📊 Industry Benchmark Report

Average CPC for local services ranges from $6-$25 depending on the industry. Lower-CPC categories include house cleaning ($6-$10), pest control ($8-$12), and landscaping ($7-$11). Mid-range categories include plumbing ($10-$18), HVAC ($14-$22), and electricians ($10-$16). High-CPC categories include lawyers ($20-$50+), roofers ($15-$25), and insurance ($18-$30). These averages vary significantly by metro area — CPCs in New York City or Los Angeles can be 2-3x higher than in smaller markets.

A good conversion rate for local service search ads is 5-8%, with top performers hitting 10-15%. The average across all industries is about 4-5%. Conversion rate depends heavily on landing page quality — sending traffic to a dedicated landing page with a clear form and phone number typically converts 2-3x better than sending traffic to a homepage. Emergency services (burst pipe, locked out, no AC) tend to have the highest conversion rates (10-20%) because the searcher needs immediate help. Informational searches (how much does a roof cost) convert lower at 2-4%.

Pull your actual metrics from Google Ads (CPC, CTR, conversion rate, cost per conversion) for the last 30 days and compare them to the benchmarks on this page. Key comparisons: if your CPC is more than 30% above benchmark, your Quality Score likely needs work. If your conversion rate is below half the benchmark, your landing page is the bottleneck. If your CTR is below 3% for search, your ad copy isn't compelling enough. Focus on the metric with the biggest gap first — that's where you'll find the highest-impact improvement.

CPC is driven by two factors: competition (how many advertisers are bidding on the same keywords) and job value (how much a single customer is worth). Lawyers pay $20-$50+ per click because a single personal injury case can be worth $50,000-$500,000 — they can afford to pay more per lead. House cleaners pay $6-$10 per click because a cleaning job is worth $150-$300. Within the same industry, CPC varies by geography (urban markets are more competitive), time of day, device type, and keyword specificity (emergency keywords cost 30-50% more than general ones).

A good cost per lead depends on your average job value. The general rule is your cost per lead should be under 10-15% of your average job value. For plumbers (average job $350), a good CPL is $30-$50. For roofers (average job $8,000), CPL up to $150-$200 is acceptable. For house cleaners (average job $200), CPL should be under $25. To calculate your CPL, divide your monthly ad spend by the number of leads (form submissions + phone calls). If your CPL exceeds 20% of job value, your campaign needs optimization — typically in keyword targeting or landing page conversion rate.