8x on tracked paid media
Plumbing has the highest emergency-share of any home service vertical, which keeps LSA CPL particularly low. Drain cleaning and clogged toilet queries dominate weekend and overnight volume. Tracking is critical because many plumbing leads come in as text messages or short phone calls; click-only conversion goals miss most of the booked work.
Roofing
Typical monthly ad spend for a $3M to $8M roofing business: $10,000 to $25,000.
CPL by channel:
– Google Ads search: $110 to $180
– Local Services Ads: $45 to $95
– SEO (effective, year-3): $35 to $90
– Facebook lead forms: $40 to $85
– Direct mail: $110 to $200
– Aggregators: $40 to $75 shared
Average ticket: $9,500 to $18,000 per job
ROAS at healthy mix: 2.5x to 4.5x on tracked paid media
Roofing CPL looks high until you remember the AOV is. A $150 CPL on a job that closes at 25 percent for $12,000 is a $600 cost per booked job at $12,000 revenue, which is 5 percent marketing per job. Healthy. The trap in roofing is storm-chasing demand spikes: CPL drops to $50 after a hailstorm and operators staff up, then CPL climbs back to $180 within 90 days as the storm wave passes.
Electrical
Typical monthly ad spend for a $1.5M to $4M electrical business: $5,000 to $10,000.
CPL by channel:
– Google Ads search: $85 to $145
– Local Services Ads: $35 to $70
– SEO (effective, year-3): $30 to $80
– Facebook lead forms: $65 to $130
– Direct mail: $95 to $175
– Aggregators: $30 to $50 shared
Average ticket: $385 service call, $1,800 panel upgrade, $6,500 to $12,000 EV charger or full rewire
ROAS at healthy mix: 2.0x to 3.2x on tracked paid media
Electrical has shifted in 2026 toward EV charger installs as a meaningful revenue line. CPL on “EV charger installation” queries runs $90 to $160 and converts at 30 to 45 percent. Operators not running EV charger campaigns separately are missing a 15 to 25 percent revenue lift available on the same paid media spend.
Landscaping and Lawn Care
Typical monthly ad spend for a $1M to $3M landscaping business: $3,500 to $8,000.
CPL by channel:
– Google Ads search: $45 to $85
– Local Services Ads: $25 to $55
– SEO (effective, year-3): $20 to $55
– Facebook lead forms: $35 to $75
– Direct mail: $55 to $120
– Aggregators: $20 to $35 shared
Average ticket: $90 per mow visit, $1,200 per landscape design, $5,500 to $25,000 per install project
ROAS at healthy mix: 1.8x to 3.0x on tracked paid media
Landscaping has the lowest CPL of any home service vertical because the auctions are less competitive and the queries are more seasonal-narrow. But it also has the highest variability between recurring service (mowing, lawn care) and project work (design-build, hardscape). Operators should track CPL separately for the two streams; a $50 CPL is great for a $25,000 hardscape project and bad for a $90 mow that doesn’t recur.
Pest Control
Typical monthly ad spend for a $1.5M to $4M pest control business: $4,000 to $9,000.
CPL by channel:
– Google Ads search: $55 to $95
– Local Services Ads: $30 to $60
– SEO (effective, year-3): $20 to $60
– Facebook lead forms: $40 to $85
– Direct mail: $65 to $135
– Aggregators: $25 to $40 shared
Average ticket: $185 initial treatment, $480 to $1,400 annual plan, $1,200 to $4,500 termite
ROAS at healthy mix: 2.5x to 4.2x on tracked paid media (recurring revenue boosts LTV-based ROAS significantly)
Pest control has the strongest LTV-to-CAC story in home services because annual recurring plans transform a single lead into 4 to 12 service visits over 12 months. A $75 CPL on a homeowner who signs an annual plan at $720 is a 10x LTV-to-CAC. Operators measuring only first-job revenue under-state ROAS by 50 to 70 percent.
Garage Door
Typical monthly ad spend for a $1M to $2.5M garage door business: $3,000 to $7,000.
CPL by channel:
– Google Ads search: $65 to $115
– Local Services Ads: $30 to $65
– SEO (effective, year-3): $25 to $70
– Facebook lead forms: $50 to $100 (limited use)
– Direct mail: $75 to $150
– Aggregators: $25 to $40 shared
Average ticket: $295 spring repair, $1,200 opener install, $3,500 to $7,500 full door replacement
ROAS at healthy mix: 2.3x to 3.6x on tracked paid media
Garage door has the highest emergency-call share and the fastest cycle time of any home service vertical. Most jobs are diagnosed, quoted, and completed in the same visit. CPL stays low because intent is high and the auction is narrow. The risk is overspending on aggregator leads where margin is too thin to justify shared distribution.
Cross-Vertical Patterns
Three patterns hold across every home service vertical above.
LSA always delivers the lowest CPL of any channel. Across all seven verticals, LSA runs 50 to 70 percent below Google Ads search CPL on a like-for-like tracked basis. Operators who don’t run LSA at all are paying twice as much per lead as they have to.
Tracked vs untracked accounts diverge by 20 to 40 percent. Accounts running click-only conversion goals routinely report CPLs that are 25 percent worse than they actually are because spend is correct but conversion count is too low. Accounts running fake conversion goals (counting form starts as completes) report CPLs 30 percent better than reality.
Marketing as a percentage of revenue lands at 7 to 11 percent across healthy operators. Below 6 percent typically means you’re under-investing and leaving demand unsold. Above 12 percent means either you’re scaling fast (acceptable for 3 to 6 months) or the unit economics are broken.
What to Compare to Your Own Numbers
Pull your own numbers from last quarter. Match them to the vertical and metro tier above. Then ask three questions.
Is my channel mix concentrated in one place? If yes, you’re likely missing demand from the channel you’re not running. LSA-only operators leave install-volume demand on the table. Search-only operators pay 50 percent more per lead than they have to.
Is my tracking definition the same as the benchmark definition? If your “leads” include click counts or chat opens, you’re not comparable. Clean the tracking, then compare.
Is my marketing-to-revenue percentage in the healthy range? If you’re at 4 percent, you’re under-invested and a competitor is taking demand from you. If you’re at 15 percent, the math is breaking and you need to either raise AOV or lower CPL before adding more budget.
Get a Free Google Ads Audit
We benchmark home service accounts against vertical-specific norms, not generic averages. The free Google Ads audit compares your tracked CPL, channel mix, and marketing-to-revenue percentage against the right peer group for your vertical and market. Request the audit here.
About RYN Digital. RYN Digital is a Google Ads and LSA agency for home services, healthcare, legal, pet services, and financial verticals. We launch fully tracked accounts in 72 hours and deliver 20 to 30 qualified leads per month at $88 to $130 CPL with 2x ROI and 30 percent lower CAC.
Related reading:
– Google Ads for Home Services
– Google Ads Cost in 2026
– Google Ads Benchmarks
– Google Ads vs LSA
Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage of revenue should I budget for advertising?
Most healthy home service operators run 7 to 11 percent of revenue on combined paid media, SEO, and direct mail. Below 6 percent usually means you’re under-invested. Above 12 percent for more than 6 months means either you’re scaling fast or the unit economics are broken. Diagnose which before adding budget.
Why is roofing CPL so much higher than landscaping CPL if both are home services?
Average ticket and competitive auction depth. Roofing AOV runs $9,500 to $18,000 with deep-pocketed competitors bidding aggressively. Landscaping has thinner-margin recurring service alongside project work, which keeps auctions less heated. CPL in isolation is meaningless; cost per booked job and marketing percentage of revenue are the right comparisons.
Should every home service vertical run Local Services Ads?
Yes if your vertical is eligible. LSA delivers 50 to 70 percent lower CPL than search ads across every vertical we’ve measured. The only reason not to run LSAs is if the program isn’t available in your category or metro yet. Check the LSA dashboard for your area.
How long does it take to know if my channel mix is working?
60 to 90 days of clean tracked data. Less than 60 days and you’re reading noise. More than 120 days without intervention and you’re tolerating problems that should have been fixed. We review channel mix and CPL on a 30-day cadence with monthly action items.
Is direct mail still worth running for home services in 2026?
For replacement-heavy verticals (HVAC, roofing) in suburban neighborhoods with aging housing stock, yes. CPL is $85 to $200, but close rates run 35 to 50 percent and AOV is high. Three to five drops to the same neighborhoods over 12 months produces 30 to 40 percent lower effective CPL than single-drop campaigns. For recurring-service verticals (pest, landscaping), direct mail is less efficient than digital.