How much does Google Ads cost?
Across all industries, Google search ads cost $5.42 per click and $66.69 per lead in LocaliQ's 2026 benchmarks, which cover US campaigns from April 2025 to March 2026. The range is wide, from $1.63 a click for arts and entertainment to $9.87 for lawyers, so your budget depends far more on your industry and city than on any overall average.
The 2026 numbers
Two things moved in opposite directions. The average click got 3% more expensive between editions, while the average lead got 4.9% cheaper.[2] LocaliQ calls it the first drop in overall cost per lead in five years.[1] In the same write-up, Microsoft's Navah Hopkins points to the cause: conversion rates rose along with click prices, so advertisers paid more per visitor and turned more of those visitors into leads.
Cost by industry
All 23 industries in the 2026 report, sorted by cost per lead. The three linked rows have their own pages with worked budgets.
| Industry | Cost per click | Click-through rate | Conversion rate | Cost per lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attorneys & Legal Services | $9.87 | 5.87% | 5.55% | $131.63 |
| Furniture | $3.97 | 6.57% | 2.99% | $106.70 |
| Real Estate | $3.22 | 7.61% | 3.70% | $102.51 |
| Apparel / Fashion & Jewelry | $4.44 | 6.64% | 4.50% | $97.51 |
| Business Services | $5.87 | 6.10% | 4.85% | $93.69 |
| Home & Home Improvement | $8.33 | 6.47% | 8.05% | $90.92 |
| Education & Instruction | $4.81 | 7.56% | 13.14% | $77.48 |
| Industrial & Commercial | $5.87 | 6.57% | 8.20% | $75.19 |
| Finance & Insurance | $3.39 | 9.83% | 2.64% | $74.44 |
| Dentists & Dental Services | $8.00 | 5.66% | 10.67% | $72.97 |
| Career & Employment | $5.81 | 5.88% | 3.05% | $67.36 |
| Health & Fitness | $6.17 | 5.81% | 6.94% | $67.36 |
| Personal Services | $7.17 | 7.16% | 12.34% | $54.60 |
| Shopping, Collectibles & Gifts | $4.14 | 8.28% | 4.01% | $49.40 |
| Travel | $2.14 | 9.32% | 5.83% | $44.70 |
| Automotive: For Sale | $2.27 | 8.28% | 6.01% | $44.26 |
| Sports & Recreation | $2.77 | 8.75% | 7.69% | $44.26 |
| Physicians & Surgeons | $4.76 | 6.61% | 12.43% | $40.04 |
| Beauty & Personal Care | $4.62 | 6.75% | 10.35% | $39.25 |
| Animals & Pets | $4.06 | 7.49% | 16.22% | $31.50 |
| Restaurants & Food | $2.05 | 6.83% | 8.05% | $30.57 |
| Automotive: Repair, Service & Parts | $4.35 | 5.56% | 15.51% | $29.96 |
| Arts & Entertainment | $1.63 | 12.75% | 5.91% | $26.84 |
| All industries[1] | $5.42 | 6.64% | 8.18% | $66.69 |
Cost per click and cost per lead don't always move together. Real estate has one of the cheapest clicks ($3.22) and one of the most expensive leads ($102.51), because only 3.70% of clicks became leads. Read the conversion rate column before you judge an industry by its click price.
How to work out your budget
There are two ways to size a monthly budget, and you should run both:
Monthly budget = leads you want x cost per leadMonthly budget = (leads you want / conversion rate) x cost per click
Then divide by 30.4 to get the daily budget Google asks for. Google uses 30.4 as the average days in a month: a campaign can spend up to twice its daily budget on a busy day, but no more than 30.4 times it over the month.[3]
30 leads a month at the all-industry figures
The two methods rarely match exactly, because each benchmark is calculated separately. Plan with the higher one and replace both with your own numbers after a month.
Try it with your numbers
The two budgets differ because the benchmark cost per lead, cost per click and conversion rate are each calculated separately across thousands of campaigns, not taken from one account. Plan for the higher one, then use your own numbers after 30 days.
RunAds plans the campaign at your budget and writes the ads.
What makes Google Ads cost more or less
- Industry. The biggest factor. A click for a law firm costs about 6.1 times one for an arts business.
- Location. Big metro areas have more advertisers bidding on the same searches than small towns.
- Which searches you buy. Broad terms bring cheap clicks from people who aren't ready to buy. Specific, high-intent terms cost more per click and less per lead.
- Negative keywords. Every irrelevant search you exclude is a click you don't pay for.
- Your landing page. A page that turns 10% of clicks into leads halves your cost per lead compared with one that turns 5%.
- Ad relevance. Google rewards ads that match the search with better positions for the same bid.
- Season and time of day. Demand and competition rise and fall through the year and the week.
What it costs to manage
Ad spend goes to Google. Management is a separate cost, and there are three common ways to pay for it:
- Do it yourself. No fee, but it takes hours each week to watch search terms, budgets and ads.
- Hire an agency or freelancer. A monthly retainer or a share of spend, usually with a contract. Ask for the fee in writing.
- Hire an agent. RunAds starts every account with 500 free credits, which cover your first $100 of Google ad spend. After that it is 5 credits per $1 of ad spend, less as you grow, and AI is unlimited on every plan. Unlimited is $499 every 4 weeks and covers up to $10,000 a month of managed spend. See pricing.
RunAds plans the campaigns, writes the ads, and watches the account every day. Lead businesses use it to get more leads at a lower cost per lead; ecommerce brands use it to get more sales at a lower CAC. See everything the agent does or how a campaign gets built.
Common questions
How much does Google Ads cost per month?
It costs what you set as a budget. To size it, multiply the leads you want by your cost per lead. At the 2026 all-industry figure of $66.69, 30 leads a month is about $2,001. Lawyers pay the most per lead ($131.63), restaurants and arts businesses among the least.
How much does a Google Ads click cost?
$5.42 across all industries in LocaliQ's 2026 benchmarks, up from $5.26 in the 2025 edition. By industry it runs from $1.63 (arts and entertainment) to $9.87 (attorneys and legal services).
Is Google Ads getting more expensive?
Clicks are. The all-industry cost per click rose from $5.26 to $5.42 between the 2025 and 2026 editions. Cost per lead went the other way, from $70.11 to $66.69, which LocaliQ describes as the first overall drop in five years.
Can Google spend more than my daily budget?
Yes, on a single day. Google Ads Help says a campaign can spend up to twice its average daily budget on a given day, but no more than 30.4 times the daily budget in a month.
How much does it cost to have someone manage Google Ads?
Management is separate from ad spend. With RunAds, every account starts with 500 free credits, which cover the first $100 of Google ad spend; after that it is 5 credits per $1 of ad spend, less as you grow. Unlimited is $499 every 4 weeks and covers up to $10,000 a month of managed spend. Ad spend is paid to Google directly.
Sources
- NEW 2026 Search Advertising Benchmarks (+Tips), LocaliQ (with WordStream), by Stephanie Heitman. Last updated June 1, 2026.Google Ads and Microsoft Ads search campaigns across 23 industries. The page labels each figure an average.
- Google Ads CPL drops for first time since 2020 as CPC hits $5.42, PPC Land, covering WordStream's 2026 benchmarks (published May 19, 2026). 2026.Methodology: 13,474 US search campaigns, April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026, reported as medians. WordStream's own page blocks our fetcher, so this is the methodology as reported.
- About average daily budgets, Google Ads Help. Checked Oct 30, 2026.A campaign can spend up to 2x its average daily budget on a given day, and up to 30.4x it in a month.
Every outside number on this page links to its source above, with the date we checked it. RunAds has not published its own account data here.
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