In the latest Google Ads benchmark data, the typical search campaign across all industries has a cost per click of $5.42, a click-through rate of 6.64%, a conversion rate of 8.18% and a cost per lead of $66.69. These are medians from WordStream's 2026 report, covering April 2025 to March 2026.
This guide is the data reference for your 2027 planning, built on the newest report available. You will find the full industry table, year-over-year changes, LSA and Meta comparisons, and a simple budget method. For the general walkthrough of billing, see my guide to how much Google Ads cost.
- Where These Google Ads Benchmarks Come From
- Google Ads Benchmarks by Industry
- What Changed Year Over Year
- How Google Ads Pricing Works
- Local Services Ads Cost per Lead by Trade
- Facebook and Meta Ads Benchmarks
- Instagram Ad Cost Ranges
- How to Use Benchmarks the Right Way
- How to Estimate Your Own Google Ads Budget
- Frequently Asked Questions
1Where These Google Ads Benchmarks Come From
Every search figure in this guide comes from the WordStream by LocaliQ 2026 Google Ads Benchmarks report, last updated September 16, 2026. It is the 10th annual edition, and it is the most recent full benchmark report available as you plan for 2027.
- Data period. April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026.
- Sample. 13,474 US-based search advertising campaigns across 23 industries, with at least 52 active campaigns in each subcategory.
- Platforms. The figures blend Google Ads and Microsoft Ads search campaigns, even though the report headlines them as Google Ads.
- Medians, not means. The report calls its numbers "averages," but it states they are technically median figures to account for outliers. Throughout this guide, I call them medians or typical figures.
Question to Answer:
Do you know the date range and sample behind the benchmark numbers you are using to plan your budget right now?
2Google Ads Benchmarks by Industry
Here is the full industry table from the 2026 report. CTR is click-through rate, CPC is cost per click, CVR is conversion rate and CPL is cost per lead. Every value is a median for Google and Microsoft search campaigns from April 2025 to March 2026.
| Industry | CTR | CPC | CVR | CPL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All industries | 6.64% | $5.42 | 8.18% | $66.69 |
| Animals & Pets | 7.49% | $4.06 | 16.22% | $31.50 |
| Apparel / Fashion & Jewelry | 6.64% | $4.44 | 4.50% | $97.51 |
| Arts & Entertainment | 12.75% | $1.63 | 5.91% | $26.84 |
| Attorneys & Legal Services | 5.87% | $9.87 | 5.55% | $131.63 |
| Automotive, For Sale | 8.28% | $2.27 | 6.01% | $44.26 |
| Automotive, Repair, Service & Parts | 5.56% | $4.35 | 15.51% | $29.96 |
| Beauty & Personal Care | 6.75% | $4.62 | 10.35% | $39.25 |
| Business Services | 6.10% | $5.87 | 4.85% | $93.69 |
| Career & Employment | 5.88% | $5.81 | 3.05% | $67.36 |
| Dentists & Dental Services | 5.66% | $8.00 | 10.67% | $72.97 |
| Education & Instruction | 7.56% | $4.81 | 13.14% | $77.48 |
| Finance & Insurance | 9.83% | $3.39 | 2.64% | $74.44 |
| Furniture | 6.57% | $3.97 | 2.99% | $106.70 |
| Health & Fitness | 5.81% | $6.17 | 6.94% | $67.36 |
| Home & Home Improvement | 6.47% | $8.33 | 8.05% | $90.92 |
| Industrial & Commercial | 6.57% | $5.87 | 8.20% | $75.19 |
| Personal Services | 7.16% | $7.17 | 12.34% | $54.60 |
| Physicians & Surgeons | 6.61% | $4.76 | 12.43% | $40.04 |
| Real Estate | 7.61% | $3.22 | 3.70% | $102.51 |
| Restaurants & Food | 6.83% | $2.05 | 8.05% | $30.57 |
| Shopping, Collectibles & Gifts | 8.28% | $4.14 | 4.01% | $49.40 |
| Sports & Recreation | 8.75% | $2.77 | 7.69% | $44.26 |
| Travel | 9.32% | $2.14 | 5.83% | $44.70 |
Source: WordStream by LocaliQ, Google Ads Benchmarks 2026, data from April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026. Medians reported as "averages."
Three industries carry the highest cost per click: Attorneys & Legal Services at $9.87, Home & Home Improvement at $8.33 and Dentists & Dental Services at $8.00. Legal also has the highest cost per lead at $131.63, and Arts & Entertainment has the lowest at $26.84.
One note: two pairs of industries share identical cost per lead values ($67.36 and $44.26) on both the WordStream and LocaliQ versions. They may be accurate, but treat them with a little caution.
If you are in one of the high-cost categories, I break the numbers down further in the industry cost guides for law firms, HVAC companies and dentists.
Question to Answer:
Which row in this table matches your business, and how does your own cost per lead compare to that median?
3What Changed Year Over Year
The biggest headline in the 2026 report is that cost per lead went down. In WordStream's words, it is the first time in five years that the overall median cost per lead in Google and Microsoft Ads has dropped. Conversion rate also rose for 87% of industries.
That follows two rough years. The 2024 and 2025 reports showed a 12% increase in CPC and a 25% increase in CPL. Here are the largest industry moves in the 2026 report.
| Metric | Biggest increases | Biggest decreases |
|---|---|---|
| CTR | Education & Instruction up 31.71%, Beauty & Personal Care up 18.21%, Finance & Insurance up 18.01% | Health & Fitness down 19.08%, Career & Employment down 10.50%, Restaurants & Food down 9.89% |
| CPC | Real Estate up 27.27%, Personal Services and Health & Fitness both up about 23.41% | Education & Instruction down 22.79%, Beauty & Personal Care down 18.95%, Automotive (For Sale) down 5.81% |
| CVR | Beauty & Personal Care up 32.34%, Personal Services up 26.69%, Animals & Pets up 24.10% | Career & Employment down 29.42%, Automotive (For Sale) down 22.56%, Business Services down 5.65% |
| CPL | Automotive (For Sale) up 13.90%, Health & Fitness and Career & Employment both up 7.26%, Automotive (Repair) up 5.12% | Travel down 39.35%, Beauty & Personal Care down 34.95%, Physicians & Surgeons down 29.54% |
Source: WordStream by LocaliQ, Google Ads Benchmarks 2026, compared with the prior edition.
The long view: in the first report, built on 2016 data, CTR was 1.91%, CPC was $2.32, conversion rate was 2.70% and cost per lead was $59.18. CPC has more than doubled to $5.42, while cost per lead rose only about 13% to $66.69, because clicks convert far better than they used to.
Question to Answer:
Did your own cost per lead rise or fall over the last 12 months, and does that match the direction of your industry?
4How Google Ads Pricing Works
A benchmark CPC is a result, not a price tag. Each search runs an auction. Here is what Google's own help pages say.
- Actual CPC is the final amount you pay. Google defines actual cost-per-click as the final amount you are charged for a click. You only pay what is minimally required to clear the Ad Rank thresholds and beat the Ad Rank of the competitor immediately below you.
- Your bid is a ceiling, usually. Your actual CPC can exceed your max CPC if you have enabled Enhanced CPC or set a bid adjustment.
- Ad Rank decides whether and where you show. Google says Ad Rank is based on six factors: your bid, ad and landing page quality, Ad Rank thresholds, auction competitiveness, the context of the search, and the expected impact of assets and formats.
- Quality lowers cost. Google states that higher quality ads can often lead to lower CPCs, which is why two advertisers can pay very different prices for the same keyword.
Budgets work on a monthly schedule, not a strict daily one. According to Google's budget help page, your spend on any given day can exceed your average daily budget by up to 2 times. Over the month, you will not be charged more than 30.4 (the average number of days in a month) multiplied by your average daily budget.
Google's own example uses a $10 daily budget: the monthly maximum is $304, and no single day goes above $20. If spend ever goes past those limits, an overdelivery credit is applied to your account. The overdelivery page confirms the same rules.
Question to Answer:
Have you multiplied your daily budget by 30.4 to see the most you can be charged in a month?
5Local Services Ads Cost per Lead by Trade
Local Services Ads work differently from search ads. You do not pay per click. Google's How leads work page says you are charged for each valid lead, and leads determined to be invalid or low quality are not charged. Lead prices vary by location, job type, lead type and bidding mode. Google also recommends a minimum budget of 10 leads per week.
LSA is also moving into Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals, starting in August 2026 for select advertisers. You still pay only for valid leads, monthly spend will not exceed 30.4 times your daily average budget, and manual maximum cost per lead bidding is no longer supported. My Local Services Ads guide covers how the program works.
For cost per lead by trade, the best recent data comes from SearchLight Digital, a revenue-attribution vendor. It covers February 1 to 28, 2026 only, across 888 home services contractors and $6.72M in LSA spend, before credits.
| Trade | LSA cost per lead | Accounts | Book rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electrical | $39 | 112 | 43.4% |
| HVAC | $51 | 409 | 44.0% |
| General / All Trades | $54 | 464 | 43.9% |
| Plumbing | $57 | 230 | 44.5% |
| Drain / Sewer | $59 | 23 | 39.5% |
| Water Heater (only 2 accounts) | $71 | 2 | 35.0% |
| Blended | $53 | 888 | 43.9% |
Source: SearchLight Digital, Google Local Service Ads Cost Per Lead by Trade (2026), data from February 2026, one month in heating season.
SearchLight reports that at $53 per lead, LSA was 49% less expensive than the $104 blended Google Ads cost per lead in its own January 2026 contractor benchmark. It also warns that a national average can mask $30 leads in smaller markets and $90+ leads in competitive metros. WordStream puts the LSA average at about $60 per lead, but gives no sample or period for that figure.
Keep in mind, these are home services numbers. Legal LSA leads cost far more, as the law firm cost guide shows. If you run a home service business, my local business marketing page shows how LSA and search fit together.
Question to Answer:
Is your trade eligible for Local Services Ads, and are you tracking which of those leads actually book a job?
6Facebook and Meta Ads Benchmarks
Search catches people who are already looking. Facebook reaches people who are not searching yet, which is why the numbers look so different. The WordStream Facebook Ads Benchmarks 2026 report uses data from April 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026, a 15-month window, with 1,377 traffic campaigns and 452 leads campaigns. Like the search report, its "averages" are medians.
| Objective and metric | 2026 median | Change vs. prior year |
|---|---|---|
| Traffic CTR | 1.93% | Up 12.87% (from 1.71%) |
| Traffic CPC | $0.60 | Down 14.29% (from $0.70) |
| Leads CTR | 2.70% | Up 4.25% (from 2.59%) |
| Leads CPC | $1.80 | Down 6.25% |
| Leads conversion rate | 8.54% | Up 10.62% |
| Leads cost per lead | $27.39 | Down 0.98% |
Source: WordStream by LocaliQ, Facebook Ads Benchmarks 2026, data from April 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026.
By industry, Dentists & Dental Services had the highest Facebook leads cost per lead at $61.56, followed by Beauty & Personal Care at $50.91. Legal is not in the leads table at all, likely because it fell below the minimum campaign count. Some leads subcategories have as few as 4 campaigns, so treat the industry-level Facebook leads numbers as thin.
A cheaper lead is not automatically a better lead, because Facebook and search leads come from people at very different stages of buying. I compare the two in Google Ads vs. Facebook Ads.
Question to Answer:
Are you comparing Meta and Google leads by how many become customers, or only by cost per lead?
7Instagram Ad Cost Ranges
There is no Instagram benchmark report with a disclosed method that matches the quality of the search and Facebook data above. The best you have is a set of ranges from WordStream's online advertising costs guide, updated July 13, 2026. WordStream attributes them only to "several studies" and names none, with no sample or period.
- Cost per click: between $0.40 and $2.
- Cost per thousand impressions (CPM): $2 to $6.
- Cost per engagement: between $0.03 and $0.08.
Treat these as a rough sense of scale, not a benchmark. Your own Meta Ads Manager data will tell you more within a few weeks of testing.
Question to Answer:
Are you separating Instagram placements from Facebook placements in your reporting so you can see your own numbers?
8How to Use Benchmarks the Right Way
Benchmarks tell you whether you are in the right ballpark. They are not a goal or a forecast. Here is how to use them.
- Remember they are medians. Half the campaigns in each industry did better and half did worse. Beating the median is the minimum, not the finish line.
- Do not combine the medians. Each metric is a separate median. If you take the legal CPC of $9.87 and divide by the legal conversion rate of 5.55%, you do not land on the legal cost per lead of $131.63. Use the cost per lead column directly when you want a lead estimate.
- Adjust for your market. A national number blends small towns and major metros. Pull your own keywords into Google Keyword Planner and look at the bid ranges for your city.
- Define your conversion. If your account counts button clicks or page views as conversions, your conversion rate will look great and mean nothing. Set up conversion tracking for real calls and forms first.
- Track past the lead. The number that pays your bills is cost per customer. A higher cost per lead is fine if those leads close at a higher rate.
Question to Answer:
Is your account tracking real leads, so your conversion rate can be compared to a benchmark at all?
9How to Estimate Your Own Google Ads Budget
Here is an illustration using the all-industry medians. It shows the method, not a prediction for your account.
WordStream says the average small business spends about $3,000 per month on Google Ads. The page does not state a source or sample for that figure, but it is a reasonable round number to test with.
- Set the daily budget. $3,000 divided by 30.4 is about $98.68 a day.
- Estimate leads with the cost per lead. $3,000 divided by the $66.69 median cost per lead is about 45 leads a month.
- Swap in your industry. At the Home & Home Improvement median of $90.92, the same $3,000 is about 33 leads. At the Attorneys & Legal Services median of $131.63, it is about 23 leads.
- Work backward from your goal. Decide how many leads you need, multiply by your industry cost per lead, then divide by 30.4 for a daily budget.
WordStream's experts suggest starting with at least $1,000 to $2,500 per month. That is advice, not measured data. My Google Ads budget calculator walks through the same math step by step.
If you would rather have someone handle it, my Google Ads management services start at $750 a month, and the first month includes setup. Your ad spend is paid directly to Google, and I manage every account personally. You can see the bundles with SEO and Meta Ads on the pricing page. For industry-specific help, see my law firm marketing and medical marketing pages.
Question to Answer:
How many leads a month do you need, and what monthly budget does that work out to at your industry's cost per lead?
10Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average cost per click for Google Ads?
In WordStream's 2026 report, covering April 2025 to March 2026, the typical (median) cost per click across all industries was $5.42 for Google and Microsoft search campaigns. Attorneys & Legal Services was the highest at $9.87, and Arts & Entertainment was the lowest at $1.63.
What is a good click-through rate for Google Ads?
The median click-through rate across all industries was 6.64% in the 2026 report. It ranged from 5.56% for Automotive Repair to 12.75% for Arts & Entertainment. If your search CTR sits well below your industry median, your ads and keywords likely need work.
What is the average cost per lead for Google Ads?
The median cost per lead across all industries was $66.69 in the 2026 report. Legal had the highest at $131.63, and Arts & Entertainment had the lowest at $26.84. For the first time in five years, the overall cost per lead went down.
Which industry has the most expensive Google Ads?
Attorneys & Legal Services had both the highest median cost per click at $9.87 and the highest median cost per lead at $131.63. Home & Home Improvement ($8.33) and Dentists & Dental Services ($8.00) followed on cost per click.
Are Local Services Ads cheaper than Google search ads?
For home services, often yes. SearchLight Digital's February 2026 data put the blended LSA cost per lead at $53 across 888 contractors, compared with a $104 blended Google Ads cost per lead in its own January 2026 benchmark. Legal LSA leads cost much more, so do not apply home services numbers to a law firm.
How is Facebook ad cost different from Google Ads?
Facebook clicks and leads are cheaper. WordStream's 2026 Facebook report shows a median traffic CPC of $0.60 and a leads campaign cost per lead of $27.39, from April 2025 to June 2026. Those people are not actively searching, so compare channels on cost per customer, not cost per lead.
In Summary
The latest Google Ads benchmarks put the typical search campaign at a $5.42 cost per click, a 6.64% click-through rate, an 8.18% conversion rate and a $66.69 cost per lead, based on WordStream's 2026 report covering April 2025 to March 2026. Legal, home improvement and dental pay the most per click.
Use these numbers to check that you are in the right ballpark, then build your plan around your own market and your own tracked leads. Start with your industry cost per lead, work backward to a budget, and measure all the way to the customer. If you want help putting that plan together, reach out for a free consultation.
Sources
- WordStream by LocaliQ, "Google Ads Benchmarks 2026". Last updated September 16, 2026. Data from April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026, 13,474 US search campaigns (Google Ads and Microsoft Ads). Mirrored at LocaliQ.
- WordStream by LocaliQ, "Facebook Ads Benchmarks 2026". Last updated September 15, 2026. Data from April 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026.
- WordStream by LocaliQ, "The Comprehensive Guide to Online Advertising Costs for 2026". Last updated July 13, 2026. Small business spend, starting budget advice and Instagram ranges (no sample or period stated).
- WordStream by LocaliQ, "The Ultimate Guide to Google's Local Services Ads". Last updated August 13, 2026.
- SearchLight Digital, "Google Local Service Ads Cost Per Lead by Trade (2026)". Last updated March 2026. Data from February 1 to 28, 2026.
- Google Ads Help: Actual cost-per-click, About Ad Rank, Manage your spend, About overdelivery and Local Services Ads transition to Performance Max. Accessed October 26, 2026.
- Local Services Help: How leads work and How bidding works. Accessed October 26, 2026.
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