Google Local Services ads are pay per lead. Depending on the vertical and market, the cost per lead can be anywhere from $5 to $139. Overall, the average cost per lead is around $23. – Note that this was back in 2018. Lead costs have increased dramatically over the past few years.
Average Cost Per Lead for Common Verticals
HVAC – $26
Plumber – $24
Electrician – $17
Garage Door – $19
Locksmith – $11
Carpet Cleaning – $21
House Cleaning – $19
For the most part, all businesses in the same market and vertical are charged the same amount for a lead. There are a few exceptions to this, maybe I’ll go into that more in a future post.
I compiled a list, that I believe to be accurate, showing the cost per lead for each market and vertical. I know that Google has raised the cost per lead for at least a couple of these, so some may be off slightly.
The default view shows the average cost per lead by vertical across all US markets that are currently up and running. Select a specific market to see its verticals and cost per lead:
That is incredibly helpful information. It enables me to position our pay-per-lead pricing next to Google’s. Especially for service businesses who didn’t get into to the top 3 on Google Home Service Ads, and who are now irrelevant or “invisible” to a consumer whose needs have already been met by those ads.
I was about to ask if you thought lead pricing varied from City to City…but I see you’ve done that, too. Your data shows that lead pricing does not seem to be very different between expensive and less expensive local markets – yet. Thanks.
I want to know how much a lead cost for painting contractors and does it cost more for bigger jobs.
Local Services ads are not available to painting contractors at this time.
Hey Tom,
I wanted to reach out and ask if this data has been update and if not where you may have gotten this data from?
Hi Dylan,
I believe these numbers are still accurate if you filter down to a market but not all verticals or markets are present. I had been able to manually pull these numbers utilizing a lead estimator on the Local Services signup form. They have modified it since then though so I can no longer get them using that method.