Table of contents
This guide is for an owner who wants to know what Google Ads would cost before talking to anyone. It covers what a click costs in your line of work, why London costs more, how Google spends your budget, and the number that matters more than any of them: what an enquiry costs.
How much do Google Ads cost per click in the UK?
These are Google's average cost-per-click estimates for UK searches, pulled on 30 October 2026. They are national averages. Your area, your hours and your competitors move them, and Google often charges less than the figure you bid.
| What the customer searches | Average cost of a click |
|---|---|
| personal injury solicitor | about eighty-four pounds |
| managed IT services | about forty-six pounds |
| divorce solicitor | about thirty-four pounds |
| family law solicitors | about twenty-six pounds |
| conveyancing solicitors | about twenty-four pounds |
| emergency plumber | about twenty-three pounds |
| Invisalign | about fourteen pounds |
| hair transplant | about thirteen pounds |
| boiler repair | about eleven pounds |
| dental implants | about nine pounds |
| kitchen fitters | about eight pounds |
| electrician near me | about seven pounds |
| loft conversion | about seven pounds |
| roof repair | about six pounds fifty |
| pest control | about five pounds |
| physiotherapist near me | about four pounds |
| garden rooms | about three pounds |
| hotel london | about two pounds thirty |
| boutique hotel | about one pound twenty |
Two patterns explain most of the table. Urgent work costs most per click, because the customer rings the first business that answers and every business knows it. And work that is worth a lot per customer costs more, because firms can afford to pay more to win one.
Why Google Ads cost more in London
The same search costs more in London, and for urgent trade work it can cost more than double. Google's estimates for London on the same day:
| Search | London | UK average |
|---|---|---|
| emergency plumber | about fifty-two pounds | about twenty-three pounds |
| boiler repair | about twenty-six pounds | about eleven pounds |
| family law solicitors | about thirty-seven pounds | about twenty-six pounds |
| conveyancing solicitors | about twenty-seven pounds | about twenty-four pounds |
| dental implants | about fifteen pounds | about nine pounds |
| electrician near me | about twelve pounds | about seven pounds |
More firms compete for the same searches in London, and the jobs are often worth more. Planned and professional work sits much closer to the national price than emergency work does. If you work in London, our page on running PPC in London covers borough targeting and the London-only ad formats.
What decides the price of a click
Google runs an auction every time someone searches. Its help page on Ad Rank says your position depends on six things: your bid, the quality of your ad and the page it leads to, Google's minimum thresholds, how competitive the auction is, the context of the search, and the expected effect of extras such as your phone number and location on the ad.
That has two practical effects. A business with a better ad and a better page can sit above a rival who bids more. And you rarely pay your full bid: Google's page says that what you end up paying "is often less" than the most you said you would pay.
The other things that move the price are within your control: the area you show ads in, the hours they run, and which searches you choose to appear for.
How Google spends your budget
You set an average daily budget, and you can change it whenever you like. Two rules from Google's help pages are worth knowing before you start:
- On a busy day Google can spend up to twice your daily budget, and it will spend less on quiet days to balance it.
- Over a month you will not be charged more than 30.4 times your daily budget, which is the average number of days in a month.
So a daily budget of twenty pounds means you will be charged no more than about six hundred and eight pounds in a month, however busy it gets. To work out a daily budget from a monthly figure, divide it by 30.4.
What a Google Ads enquiry costs
The price of a click tells you little until you know how many clicks it takes to get an enquiry, and how many enquiries it takes to win a job. Here is a worked example with assumptions you can swap for your own:
- A boiler repair click costs about eleven pounds.
- One visitor in ten calls or fills in the form.
- One enquiry in three becomes a booked job.
That is thirty clicks for one job, or about three hundred and thirty pounds of ad spend. Whether that is good depends entirely on the job. For a boiler installation it may be cheap. For a radiator bleed it is a loss. This is the sum to do before you spend anything, and it is why the first thing to set up is tracking that counts calls and enquiries, so you know your own numbers within a few weeks.
Local Services Ads cost differently
Google's Local Services Ads charge for a call or message from a customer, not for a click. You set a weekly budget, and Google shows an estimated price per enquiry for your trade and area during setup. Calls that were not genuine enquiries, such as sales calls or wrong numbers, can be disputed for a credit.
They are open to many UK trades, including plumbers, electricians, roofers, cleaners and pest control, but not every trade: locksmiths are not on Google's UK list. Lawyers and estate agents can only use them in Greater London. Our guide to Local Services Ads in the UK covers who qualifies and how setup works.
What a business pays on top of the clicks
If you run the ads yourself, the clicks are the whole cost, plus your time. If an agency or freelancer runs them, there is a management fee on top. Ask three things about any fee: whether your ad spend goes to Google directly or through the agency, whether the ad account is in your name, and what happens to the account if you leave.
Your ad money should always go straight to Google from your own card, and the account should be yours. Our fee is published on the Campaign Management page, worked out from what you spend on ads.
How to spend less on Google Ads without losing enquiries
Most wasted spend in a small business account comes from five settings:
- Location. Google's default shows ads to people interested in your area as well as people in it. For a local service, switch it to people in your area.
- Exclusions. Add searches you never want to pay for: jobs, apprenticeships, courses, DIY, free and second-hand.
- Hours. Run ads when someone can answer the phone. An unanswered call still costs the click.
- Network. Search campaigns can also show on Google's Display network, which sends cheap clicks from apps and websites. Untick it unless you meant it.
- Tracking. Count calls and form enquiries as results, and nothing else. If the account counts clicks for directions as a result, it will learn to buy more of them.
If you already run ads and want a second opinion on where the money goes, we will go through the account for free and show you what we find on a 20 minute call: see our free PPC audit.
When Google Ads are not worth it
Ads pay when people search for what you do and you can answer when they call. They work less well when you are booked up for months (the money buys enquiries you cannot take), when nobody searches for your service yet, or when a job is worth less than the clicks it takes to win it. In those cases your Business Profile and reviews usually do more for the money, and ads can wait until you need the work.
For how ads fit with the rest of winning work online, see how trade businesses win work online, and for sector detail, our pages on Google Ads for tradesmen, PPC for law firms and Google Ads for dentists.