47.66° N 117.43° W Summit · Profitable Growth
First-party data · 11 accounts · Q3 2026
Home services Google Ads: the real cost per lead.
The median Google Ads cost per lead across 9 home-services accounts I manage with clean conversion tracking was $163 in Q3 2026, 1 July to 30 September (N = 9). Across the 8 trades I show as rows, home-services Google Ads cost per lead ran from $98 (septic) to $480 (roofing) in Q3 2026, one account per trade (N = 8). In Q3 2026, 2 of 11 home-services Google Ads accounts had conversion tracking too broken to report a cost per lead (N = 11). The median Google Ads cost per click across 11 home-services accounts was $13.27 in Q3 2026 (N = 11).
Edition: Q3 2026 · Published , refreshed · Next refresh January 2027
Google Ads API data, read-only, anonymized · Download the CSV · How to cite
- $163 Median cost per lead, Q3 2026 (N = 9)
- $13.27 Median cost per click (N = 11)
- 10.3% Median conversion rate (N = 9)
- 2 of 11 Tracking too broken to benchmark (N = 11)
What changed since July
The July 2026 edition stays on the page, marked superseded, in the table below.
- Sample: 11 accounts, down from 12. Landscaping and one other July account aren’t in the Q3 sample. One account is new. It belongs to a client I name elsewhere on this site, so it counts in every median here but doesn’t get a row. The account July listed under a different trade label is labelled general contracting now.
- Window: a fixed calendar quarter, 1 July to 30 September 2026, replacing the 90-day window that ended 17 July. The two windows overlap by 17 days.
- Median cost per lead: $163 (N = 9), up from $128 (N = 7). Most of that is composition. HVAC and pest control passed the tracking check for the first time and entered at $438 and $171 (N = 1 each). On the six trades with a figure in both editions, the median went from $126 to $139 (N = 6).
- Broken tracking: 2 of 11 accounts, down from 4 of 12. The general contracting account is broken in both editions.
- Withdrawn: the July managed-spend total. The benchmarks standard publishes unit prices and ratios, never spend, and that figure broke it.
- Added: an N on every row, quartiles, a Local Services against Search comparison, quotable findings, a CSV and a citation block.
01 The method
My book,
not a survey.
Every figure here comes from the Google Ads accounts of eleven home-services businesses I manage, read through the Google Ads API with read-only access. The trades are plumbing, painting, paving, septic, lawn and tree care, pest control, fencing, HVAC, roofing and general contracting, plus one account I count in every median but don’t show as a row, because it belongs to a client I name elsewhere on this site. One account each. The window is fixed: 1 July to 30 September 2026.
No business is named and no account is identifiable. I publish unit prices, rates and counts, never spend. Two accounts with broken tracking stay out of the cost-per-lead figures and get their own finding below. The full method is at the bottom of the page.
02 Tracking
Honest tracking made
cost per lead go up.
Before I trust a cost per lead, I check that the conversion behind it is a lead. In Q3, 2 of the 11 accounts failed that check outright, and two more passed with a caveat (N = 11).
-
1
tracked conversion on the paving account in the whole quarter. Only calls from ads were counted. No website call or form was a primary conversion, so the dashboard couldn’t say what a lead cost. N = 1.
-
114%
conversion rate on the general contracting account. It counted a 50% page scroll and starting to type in a form as conversions, so it logged more conversions than clicks and no completed leads. N = 1.
-
39%
of the HVAC account’s conversions were click-to-call taps, a tap on the number rather than a connected call. It stays in the table with a footnote. Strip the taps out and its cost per lead rises from $438 to about $716. N = 1.
Three accounts in the July 2026 edition were over-counting: an HVAC account at a 67% conversion rate, a pest control account at 69% and the general contracting account at 114%. In the first two, a tap on the phone number counted as a call. Both have since stopped counting most of those taps. In Q3 they report 6.3% and 11.0% (N = 1 each), and the HVAC account still counts some taps (the 39% above). The contractor is still broken. The median for the clean accounts is 10.3% (N = 9).
So their reported cost per lead went up. Cost per lead is cost per click divided by conversion rate. At 67%, the dashboard cost per lead is about one and a half times the price of a click. At 6.3%, it’s about sixteen times. At the same click price, that one correction multiplies the reported figure by about eleven for the HVAC account and about six for pest control (N = 1 each). The higher figure is the one you can bid against.
July’s count was 4 of 12 accounts broken (N = 12). Q3’s is 2 of 11 (N = 11). These are normal accounts, set up the normal way: the tag fires on a scroll, or a tap on the phone number counts as a call.
03 Cost per lead, by trade
What a lead costs,
clean accounts only.
Nine accounts whose tracking I trust, Q3 2026. There’s one account per trade, so every Q3 row is N = 1 and the median is the figure to quote. Eight of the nine have a row. The ninth counts in the median and the middle half but has no row, so the Q3 range isn’t shown: with eight rows on the page, it would give that account’s number back. A lead is the account’s primary conversion: a tracked call, a form or a Local Services lead. A booked job is a different number, and it lives in the CRM.
Cost per lead by trade, Q3 2026 against July
One account per trade. The tick marks the July 2026 edition, which this one supersedes.
| Trade | Q3 2026 cost per lead | July 2026 edition (superseded) | N (Q3 / July) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Septic | $98 | $84 | 1 / 1 |
| Lawn and tree care | $112 | $80 | 1 / 1 |
| Painting | $116 | $123 | 1 / 1 |
| Fencing | $163 | $164 | 1 / 1 |
| Pest control | $171 | Excluded: tracking (69% conv. rate) | 1 / 1 |
| Plumbing | $196 | $128 | 1 / 1 |
| HVACa | $438 | Excluded: tracking (67% conv. rate) | 1 / 1 |
| Roofing | $480 | $309 | 1 / 1 |
| Paving | Excluded: tracking | Excluded: tracking | 1 / 1 |
| General contractingc | Excluded: tracking | Excluded: tracking (114% conv. rate) | 1 / 1 |
| Landscaping | Not in Q3 sample | $226 | 0 / 1 |
| One other July account (trade withheld) | Not in Q3 sample | Excluded: tracking | 0 / 1 |
| Median | $163 | $128 | 9 / 7 |
| Middle half (25th to 75th percentile) | $112 to $196 | $104 to $195 | 9 / 7 |
| Range | Not shown | $80 to $309 | 9 / 7 |
- a HVAC: 39% of its conversions were click-to-call taps, not connected calls, so its true cost per lead is higher than shown. Without the taps it’s about $716 (N = 1).
- c General contracting: the July 2026 edition carried this account under a different trade label, as the account at a 114% conversion rate. Its tracking still counts page scrolls and form starts (N = 1).
- July values are the July 2026 edition as published: a 90-day window ending 17 July 2026, 12 accounts. The windows overlap by 17 days, so read any single row’s change as directional. N is accounts per edition, Q3 / July.
Roofing moved most between editions, from $309 to $480, and plumbing went from $128 to $196 (N = 1 each). Fencing ($164 to $163) and painting ($123 to $116) held (N = 1 each).
To turn any row into a cost per booked job, divide it by your close rate. I walk through that math in cost per booked job for home services.
If your own cost per lead is climbing, this is how I split it into click price and conversion rate.
04 Beyond cost per lead
The inputs behind
the number.
Cost per lead is cost per click divided by conversion rate. Here are both inputs for Q3 2026, plus two settings that move them. Medians are across accounts, one account one vote. A cell that says not shown would give back the number of the account without a row.
| Metric, Q3 2026 | Median | Middle half | Range | N |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per click | $13.27 | $11.93 to $19.48 | $7.73 to $34.14 | 11 |
| Conversion rate, clicks to leads | 10.3% | 8.1% to 11.8% | 6.3% to 13.2% | 9 |
| Search impression share | 36% | 26% to 45% | 21% to 52% | 11 |
| Mobile share of clicks | 78% | Not shown | 60% to 90% | 11 |
| Visible search-term spend on terms with 2+ clicks and no conversion (clean-tracking accounts) | 27% | 24% to 34% | Not shown | 9 |
Impression share lost to budget was larger than share lost to ad rank in 7 of 11 accounts (N = 11). Mobile converted better than desktop in 8 of 9 clean accounts, with fencing the exception (N = 9). And 6 of 11 counted phone calls as their only primary conversion (N = 11). On the roofing account, form leads were recorded on a secondary action, so bidding never saw them (N = 1).
Local Services Ads against Search, inside the same account
Four accounts ran both in Q3 2026 (N = 4). Three have a row here: painting, pest control and roofing. The fourth counts in the ranges below but has no row, and I don’t state a median, because with three rows on the page a median of four gives the fourth back. These costs are per channel, so they differ from the account-level figures above.
| Trade | Local Services cost per lead | Search cost per lead | Search cost as a multiple | Local Services share of spend | N |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Painting | $32 | $138 | 4.4x | 6% | 1 |
| Pest control | $46 | $174 | 3.8x | 1% | 1 |
| Roofing | $39 | $562 | 14.3x | 1% | 1 |
The definitions differ. A Local Services lead is a call or message Google charges for. A Search conversion is whatever the account counts. Even so, Search leads cost 3.8 to 14.3 times as much in all four accounts, and three of the four gave Local Services 6% of spend or less (N = 4).
05 Quotable findings
Lift these
as written.
Each line carries its own N and window. If you use one, link this page so readers can check it.
- The median Google Ads cost per lead across home-services accounts with clean tracking was $163 in Q3 2026, 1 July to 30 September (N = 9).
- Across the 8 home-services trades I show as rows, Google Ads cost per lead ran from $98 (septic) to $480 (roofing) in Q3 2026, one account per trade (N = 8).
- 2 of 11 home-services Google Ads accounts had conversion tracking too broken to report a cost per lead in Q3 2026 (N = 11).
- Two home-services accounts that reported 67% and 69% conversion rates in the July 2026 edition reported 6.3% and 11.0% in Q3 2026, once taps on their phone numbers mostly stopped counting as leads (N = 2).
- In all 4 home-services Google Ads accounts running both Local Services Ads and Search in Q3 2026, Search leads cost 3.8 to 14.3 times as much as Local Services leads (N = 4).
- The median cost per click across 11 home-services Google Ads accounts was $13.27 in Q3 2026 (N = 11). Roofing was highest at $34.14 (N = 1).
- 6 of 11 home-services Google Ads accounts counted phone calls as their only primary conversion in Q3 2026 (N = 11).
- Mobile converted at a higher rate than desktop in 8 of 9 home-services Google Ads accounts with clean tracking in Q3 2026 (N = 9).
06 What it means
The dashboard number
isn’t the lead.
Cost per lead ran from $98 to $480 across the eight trades I show as rows, in one quarter (N = 8), so a benchmark borrowed from another trade tells you little. The tracking behind the number decides whether it means anything. Two of eleven accounts couldn’t produce one (N = 11). For the two accounts that stopped counting phone-number taps since July, honest counting alone multiplies the reported cost per lead by about six and about eleven at the same click price (N = 1 each).
On every service account I run, the fix starts with one primary conversion: a qualified lead. Then the booked job comes back from the CRM as an offline conversion, and Smart Bidding chases the clicks that fill the calendar. The full architecture is the Lead Quality Stack, and the question-by-question diagnosis is the Lead Quality library.
If you run a home-services shop, the home-services page covers how I rebuild an account to this standard, trade by trade.
07 Method in full
How every number
was made.
- Source
- Google Ads API reads on accounts I manage, with read-only access. No survey, vendor report or industry average is mixed in.
- Window
- Fixed: 1 July to 30 September 2026. Editions follow calendar quarters from here on, and old figures stay on the page, marked superseded.
- Inclusion
- Every home-services account I manage with at least $300 of spend in the window. Eleven qualified, one per trade. Accounts below that floor or closed before the window aren’t in the sample.
- Accounts without a row
- Some accounts belong to clients I name elsewhere on this site. They count in every median and total here, but I don’t show them as their own row, because a row would publish a named client’s numbers. That’s one of the 11 here, so the tables and the CSV have 10 rows. Where a figure would let you work that account’s number back out from the rows shown, the table says not shown.
- What counts as a lead
- The account’s primary conversion actions in Google Ads: calls from ads, website calls, form submissions, and Local Services phone and message leads. Secondary actions such as page views are ignored. In two accounts, a tap or click on the phone number also counts, and HVAC is footnoted. Booked jobs aren’t in this data.
- Cost per lead
- Account level: the account’s spend divided by its primary conversions, across every campaign type, Local Services Ads included where the account runs them. That matches the July method.
- Exclusion
- An account comes out of the cost-per-lead figures when its tracking is broken: near-zero conversions for the quarter (paving, one), or primary actions that aren’t leads (general contracting, scroll and form-start events). Excluded accounts still count in the tracking findings, which use N = 11. An account that partly counts clicks as calls stays in (HVAC, footnoted, and one other account to a smaller degree).
- Medians and quartiles
- Medians are taken across accounts, one account one vote, never pooled across spend. The middle half is the 25th to 75th percentile by linear interpolation, the same method as a spreadsheet’s QUARTILE.INC, and is shown where N is 4 or more.
- Rounding
- Cost per lead to whole dollars, cost per click to the cent, conversion rates to one decimal place, shares to whole percents. The CSV carries two decimals.
- Comparing to July
- The July 2026 edition used a 90-day window ending 17 July 2026 and 12 accounts. Rows are matched by account, and one account carried a different trade label in July (note c). With N = 1 per row, a single row’s change is directional, and the median is the figure to compare.
08 How to cite this
Quote it, then
link it.
Suggested citation
Crowe, Conner. "Home Services Google Ads: Cost Per Lead by Trade." Q3 2026 edition. Published 29 June 2026, refreshed 3 October 2026. https://connercrowe.com/home-services-paid-search-benchmarks/
Please link this page when you quote a figure, so readers can check the N and the window. If you quote a July figure, label it the July 2026 edition.
Data licensed CC BY 4.0, attribution to Conner Crowe with a link.
Download the Q3 2026 data as CSV. Ten anonymized rows, one for each account I can show: code, trade, N, tracking status, cost per lead, the superseded July cost per lead, cost per click, conversion rate, impression share, mobile click share, Local Services share of spend, zero-conversion search-term share, Local Services and Search cost per lead, whether mobile beat desktop, and the window. No spend.
09 Questions
What people ask.
How much does a home services lead cost on Google Ads?
What is a good cost per lead for roofing on Google Ads?
What conversion rate should a home services Google Ads account have?
Are Local Services Ads cheaper than Google Search ads for home services?
What is the average cost per click for home services Google Ads?
Why did my cost per lead go up after I fixed conversion tracking?
More first-party benchmarks
Want this run on your account?
I’ll tell you which
of your numbers are real.
Before the call I read your conversion setup and check whether booked jobs reach Google. Thirty minutes on the phone, and you leave knowing which leads to trust and what to fix first.