How much do Google Ads cost? 2026 pricing guide
Search ads averaged $5.42 per click and $66.69 per lead across industries in LocaliQ’s 2026 benchmarks. For the main home service trades, LocaliQ’s medians from 2024 to 2025 campaigns run from $93.69 per lead for electricians to $228.15 for roofing. Agencies charge on top of ad spend, usually a flat monthly fee, a percentage of spend commonly quoted at 10% to 20%, or a mix of the two.
What Google Ads costs per click and per lead in 2026
Across industries, search ads averaged $5.42 per click and $66.69 per lead in LocaliQ’s 2026 search advertising benchmarks, built with WordStream from thousands of LocaliQ customer campaigns on Google Ads and Microsoft Ads (page updated June 1, 2026). LocaliQ reports that cost per click rose a little over the prior year, while cost per lead fell across all industries for the first time in five years.
The spread between industries is wide. Legal services have the highest cost per click in the table at $9.87. Real estate and furniture both pass $100 per lead even though their clicks cost under $4, which means a smaller share of their clicks turn into leads.
| Industry | Average cost per click | Average cost per lead |
|---|---|---|
| Attorneys and legal services | $9.87 | $131.63 |
| Home and home improvement | $8.33 | $90.92 |
| Dentists and dental services | $8.00 | $72.97 |
| Personal services | $7.17 | $54.60 |
| Health and fitness | $6.17 | $67.36 |
| Business services | $5.87 | $93.69 |
| Industrial and commercial | $5.87 | $75.19 |
| Career and employment | $5.81 | $67.36 |
| Education and instruction | $4.81 | $77.48 |
| Physicians and surgeons | $4.76 | $40.04 |
| Beauty and personal care | $4.62 | $39.25 |
| Apparel, fashion and jewelry | $4.44 | $97.51 |
| Automotive repair, service and parts | $4.35 | $29.96 |
| Shopping, collectibles and gifts | $4.14 | $49.40 |
| Animals and pets | $4.06 | $31.50 |
| Furniture | $3.97 | $106.70 |
| Finance and insurance | $3.39 | $74.44 |
| Real estate | $3.22 | $102.51 |
| Sports and recreation | $2.77 | $44.26 |
| Automotive for sale | $2.27 | $44.26 |
| Travel | $2.14 | $44.70 |
| Restaurants and food | $2.05 | $30.57 |
| Arts and entertainment | $1.63 | $26.84 |
| All industries | $5.42 | $66.69 |
For click through and conversion rate benchmarks, see Google Ads benchmarks.
What home service leads cost on Google
In LocaliQ’s 2026 table, home and home improvement costs $90.92 per lead against $66.69 for all industries. For trade level figures, LocaliQ’s home services search advertising benchmarks cover 3,211 US search campaigns that ran from April 1, 2024 to March 21, 2025 (page updated July 15, 2026), and the figures are medians. Among the five trades in the table below, median cost per lead runs from $93.69 for electricians to $228.15 for roofing and gutters.
Local Services Ads, Google’s pay per lead format for service businesses that shows the Google Verified badge, costs less per lead. SearchLight Digital tracked 888 contractors and $6.72 million in Local Services Ads spend in February 2026 and found a blended cost of $53 per lead. The search data in the table is from 2024 to 2025 campaigns and the Local Services Ads data is from 2026, so the columns are not a same period comparison.
| Trade | Search cost per click | Search cost per lead | Local Services Ads cost per lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air conditioning installation and repair | $9.68 | $127.74 | $51 (HVAC) |
| Heating and furnaces | $9.30 | $129.02 | $51 (HVAC) |
| Plumbing | $10.49 | $129.02 | $57 |
| Electricians and electrical contractors | $12.18 | $93.69 | $39 |
| Roofing and gutters | $10.70 | $228.15 | No SearchLight row. 99 Calls, Q1 2026: $65.80. The Media Captain, 2025: $162 |
| Drain and sewer | Not reported | Not reported | $59 |
| All home services categories | $7.85 | $90.92 | $53 blended across trades |
The two roofing figures disagree: 99 Calls draws on Q1 2026 campaigns it ran, and The Media Captain on data from more than 100 clients, published August 2025.
Branded searches pull the search average down. In SearchLight’s January 2026 benchmark of 816 contractors and $14.9 million in Google Ads spend, reported on the same SearchLight page, cost per lead was $34 on branded search, $72 on Performance Max, $149 on non-branded search and $104 blended. Compare non-branded campaigns against the non-branded figure. More detail is on Google Ads vs Local Services Ads, Local Services Ads statistics and HVAC marketing statistics.
How much businesses spend on Google Ads each month
Google sets no fixed price. You choose an average daily budget, and Google’s help pages say that for most campaigns, spend can reach two times that amount on a given day but will not exceed 30.4 times it in a month. Google’s example: to spend $304 a month, set a $10 average daily budget.
AgencyAnalytics, a reporting platform for marketing agencies, reports a median monthly Google Ads spend of $1,024.79 in January 2025, from data on more than 7,000 of its users. Published ranges are wider and do not show their underlying data: WebFX says businesses typically spend $1,000 to $10,000 a month on Google Ads (July 2026).
To turn a budget into an expected lead count for your trade, use the Google Ads ROI calculator with the cost per lead figures above.
How agencies charge for Google Ads management
Management fees go to the agency on top of ad spend. Three models are common, and many agencies combine them.
Percentage of ad spend
The agency takes a share of what you spend on ads. AgencyAnalytics (July 2025) calls this the most common model and puts it at 10% to 20% of spend. WebFX gives the same 10% to 20% range, or $1,000 to $3,000 a month, and says fees usually decrease as total spend increases. Under this model the fee goes up whenever the budget does, whether or not the work changes.
Flat monthly fee or retainer
A fixed amount each month regardless of spend. Most agencies set a minimum. In Credo’s agency pricing survey, 51.62% of PPC respondents had a monthly retainer minimum under $2,000 and 5.84% had none (table below).
Hybrid base fee plus percentage
A flat fee up to a spend level, then a percentage above it. Credo says this is the most common setup it sees among PPC agencies. Its pricing guide describes typical agency pricing as $1,000 to $2,000 a month to manage one channel, a setup fee of $1,000 to $2,500, and 15% of spend above $10,000 a month. WebFX’s published rate card also works this way.
Credo ran the survey with project management platform Teamwork and reports 507 respondents, 62.25% of them in the US. It is older data: the results pages were last updated in June 2022.
| Survey finding | Result |
|---|---|
| Average hourly rate, US-based PPC agency | $151.88 |
| PPC agencies charging $50 to $150 an hour | 84.74% |
| Monthly retainer minimum under $2,000 | 51.62% |
| Monthly retainer minimum over $5,000 | 11.36% |
| No retainer minimum | 5.84% |
| Minimum engagement of 6 to 12 months | 30.52% |
| No minimum contract length | 26.3% |
| Monthly ad spend | Monthly management fee | First month, including audit |
|---|---|---|
| $100 to $5,000 | $750 | $1,200 |
| $5,000 to $30,000 | $975 or 15% of spend, whichever is higher | $2,250 |
| $30,001 and up | $4,500 or 12% of spend, whichever is greater | $5,800 |
Total cost of Google Ads
Total monthly cost is ad spend plus the management fee, plus any setup fee in the first month and tools such as call tracking. Credo’s pricing guide works through one example: a business spending $15,000 a month across Google and Bing would pay about $2,000 a month to manage two channels plus $9,000 a year at 15% on the spend above $10,000. Credo totals that at $33,000 a year and notes a possible onboarding fee of about $2,000 that varies widely. Credo compares that with an average PPC manager salary of $72,844 a year, which it attributes to Indeed. Both figures come from a page last updated in June 2022.
Before signing with any agency, ask four things: is the fee flat or tied to spend, is there a setup fee, how long is the minimum contract, and who owns the Google Ads account if you leave.
What RYN Digital charges
RYN Digital charges $1,000 a month flat, regardless of ad spend. There is no setup fee and no percentage of spend. Billing is month to month with 30 days notice, and RYN takes one client per trade per metro. Your total monthly cost is your ad spend plus $1,000. Details are on the pricing page, and you can request a free written audit of an existing account.
Sources
- LocaliQ, Search Advertising Benchmarks for Every Industry (2026 Data)
- LocaliQ, Search Ad Benchmarks for Home Services
- SearchLight Digital, Google Local Service Ads Cost Per Lead by Trade (2026)
- 99 Calls, LSA Cost Per Lead by Industry for Service Contractors (Q1 2026 Data)
- The Media Captain, Local Service Ads Stats and Cost Per Lead Data for 11 Industries
- Google Ads Help, About average daily budgets
- Google Local Services Help, Local Services Ads overview
- AgencyAnalytics, PPC Agency Pricing: How Much To Charge for PPC Management in 2025
- WebFX, How Much Does Google Ads Cost in 2026?
- WebFX, PPC Pricing: How Much Does PPC Cost in 2026?
- Credo, Digital Marketing Pricing Survey: Average PPC Agency Rates
- Credo, Digital Marketing Pricing Survey: PPC Pricing
- Credo, Digital Marketing Pricing Survey: Demographics