Google Ads Benchmarks 2026
The average Google Ads cost per lead in 2026 is $66.69, from an average cost per click of $5.42, a click through rate of 6.64% and a conversion rate of 8.18%. Cost per lead fell year over year for the first time since 2020. Every figure below is broken out by industry and sourced.
By Harham Maeng, Director of Marketing, RYN Digital · Last updated: August 31, 2026 · Figures are third party industry benchmarks, cited per table.
What is the average cost per lead in Google Ads?
$66.69 across all industries in 2026. The spread is enormous: attorneys and legal services pay $131.63 per lead while arts and entertainment pays $26.84, a difference of nearly five times. A benchmark is only useful once it is narrowed to your category, which is why the table below is the whole point of this page.
The more important story is direction. Cost per lead decreased in 2026 for the first time in five years, and conversion rate increased for 87% of industries. After several years of steadily rising costs, search advertising got slightly cheaper and slightly more effective at the same time.
| Industry | Avg CPC | Avg CTR | Avg CVR | Avg CPL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attorneys and legal services | $9.87 | 5.87% | 5.55% | $131.63 |
| Home and home improvement | $8.33 | 6.47% | 8.05% | $90.92 |
| Dentists and dental services | $8.00 | 5.66% | 10.67% | $72.97 |
| Personal services | $7.17 | 7.16% | 12.34% | $54.60 |
| Health and fitness | $6.17 | 5.81% | 6.94% | $67.36 |
| Business services | $5.87 | 6.10% | 4.85% | $93.69 |
| Industrial and commercial | $5.87 | 6.57% | 8.20% | $75.19 |
| Career and employment | $5.81 | 5.88% | 3.05% | $67.36 |
| Education and instruction | $4.81 | 7.56% | 13.14% | $77.48 |
| Physicians and surgeons | $4.76 | 6.61% | 12.43% | $40.04 |
| Beauty and personal care | $4.62 | 6.75% | 10.35% | $39.25 |
| Apparel, fashion and jewelry | $4.44 | 6.64% | 4.50% | $97.51 |
| Animals and pets | $4.06 | 7.49% | 16.22% | $31.50 |
| Furniture | $3.97 | 6.57% | 2.99% | $106.70 |
| Finance and insurance | $3.39 | 9.83% | 2.64% | $74.44 |
| Real estate | $3.22 | 7.61% | 3.70% | $102.51 |
| Sports and recreation | $2.77 | 8.75% | 7.69% | $44.26 |
| Automotive, for sale | $2.27 | 8.28% | 6.01% | $44.26 |
| Travel | $2.14 | 9.32% | 5.83% | $44.70 |
| Restaurants and food | $2.05 | 6.83% | 8.05% | $30.57 |
| Arts and entertainment | $1.63 | 12.75% | 5.91% | $26.84 |
What do home service contractors pay per lead?
Home and home improvement sits near the top of the cost table: $8.33 per click and $90.92 per lead, against a conversion rate of 8.05%. Only attorneys pay more per click. That is a direct consequence of job value, because a contractor who wins a $12,000 roof replacement can absorb a lead cost that would ruin a restaurant.
The category average hides most of what matters, though. Roofing, HVAC, plumbing and electrical behave differently enough that a single home services number is close to useless for budgeting. Trade level figures published by PipelineOn put roofing near $228 per lead on Google Ads against roughly $162 on Local Services Ads, HVAC near $85 against $51, plumbing near $76 against $57, and electrical between $35 and $150 against roughly $39.
Across all four trades, Local Services Ads produced a lower cost per lead than Google Ads Search. That does not make it the better channel, because volume and lead quality differ, but it does mean a contractor running only one of the two is leaving the cheaper channel untested.
What do healthcare practices pay per lead?
The healthcare average is $66.02 per lead from a $5.64 cost per click and an 8.09% conversion rate, which is close to the all industry average. The specialty level spread is far wider than the category suggests, running from $18.54 to $141.17, a difference of more than seven times inside one industry.
| Specialty | Average cost per lead |
|---|---|
| Mental health | $141.17 |
| Addiction recovery | $120.30 |
| Urology | $111.05 |
| Plastic and cosmetic surgery | $102.51 |
| Hearing aids and care | $96.54 |
| General dentistry | $84.77 |
| Emergency dentistry | $75.19 |
| Assisted living and elder care | $74.44 |
| Hospitals and clinics | $72.97 |
| Orthodontics | $71.52 |
| General practice and family medicine | $62.80 |
| Oral and maxillofacial surgery | $55.15 |
| Emergency medicine | $41.68 |
| Physical therapy | $32.79 |
| Ophthalmology | $30.88 |
| Dermatology | $18.54 |
Cost per lead fell for 63% of healthcare categories year over year, while cost per click rose for 56% of them. Practices are paying more per click and less per lead, which means conversion improved faster than costs rose.
How much have Google Ads costs risen since 2016?
Cost per click has more than doubled in ten years while cost per lead has risen only about 13%. The gap is conversion rate, which went from 2.70% to 8.18%. Advertisers pay far more for attention and convert far more of it, and those two effects have largely cancelled out.
| Metric | 2016 | 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per click | $2.32 | $5.42 | Up 134% |
| Click through rate | 1.91% | 6.64% | Up 248% |
| Conversion rate | 2.70% | 8.18% | Up 203% |
| Cost per lead | $59.18 | $66.69 | Up 13% |
How should you actually use a benchmark?
As a sanity check, not a target. A benchmark tells you whether your numbers are strange for your category. It cannot tell you whether they are good for your business, because that depends on close rate and job value, neither of which appears in any benchmark table.
The number that matters is your break even cost per lead. Take your average job value, multiply by gross margin to get gross profit, multiply by your lead to customer close rate, and the result is the most you can pay for a lead before you lose money. A contractor with a $6,000 average job, 45% margin and a 20% close rate can pay up to $540 per lead and still break even. Against that figure, a $90 benchmark is not expensive.
This is why a high cost per lead is not automatically a problem and a low one is not automatically a win. Attorneys pay $131.63 per lead and run profitably because one signed case is worth thousands. A restaurant paying $30 may be losing money.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good cost per lead in Google Ads?
Why did cost per lead go down in 2026?
Are these figures Google Ads only?
Do benchmarks include branded search?
How often do these numbers change?
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page is third party industry data, not RYN Digital client data. RYN Digital does not publish client outcome statistics.
- WordStream, Google Ads Benchmarks 2026
- LocaliQ, Search Advertising Benchmarks 2026
- LocaliQ, Healthcare Search Ads Benchmarks by specialty
- PipelineOn 2026 home services advertising benchmarks, for trade level cost per lead