If you are budgeting for Google Ads, you want one number to start from and a way to adjust it for your business. The most current industry-level figures come from the LocaliQ/WordStream 2026 benchmarks report, which looked at more than 13,000 search campaigns between April 2025 and March 2026 (WordStream). This page pulls the CPC, conversion rate, and cost per lead by industry from that report, tells you exactly what the numbers cover, and shows how to turn an average into a budget you can defend.
The short answer: 2026 Google Ads benchmarks at a glance
Across all industries in 2026, the average search cost per click was $5.42 and the average cost per lead was $66.69 (WordStream). That CPL is a blend of law firms, pet groomers, furniture stores, and everyone in between, so almost nobody pays exactly $66.69 (Clique Studios).
Two figures worth holding onto before you drill into your vertical:
- Average CPC (all industries, 2026): $5.42 (WordStream)
- Average CPL (all industries, 2026): $66.69 (WordStream)
Treat these as a starting range, not a target. Your industry, offer, and geography move the number a lot.
Where these numbers come from
Google itself does not publish a by-industry cost-per-click table. Its help documentation defines average CPC only as total cost divided by total clicks (Google Ads Help), which does not produce the industry CPC and CPL figures advertisers usually cite.
Those come from LocaliQ/WordStream, which runs an annual benchmarks report from its own client accounts. A few facts about the 2026 edition set the scope:
- The data is pulled from 13,474 LocaliQ search advertising campaigns running April 2025 through March 2026 (WordStream).
- It covers 23 industries and four metrics: click-through rate, cost per click, conversion rate, and cost per lead (WordStream).
- The platform shifts budget between search channels, but in aggregate roughly 80-85% goes to Google and 15-20% to Microsoft (WordStream).
So these are aggregated results from one company’s US search accounts, not a Google-published industry average. That mix matters when you compare your own Google-only numbers to the blend.
Average cost per click by industry
Cost per click is the price you pay each time someone clicks your ad. The by-industry rows below come from the LocaliQ/WordStream 2026 search report, reproduced here via Clique Studios’ summary of that report (Clique Studios).
| Industry | Avg. cost per click |
|---|---|
| Attorneys & Legal Services | $9.87 |
| Home & Home Improvement | $8.33 |
| Dentists & Dental Services | $8.00 |
| Health & Fitness | $6.17 |
| Business Services | $5.87 |
| Industrial & Commercial | $5.87 |
| Career & Employment | $5.81 |
| Education & Instruction | $4.81 |
| Apparel / Fashion & Jewelry | $4.44 |
| Furniture | $3.97 |
| Finance & Insurance | $3.39 |
| Real Estate | $3.22 |
All figures cover the April 2025 to March 2026 period and 23 industries in the LocaliQ/WordStream 2026 search report (Clique Studios). Higher CPC verticals such as legal tend to reflect high customer value, where a single signed case can justify a premium bid.
Conversion rate and cost per lead by industry
Conversion rate is the share of clicks that turn into a tracked action. Cost per lead combines that with CPC: if clicks cost more or convert less often, each lead costs more. The report counts any tracked contact as a lead, including a call, chat, form fill, or email (Clique Studios).
| Industry | Avg. cost per lead | Avg. conversion rate |
|---|---|---|
| Attorneys & Legal Services | $131.63 | 5.55% |
| Furniture | $106.70 | 2.99% |
| Real Estate | $102.51 | 3.70% |
| Apparel / Fashion & Jewelry | $97.51 | 4.50% |
| Business Services | $93.69 | 4.85% |
| Home & Home Improvement | $90.92 | 8.05% |
| Education & Instruction | $77.48 | 13.14% |
| Industrial & Commercial | $75.19 | 8.20% |
| Finance & Insurance | $74.44 | 2.64% |
| Dentists & Dental Services | $72.97 | 10.67% |
| Career & Employment | $67.36 | 3.05% |
| Health & Fitness | $67.36 | 6.94% |
Across industries, cost per lead ran from about $26.84 in Arts and Entertainment to $131.63 in Attorneys and Legal Services (Clique Studios). Notice that a high conversion rate does not guarantee a low CPL. Home and Home Improvement converts at 8.05% but still costs about $90.92 per lead because its clicks are expensive.
What changed in 2026
Year over year, the 2026 report was calmer than recent editions. Overall metrics were fairly stable, a change from earlier reports that saw a 12% jump in CPC and a 25% jump in CPL (WordStream).
Three shifts stand out from the report’s own analysis:
- CPL fell for the first time in five years. The overall average of $66.69 was the first measured decrease since before 2020 (WordStream).
- Conversion rate rose for 87% of industries, continuing an increase from the prior year (WordStream).
- Costs are still far above 2016. CPC is more than double what it was a decade ago ($2.32 versus $5.42), and CPL rose about 13% over the same span (WordStream).
The industries that saw CPL increases lined up with those hit by tariffs, including automotive and retail (WordStream). These are observed averages for the reporting period, not forecasts.
How to turn a benchmark into your budget
An average gives you direction, but the right number depends on what a customer is worth to you. A good cost per lead is any figure below what a new customer is worth once your close rate is applied (Clique Studios).
Work it in three steps:
- Calculate your own CPL from real spend. Cost per lead is spend divided by leads. Spend $3,000 and get 45 calls and form fills, and your CPL is about $66.67 (Clique Studios).
- Set a ceiling from your economics. A $120 lead is cheap for a personal injury firm that earns a large fee from one signed case, and far too expensive for a neighborhood restaurant (Clique Studios).
- Match the lead definition before you compare. The LocaliQ report counts any tracked contact. If you only count sales-qualified leads, your CPL will look higher, and the comparison is off before it starts (Clique Studios).
Remember that average CPC is simply total click cost divided by total clicks (Google Ads Help). Small changes in relevance and conversion rate move that number, so your realized cost can drift from any published average.
Why these are estimates, not your costs
Benchmarks are context clues, not gospel. What counts as good varies widely by industry, ad type, goal, budget, and market (Terra). A 2% conversion rate can be strong in one vertical and weak in another.
The LocaliQ figures also reflect a specific set of accounts blending Google and Microsoft spend, not your campaigns. Adwave does not guarantee sales or a return on spend; results depend on your offer, audience, budget, creative, and website, and forecasts are estimates (Adwave). Use the benchmarks to set expectations, then measure your own leads and sales to decide what to change. With Adwave, you install a tracking snippet and configure the actions you want to count, giving conversions a value so you can report revenue and return on spend (Adwave).
Where Google search fits in an Adwave campaign
Google search is one channel among several. In Adwave, you set a single daily budget from $30 to $10,000 with no subscription and no contract, and the campaign works across your eligible mix of TV, search, social, and the web (Adwave). Google Search sits inside that budget rather than needing a separate account (Adwave).
You start by pasting your website, then review the audience and ads, choose a budget and area, and launch across eligible channels (Adwave). If you want to plan a number using the benchmarks above, try the budget planner and see your plan before you spend.
