The short version
The headline number is $91
That is the home-services average cost per lead in 2025, with an average $7.85 cost per click, up about 10.5 percent over the year before (LocaliQ).
Cost per lead runs by trade
Google Search non-branded sits roughly $110 to $230 a lead depending on the trade. Roofing is the priciest, electrical the cheapest.
Local Services Ads come in cheaper
Roughly $45 to $90 a lead, pay-per-lead, but more variable and less consistently benchmarked than search.
Budget 7 to 8 percent of revenue
Fee plus ad spend combined, per the U.S. Small Business Administration, toward 12 percent to grow and 3 to 5 percent to hold.
These are benchmarks, not promises
Every number here is public industry data, named and dated. Use it to sanity-check a quote, not to predict your exact result.
A salesperson quotes you a cost per lead and you have no way to tell if it is fair or fiction. This page is the answer key: the real ranges, where each came from, and how to read them.
One number on this page is ours. The rest belong to the industry. When we pulled our own shop's marketing back in-house, the conversion tracking had been broken for six months, so most calls and forms were never counted and we were buying ads half-blind. We fixed the tracking and rebuilt the campaigns, and qualified leads (real calls and form fills) went from about 10 a month to 58. That 10-to-58 is the only first-party figure anywhere on this site. Everything else below is sourced public benchmark data, named and dated, and we never dress an industry average up as a result we got.
The headline numbers
Start with the blended average across the whole home-services category. LocaliQ analyzed more than 3,200 campaigns from April 2024 through March 2025 and published these:
| Metric | 2025 home-services benchmark | Year-over-year |
|---|---|---|
| Average cost per lead | ~$90.92 | Up ~10.5% |
| Average cost per click | ~$7.85 | Rising |
| Source | LocaliQ 2025 Home Services Search Advertising Benchmarks | Apr 2024 to Mar 2025 |
Two things to take from this. First, leads got more expensive: a roughly 10.5 percent jump in a single year, so a quote built on 2023 numbers will read low. Second, $91 is every trade and every channel blended together, so it is a starting point, not your number. Your trade and your channel move it a lot, which is the next two tables.
Cost per lead by trade (Google Search, non-branded)
Non-branded search means people typing the problem (“ac not cooling,” “roof leak repair”), not your business name. It is the most expensive and most competitive way to buy a lead, and it is the number most agency quotes are quietly built on. Here are the 2025 to 2026 ranges, presented as ranges because that is what the data is:
| Trade | Google Search cost per lead (non-branded) | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Roofing | ~$125 to $230 | Priciest; roofing and gutters lead the category |
| Plumbing | ~$120 to $185 | High, driven by emergency-intent searches |
| HVAC | ~$130 to $150 | Steady, seasonal spikes around summer and winter |
| Electrical | ~$110 to $130 | Cheapest of the four on average |
A few honest caveats before you hold a quote up against this:
- Branded search runs lower. When someone searches your business name, that click is cheap and converts well. Mixing branded and non-branded into one average makes the whole campaign look more efficient than the cold-traffic part actually is.
- Performance Max usually runs lower too. Google’s automated, multi-surface campaign type often clears leads below straight non-branded search, which is why an agency may quote a blended figure that beats this table.
- Your market matters as much as your trade. A roofer in a dense, storm-prone metro pays a different price than one in a rural county with three competitors.
Local Services Ads vs Google Search
Local Services Ads (LSA) are the pay-per-lead units at the very top of the results, with the Google Verified badge. You pay per lead, not per click, and the lead is usually cheaper than search. The tradeoff is that LSA pricing is more variable and less consistently benchmarked, so treat its range as looser than the search numbers above.
| Channel | How you pay | Typical cost per lead | How solid is the benchmark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local Services Ads | Per lead (Google Verified) | ~$45 to $90 by trade | Looser; varies by market and disputes |
| Google Search (non-branded) | Per click, you write the page | ~$110 to $230 by trade | Firmer; large public datasets |
The point is not that one channel wins. LSA tends to be the cheaper lead and sits above the organic map pack, but reaches a narrower slice of searchers, and you can dispute leads that are out of area or spam. Search costs more but reaches people the badge does not, and you control the landing page. Run well, they cover for each other, which is why the shops that win treat them as one system rather than two line items.
Marketing budget as a percent of revenue
Cost per lead tells you what each lead costs. Budget benchmarks tell you how much to put behind them. The standard guidance is a percentage of revenue, and the key thing most quotes get wrong: it is fee plus ad spend combined, not the management fee alone.
| Source | Benchmark | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. Small Business Administration | 7 to 8% of revenue (shops under $5M) | Total marketing: fee + ad spend |
| U.S. Small Business Administration | Up to 12% when pushing to grow | Total marketing, growth mode |
| Established shops (common practice) | 3 to 5% to hold steady | Total marketing, maintenance mode |
| Gartner 2025 CMO survey | 7.7% of revenue (all industries) | Total marketing budget |
Read it as a band, not a target. Three to five percent holds your position; seven to eight is the working middle; twelve is what it takes to push for real growth. The Gartner 2025 figure of 7.7 percent lands right in the SBA range, which is a useful cross-check that the band is real and not a number an agency made up to size your invoice. To turn this into a dollar figure for your revenue and lead goal, run the budget calculator; it does the math from the same public benchmarks on this page.
Why these are ranges, not a single price
If any source hands you one tidy number for “cost per lead in your trade,” be skeptical. The honest answer is a range, and here is what moves it inside that range:
- Market. A competitive metro costs more per click and per lead than a rural service area. Same trade, different price.
- Trade. Roofing and plumbing run high on emergency intent; electrical runs leaner. The table above is the spread.
- Branded vs non-branded. Branded clicks are cheap and convert; non-branded cold traffic is the expensive part. A blended average hides which is which.
- Season. HVAC spikes before summer and winter, roofing after storms, insulation in fall. Demand and competition push prices around all year.
- Year. Costs rose about 10.5 percent in the last measured year. A benchmark two years old reads low today.
And the line worth repeating: none of these are Fullboard’s results. They are public industry benchmarks, named and dated, so you can verify them yourself. The one number we can put our name on is our own shop, qualified leads from about 10 to 58 a month, and you can read the proof in full. Everything else here is the industry’s number, not ours.
How to use these numbers
Benchmarks are a tool, not a verdict. Three ways to put them to work:
- Sanity-check a quote. When someone promises a $35 cold-traffic lead in a trade that benchmarks at $130, that gap is a flag. Maybe they are blending in branded clicks or counting a “lead” as any click. Ask what they are counting before you sign.
- Set a budget you can actually clear. Take your revenue, figure 7 to 10 percent if you are growing, and make sure the ad-spend slice can buy enough leads at the trade prices above to hit your job goal. A roofer needing 20 jobs a month at a one-third close rate has to fund 60 qualified leads, not just pay a flat fee.
- Measure cost per booked job, not just cost per lead. A $40 lead that never books is worse than a $120 lead that turns into a $14,000 job. Cost per lead is on this page because it is what the industry publishes, but the number that pays your bills is cost per booked job, not cost per lead. For the full breakdown of fees, ad spend, and the markups that pad a quote, see what contractor marketing costs.
Who this is and is not for
This page is for the contractor who wants to walk into a sales call already knowing the real numbers. If you would rather take a quote on faith and hope it works out, the table-by-table sourcing here is more than you need. If you want every figure named so nobody can sell you a fantasy lead price, this is your reference.
So use it. Hold your current quote up against these tables and see where it lands. Then, if you want a second read on your own numbers, a free game plan is our answer in writing: we read your site, your ads, and your top local competitors and send back a plain report on where your leads are leaking and what each fix is worth in booked jobs. It comes back in a few days, there is no call unless you want one, and you keep it either way. Bring us on and you walk your finished site before a dollar moves, the scope is in writing, satisfaction is guaranteed on the build, and everything is yours from day one: month to month, walk anytime and keep it all. Get my free game plan.
Sources: LocaliQ 2025 Home Services Search Advertising Benchmarks (3,200+ campaigns, April 2024 to March 2025); U.S. Small Business Administration marketing-budget guidance; Gartner 2025 CMO Spend Survey. Industry ranges are indicative and vary by market, trade, branded versus non-branded, season, and year.