A June 2026 UK benchmark report from PositionWorks lists indicative Google Search cost-per-click (CPC) ranges of £2.20–£3.60 for plumbers, £2.80–£4.40 for roofers and £2.60–£4.80 for builders working on extensions and renovations. Its reported cost-per-lead (CPL) ranges are £22–£55 for plumbers, £34–£82 for roofers and £45–£112 for builders.
A practical benchmark guide for UK home-improvement contractors
These are reference ranges from PositionWorks’ dataset—not official Google-wide averages, guaranteed results or a promise of what your account will achieve. The report says its home-improvement figures draw heavily on one mature UK account, alongside other public benchmark sources.
For contractors, the most useful benchmark is not CPC or CPL in isolation. Track how many enquiries become qualified leads, booked surveys, won jobs and completed revenue. A higher lead cost can still be commercially sensible when the job value and gross margin justify it.
The 2026 UK Google Ads benchmark table by trade
The table below reproduces the home-improvement and trade ranges reported by PositionWorks in its June 2026 UK Google Ads Benchmark Report. The report focuses on Google Search campaigns and reports figures in pounds sterling.
| UK trade or service | Reported CPC range | Reported conversion rate | Reported cost per lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electricians — general | £2.40–£3.80 | 8.5–14% | £24–£58 |
| Plumbers | £2.20–£3.60 | 8–13.5% | £22–£55 |
| Roofers | £2.80–£4.40 | 6.8–11.5% | £34–£82 |
| Heating engineers | £2.20–£3.40 | 7.5–12% | £28–£62 |
| Kitchen fitters | £2.40–£4.20 | 6.5–11% | £38–£92 |
| Bathroom fitters | £2.40–£4.20 | 6.8–11.5% | £36–£88 |
| Builders — extensions and renovations | £2.60–£4.80 | 5.5–9.5% | £45–£112 |
| Loft conversion specialists | £3.20–£5.40 | 4.5–8% | £55–£148 |
| Solar installers | £3.40–£5.60 | 5.5–9% | £58–£140 |
| Heat pump installers | £3.20–£5.20 | 5–8.5% | £62–£155 |
Interpret the ranges as directional reference points. Your actual results can differ because of postcode, competition, search intent, campaign structure, landing-page quality, call handling, budget and the way conversions are defined.
What do CPC, CPL and conversion rate mean?
Cost per click (CPC)
CPC is the average amount paid for an ad click. It helps you understand auction costs, but a low CPC does not prove that the traffic is commercially valuable.
Average CPC = Total ad spend ÷ Clicks
Cost per lead (CPL)
CPL is the ad spend divided by the number of recorded leads. Before comparing CPLs, define what counts as a lead: a phone call, a form submission, a qualified enquiry or a booked appointment are different events.
CPL = Total ad spend ÷ Recorded leads
Conversion rate
Google Ads defines conversion rate as conversions divided by eligible ad interactions that can be tracked to a conversion during the same period, expressed as a percentage. The result depends on which conversion actions you include and how your account counts them.
Conversion rate = Conversions ÷ Eligible ad interactions × 100
Cost per booked job
Cost per booked job connects ad spend to a real sales outcome. Make sure you distinguish a booked survey, a job won and a job completed; they are not interchangeable.
Cost per booked job = Ad spend ÷ Confirmed booked jobs
Worked example: calculate your own Google Ads results
Imagine a contractor spends £1,000, receives 300 clicks and records 20 leads. These figures are illustrative calculations, not industry benchmarks.
| Metric | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Average CPC | £1,000 ÷ 300 clicks | £3.33 |
| Cost per lead | £1,000 ÷ 20 leads | £50 |
| Click-to-lead rate | 20 ÷ 300 × 100 | 6.67% |
| Cost per booked job if 5 jobs are booked | £1,000 ÷ 5 | £200 |
This example shows why you need more than one metric. If only five leads turn into booked jobs, the cost per booked job is £200 even though CPL is £50. If your team does not record bookings and won jobs, you cannot tell whether the campaign is creating real business value.
What is a good Google Ads cost per lead for a UK roofer, plumber or builder?
There is no single good CPL for every trade. PositionWorks reports the following ranges for its reference dataset:
- Plumbers: £22–£55 per lead.
- Roofers: £34–£82 per lead.
- General electricians: £24–£58 per lead.
- Kitchen fitters: £38–£92 per lead.
- Bathroom fitters: £36–£88 per lead.
- Builders working on extensions and renovations: £45–£112 per lead.
- Loft conversion specialists: £55–£148 per lead.
A £75 lead may be too expensive for a small, low-margin repair but perfectly reasonable for a suitable extension or kitchen project. Compare lead cost with qualification rate, booked-survey rate, close rate, average job value and gross margin.
Why Google Ads costs vary by trade and location
- Search intent: someone searching for an emergency plumber may be closer to booking than someone researching boiler options.
- Job value: high-value installations can support a different acquisition cost from small call-outs.
- Location: competition and customer demand vary between postcodes and cities.
- Keyword selection: broad or loosely related searches can attract DIY research and irrelevant clicks.
- Landing-page relevance: a dedicated page for a specific service can make the next step clearer than a generic homepage.
- Conversion measurement: missing phone calls or duplicate events can distort reported performance.
- Sales follow-up: unanswered enquiries and slow response can reduce booked work even when the ads attract suitable prospects.
Do not compare two campaigns fairly unless they track comparable outcomes and cover similar services, locations and time periods. A campaign that counts every call as a lead may appear cheaper than one that counts only qualified enquiries.
Why your Google Ads conversion rate may be low
If clicks are coming in but enquiries are not, do not assume the answer is simply to increase the budget. Review the full journey from search term to landing page to call or form.
- Check search terms and add negatives for irrelevant or DIY intent where appropriate.
- Make the page match the exact service and location mentioned in the advert.
- Show clear trust signals, completed project examples, reviews and relevant credentials.
- Make the phone number easy to find on mobile and test click-to-call functionality.
- Keep forms short enough to complete while collecting the information needed to route the enquiry.
- Check mobile speed, broken forms and conversion tracking before changing bids.
- Separate emergency services from planned projects when their intent and economics differ.
Google’s conversion-rate definition depends on eligible interactions and the conversion actions configured in the account. Confirm that your measurement is accurate before comparing your result with a third-party benchmark.
How much should a UK contractor spend on Google Ads?
Build a starting budget from your business target rather than copying another contractor’s monthly spend. Estimate the number of qualified leads you need, the CPL you can afford and the percentage of qualified leads that become booked or won jobs.
For example, if you want 20 leads a month and your planning CPL is £50, the simple media-spend estimate is £1,000. This is a planning calculation—not a guarantee that the campaign will deliver 20 leads at that price. Actual performance depends on available demand, competition, targeting and the quality of the offer.
Keep media spend separate from agency fees, landing-page costs, call-tracking tools and CRM costs. Review the budget against qualified leads and completed-job economics, not just the number of clicks.
How to improve performance without chasing cheap clicks
1. Tighten search intent
Use service-specific keywords and review the search terms report. A roofer may want searches for roof replacement or a leaking roof in a defined service area, not broad searches for roof materials or DIY instructions.
2. Match the landing page to the service
Send people to a relevant page with the service, location, proof and next step clearly stated. Do not force every visitor through a generic homepage.
3. Track phone calls and forms
Trades businesses often receive enquiries by phone. Track calls and form submissions accurately, and distinguish a contact attempt from a genuine lead.
4. Record qualification and booking outcomes
Use a spreadsheet or CRM to mark whether each enquiry is suitable, contacted, booked, quoted, won and completed. This shows which campaigns create actual work.
5. Feed reliable downstream outcomes into reporting
Where appropriate and technically supported, connect CRM or offline conversion outcomes to Google Ads. Check the current Google documentation and implementation requirements before setting up imports.
6. Review cost per booked job and profit
Increase budget only when tracking is reliable and the campaign is generating enough qualified opportunities and profitable work to support growth.
How to tell whether Google Ads is profitable
CPC, CPL and conversion rate describe parts of the funnel. Profitability requires you to connect advertising costs to the work you win and deliver.
- Cost per qualified lead: ad spend divided by qualified leads.
- Cost per booked survey: ad spend divided by confirmed surveys.
- Cost per won job: ad spend divided by jobs won.
- Cost per completed job: ad spend divided by completed jobs.
- Revenue-to-ad-spend ratio: attributed revenue divided by ad spend.
- Gross margin after acquisition cost: use job costs and overhead assumptions, not revenue alone.
A high revenue-to-ad-spend ratio is not the same as profit. Materials, labour, subcontractors, overheads, cancellations and attribution limitations all affect the real result.
Frequently asked questions
What are the Google Ads benchmarks for UK home improvement businesses in 2026?
PositionWorks’ June 2026 report lists trade-specific reference ranges. For example, plumber CPC is £2.20–£3.60 and CPL is £22–£55; roofer CPC is £2.80–£4.40 and CPL is £34–£82; builders’ extensions and renovation CPC is £2.60–£4.80 and CPL is £45–£112. These are dataset-based ranges, not official Google-wide averages.
What is a good cost per lead for a roofer in the UK?
PositionWorks reports a roofer CPL range of £34–£82 in its June 2026 UK benchmark report. Whether a lead is affordable depends on qualification rate, booked jobs, job value and margin.
What is a good Google Ads conversion rate for contractors?
Compare only after checking that the conversion actions and denominators are defined consistently.
Why is my Google Ads cost per lead so high?
Possible causes include expensive or irrelevant search terms, weak landing-page relevance, poor mobile experience, tracking gaps, high local competition or low enquiry conversion. Review the search terms, page, calls, forms and lead outcomes before changing the budget.
Is CPC or CPL more important?
Neither is enough alone. CPC measures click cost and CPL measures cost per recorded lead. Cost per qualified lead, booked job, won job and completed-job profit are closer to business outcomes.
How do I calculate Google Ads conversion rate?
Divide conversions by eligible ad interactions that can be tracked to a conversion during the same period, then multiply by 100. Make sure you know which conversion actions are included.
How much should a UK contractor spend on Google Ads each month?
Start with your desired lead volume and an affordable planning CPL, then validate the estimate against actual demand, competition and campaign performance. A budget estimate is not a guarantee of lead volume.
Are these official Google Ads averages?
No. The trade-specific figures in this article are reported by PositionWorks in its June 2026 UK benchmark report. They are reference ranges from its dataset, not official Google-wide averages.
How can Max Quality Leads help?
Max Quality Leads runs Meta (Facebook and Instagram) Ads, our main channel, and Google Ads for UK home improvement firms. Every lead is exclusive to you, leads land in your CRM within 5 seconds, and each enquiry is checked against your area, job type and minimum budget.
For one UK fitted-interiors client that meant 1,820 leads, 70% qualified, and 52+ jobs won: 3–5 jobs a month in practice. Pricing starts at £5 per lead + ad spend (typically £15–£20 all-in). Book a free call or WhatsApp us.
Related guides
- Checkatrade vs Google Ads: Which Is Better for UK Trades?
- Google Ads for Builders UK: Stop Paying for Poor Leads
- Google Ads for Home Improvement: Turn Leads Into Jobs
- Meta Ads management
- Google Ads management
Sources
- PositionWorks — UK Google Ads Benchmark Report 2026 (published June 2026)
- Google Ads Help — Conversion rate: Definition
- Google Ads — Measure conversions for your business
- Methodology note: the trade-specific CPC, conversion-rate and CPL ranges are attributed to PositionWorks’ June 2026 report. That report says its home-improvement benchmarks draw heavily on one mature UK account plus other public sources, so they should be treated as indicative reference ranges. Exact live UK keyword search volumes and difficulty scores were not verified in Semrush or Ahrefs. Validate them before making volume-based SEO decisions.
Utsav Daga
Founder & Lead Performance Strategist. Personally runs every account. About Utsav