"How much do Google Ads cost?"The honest answer.
The truthful answer is "it depends", but unlike most agencies we'll show you what it depends on, with real numbers from our own client accounts instead of made up industry averages.
Home services client, Kent. 622 leads across 2 months of Google Ads.
Typical cost per click range across our trades accounts right now.
Our best performing trades landing page: roughly 1 in 9 clicks becomes a lead.
For a UK trade or local business, Google Ads needs at least £500 a month in ad spend to work properly, and most local campaigns we see run on £500 to £3,000 a month. That money is paid straight to Google. If an agency manages the account, its fee sits on top. What that spend turns into comes down to three numbers: your cost per click, your conversion rate and your close rate.
Cost per click. What you pay Google when someone clicks. In most UK trades this runs £2 to £5 depending on competition. Emergency services and legal adjacent trades run higher, niche specialist services often lower.
Conversion rate. How many clicks become enquiries. This is where the landing page earns its keep: a typical homepage converts 1 to 2% of clicks, a dedicated landing page converts 5 to 11%. Same ad spend, five times the leads.
Close rate. How many enquiries you turn into jobs. This one's on you, but we make it easier by texting leads to your phone instantly, because a lead called back in 5 minutes closes far more often than one called tomorrow.
Across our trades accounts a click currently costs £2.50 to £3.12, and most UK trades sit somewhere between £2 and £5. Where you land depends on how urgent the search is and how much one job is worth to the businesses bidding against you.
| Type of search | Click price | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency call outs: drains, locksmiths, boiler breakdowns | Higher | Urgent searches, ready to book now, lots of bidders |
| Big ticket installs: bathrooms, kitchens, roofing, new boilers | Higher | One job is worth thousands, so competitors bid hard |
| Routine services: cleaning, gardening, decorating | Lower | Smaller jobs and fewer aggressive bidders |
| Niche specialists | Lowest | Sometimes only a handful of competitors in the county |
| Gyms, pubs, salons | Varies | Often better suited to Meta Ads, where people discover you rather than search |
Cost per lead is simply your cost per click divided by your conversion rate. That is why the page your ads land on matters more than the bid. Same click price, very different lead price:
| Cost per click | Homepage (2%) | Decent landing page (5%) | Strong landing page (10%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| £2.50 | £125 per lead | £50 per lead | £25 per lead |
| £3.00 | £150 per lead | £60 per lead | £30 per lead |
| £4.00 | £200 per lead | £80 per lead | £40 per lead |
| £5.00 | £250 per lead | £100 per lead | £50 per lead |
Our best trades landing page converts 10.84% of clicks. A typical trades homepage converts 1 to 2%. Read more on why ads should never point at your homepage, or see what we build on our landing pages page.
Enough clicks to produce enough leads to matter. At £3 a click and a 10% conversion rate, £900 of ad spend produces roughly 30 leads. At a 2% homepage conversion rate the same money produces 6. That difference is the entire argument for doing this right.
Your ad spend is paid directly to Google, separate from our management fee, so every pound of media budget is visible in your own account.
Yes. Google renamed AdWords to Google Ads in 2018. Same platform, same auction, same costs. If someone quotes you for "AdWords management", it is the same service.
Agencies usually charge in one of three ways: a fixed monthly fee, a percentage of your ad spend, or a setup fee followed by a monthly fee. Whichever model you are offered, three things should be non negotiable:
We quote our management fee on a call because it depends on your trade, area and goals. The free Google Ads audit is the fastest way to get a number.
Usually, yes, for the same trade. Busy areas close to London, such as Dartford, Bromley and Orpington, have more businesses bidding than quieter parts of East Kent, so clicks cost more. Tight location targeting stops you paying London prices for clicks you cannot serve. We cover how in Google Ads location targeting mistakes.
This is what we strip out of every account we take on. See the full list on our Google Ads management page.
Work out clicks, leads, cost per lead and return from your budget. Defaults use the cost per click range across our trades accounts; change any number to match your business.
Below £500 the account never gathers enough data to optimise, so we would be taking your money to run a campaign that cannot win. Above that we work with whatever you have got.
Estimates, not promises. Ad spend only: excludes management fees and the cost of doing the work. Your trade, area and offer move these numbers, which is exactly what the sixty second funnel works out.
A written clause in every contract, measured against your total investment in won work. If we don't get you there, you don't pay us until we do.
For most UK trades and local businesses, at least £500 a month in ad spend, paid directly to Google, with most local campaigns running on £500 to £3,000 a month. If an agency manages the account, its fee is on top. What that budget produces depends on your cost per click, your conversion rate and how many enquiries you win.
Across our trades accounts a click currently costs £2.50 to £3.12, and most UK trades sit between £2 and £5. Emergency call outs and big ticket installs cost more per click; routine and niche services usually cost less.
Yes. Google renamed AdWords to Google Ads in 2018. It is the same platform and the same auction, so costs are the same whichever name is used.
Google. Your ad spend is paid directly to Google from your own account, so you can see every pound. Our management fee is separate, on a rolling monthly contract with 30 days' notice.
Because a real quote depends on your trade, your area's competition and your goals, and any agency giving one price for all of that is selling a package, not a plan. We work with what you have got rather than pushing you into a tier, which is why our clients range from a few pounds a day up to four figures a day. Sixty seconds in the funnel gets you an honest number.
Yes. To start on Google Ads we ask for a minimum of £500 a month in ad spend. That is not us being picky about who we take on, it is the point below which the account never gathers enough data to optimise, so the campaign cannot be given a fair run. Above that floor we work with whatever you have got. Some of our clients spend £1,000 a day, others spend a fraction of that, and both get the same attention.
Competition and job value. A boiler installation lead is worth hundreds, so installers bid clicks up. A niche specialist service might have three bidders in the whole county. Your click price reflects what the job is worth to the winners.
Testing is right, but too small a budget starves the account of data and the test fails by design. That is why the Google Ads floor is £500 a month: enough for the campaign to actually learn something. If you are not there yet we will say so honestly rather than take the money and watch it fail, and we will point you at what to do in the meantime.
Sixty seconds. Trade plus area equals a real cost estimate based on live search volume, not industry averages.
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