In WordStream by LocaliQ’s 2026 benchmarks, the average Google Ads cost per click was $5.42. That figure covers more than 13,000 US search campaigns in 23 industries, run April 2025 to March 2026. Facebook traffic campaigns averaged $0.60 per click in the same publisher’s 2026 Meta data. Cost per click by industry varies widely around both averages.
What cost per click measures and why industry changes it
Cost per click (CPC) is what an advertiser pays each time someone clicks an ad. It is not a fixed rate. The price comes out of an auction, where advertisers bid for the same searches or audiences. Google’s own budget guidance describes a maximum CPC bid as a ceiling on what any single click can cost.
Competition and customer value differ so much between businesses that industry alone changes the price. A law firm that earns thousands from one client can afford to bid far more for a click than a bakery can. As Kreativa Group’s 2026 CPC guide puts it, CPC moves with competition, keyword intent, Quality Score, ad relevance and industry.
CPC is also a different measure from CPM (cost per thousand impressions) and from cost per lead. A channel can have a low CPM and a high CPC, or cheap clicks and expensive leads, so compare like with like.
Google Ads cost per click: the 2026 search benchmark
The all-industry figure is $5.42 per click. It comes from WordStream’s 2026 Google Ads benchmarks, last updated September 16, 2026. The analysis covered more than 13,000 search campaigns across 23 industries that ran between April 2025 and March 2026, with averages for Google Ads and Microsoft Ads.
The sample has a limit worth knowing. WordStream says its benchmarks are based on accounts run through the LocaliQ platform, according to its Google Ads performance study. The numbers describe those advertisers, not every account on Google.
CPC makes more sense next to the figures that follow the click. The same 2026 data puts the average search conversion rate at 8.18% and the average cost per lead at $66.69, as reported by Clique Studios’ cost-per-lead analysis. The two connect through simple arithmetic: $5.42 divided by 8.18% comes to about $66 per lead. Clique Studios also notes the search cost per lead fell for the first time in five years.
The earlier 2025 edition analyzed more than 16,000 campaigns running from April 2024 through March 2025, per WordStream’s 2025 benchmark report. The 2026 edition is the newest in this series.
Search costs by industry: what the 2026 lead data shows
LocaliQ and WordStream’s 2026 search data shows the industry spread most clearly in cost per lead. Clique Studios reports a range from $26.84 to $131.63 per lead. Cost per lead reflects both the price of a click and how often clicks convert, so the most expensive industries usually pair costly clicks with lower conversion rates.
| Position | Industry | 2026 search cost per lead |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | Attorneys and Legal Services | $131.63 |
| Above $100 | Furniture | Over $100 |
| Above $100 | Real Estate | Over $100 |
| All-industry average | All 23 industries | $66.69 |
| Under $30 | Automotive Repair | Under $30 |
| Lowest | Arts and Entertainment | $26.84 |
Source: LocaliQ/WordStream 2026 search benchmarks, April 2025 to March 2026, as reported by Clique Studios.
If you are in a high-cost category, search is still often worth it, but budget for fewer leads per dollar and look at channels that build demand before people search. Our pages on advertising options for real estate agents and TV ads for furniture stores cover those choices for two of the priciest industries above.
Facebook and Instagram cost per click by industry
Facebook clicks cost far less than search clicks. In WordStream’s 2026 Facebook ads benchmarks, updated September 15, 2026, LocaliQ found that Google Ads CPC is more than double the average Meta CPC. Traffic campaigns averaged $0.60 per click, down 14.29% year on year, with a 1.93% click-through rate, according to Coupler.io’s summary of the data. Lead campaigns averaged $27.39 per lead at an 8.54% conversion rate.
For industry detail, Ryze AI’s 2026 Meta cost benchmarks cover 18 sectors with an all-industry average CPC of $0.78:
| Industry | Meta CPC (Ryze AI, 2026) |
|---|---|
| Apparel | $0.45 |
| Food and beverage | $0.52 |
| B2B | $2.52 |
| SaaS | $3.14 |
| Legal | $3.45 |
| Finance | $3.77 |
| All 18 industries | $0.78 |
The two all-industry averages ($0.60 and $0.78) differ because the samples and campaign objectives differ. Keep them separate. Finance and legal sit at the top of both search and social cost lists, which is why a practice like those covered in our guide to advertising for financial advisors should expect costs well above the social average.
Why search clicks cost more than social clicks
A search click usually comes from someone already looking for what you sell, such as a homeowner searching for a plumber with water on the floor. Advertisers pay more for that intent. A social click comes from someone scrolling, and Clique Studios points out that Facebook lead forms prefill from the user’s profile, which raises lead volume and can lower intent.
So a cheaper click is not automatically the better buy. The fairer comparison is cost per customer: what you spent on a channel divided by the paying customers it produced. Search and social also do different jobs. WordStream’s own Facebook report frames the channels as complementary, with Meta stretching a budget alongside search. The same logic applies to TV, which reaches people before they search; our breakdown of what TV advertising costs covers that side of the budget.
What industry averages hide
A benchmark is a starting point, and each one leaves out things that change what you will pay:
- Location changes the price. Kreativa Group gives the example of a keyword costing $10 per click nationally and $40 in a dense metro like Los Angeles or New York.
- Account setup changes the price. Match types, negative keywords, keyword choice and audience layering all shift your effective CPC in ways industry data can’t predict.
- Samples come from vendor client accounts. The WordStream search benchmarks draw on LocaliQ-run accounts, and WordStream notes that accounts it analyzed through its Google Ads Grader converted at lower rates than the benchmark.
- A higher CPC can pay off. A $10 click that leads to a $500 sale is worth more than a $1 click that never converts.
Service businesses with strong seasonal demand feel these swings most; our home services advertising guide covers how they plan around them.
What a local business should expect to pay per click
Start by placing your industry against the averages. If you are in legal, finance, real estate or furniture, plan above the $5.42 search figure; if you are in entertainment or auto repair, you are likely below it. Then estimate volume with plain arithmetic. As an illustration, not a forecast: $30 a day at the $5.42 search average buys about 5 or 6 clicks, while the same $30 at Facebook’s $0.60 traffic average buys about 50. Finally, check those clicks against what a customer is worth to you after your close rate.
Adwave takes a different approach than buying one platform at a time. It creates ads from your website and runs them across TV, Google Search and YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, and the web from one prepaid daily budget. Adwave pricing starts at $30 a day, and that daily budget covers media, ads and management; card deposits add the processing fee shown at checkout, while ACH deposits have no added fee. TV, Google Search, Facebook and Instagram run from the $30 minimum. Reddit starts at about $35 a day, and TikTok at about $91 a day, which you turn on yourself. You can review your ads before adding a card.
Because Adwave spreads the budget across the channels your campaign is eligible for, your click count per channel won’t match what the same money buys on a single platform, and no specific CPC is promised. For a wider view of budgets, see our guide to local advertising costs across channels.
