The 2026 LocaliQ/WordStream Google Ads benchmarks are based on 13,474 US search campaigns run from April 2025 through March 2026. They put the all-industry cost per click at $5.42, the conversion rate at 8.18% and the cost per lead at $66.69.
Your own costs will vary with industry, offer and location, so use these Google Ads benchmarks as a starting range for a budget, not a target.
2026 Google Ads benchmarks at a glance {#2026-google-ads-benchmarks-at-a-glance}
The 2026 edition of the LocaliQ/WordStream Google Ads benchmarks covers US search campaigns running April 2025 to March 2026. Its all-industry figures, as summarized in Digital Applied’s review of the report, are:
- Cost per click (CPC): $5.42
- Click-through rate (CTR): 6.64%
- Conversion rate: 8.18%
- Cost per lead (CPL): $66.69
Each figure blends law firms, dentists, pet groomers, furniture stores and everything in between, so very few advertisers pay exactly $5.42 a click or $66.69 a lead. Use these numbers to check whether a quote or forecast is in a sensible range, then look at your own industry’s row.
Where the numbers come from
Google doesn’t publish a cost-per-click table by industry. The figures most advertisers cite come from LocaliQ, which pulls an annual report from campaigns run on its own platform and publishes it through WordStream.
The 2026 edition draws on 13,474 LocaliQ search campaigns across 23 industries and reports four metrics: click-through rate, cost per click, conversion rate and cost per lead. The benchmarks are one company’s client accounts across two search engines. They are not a Google-published average. A Google-only account may look different from the blend for that reason alone.
Some summaries call these figures averages and others call them medians. Digital Applied describes them as medians. A median is the middle campaign, which large accounts pull around less than they pull an average. If you compare the benchmark with your account’s average, keep that in mind. A gap of a few percent may come from the statistic rather than from your performance.
What cost per click means in Google Ads
Cost per click is the amount you pay when someone clicks your ad, and Google uses three related terms. Google’s CPC definition separates your max CPC, which is the most you’re willing to bid for a click, from your actual CPC, which is what you’re charged. Actual CPC is often lower than the max, sometimes much lower.
Average CPC is your total click cost divided by your total clicks. Google’s average CPC example uses two clicks, one at $0.20 and one at $0.40. That’s $0.60 in total, divided by 2 clicks, for an average CPC of $0.30. Google also points new advertisers to Keyword Planner for estimated average CPCs on Search Network campaigns before they launch.
The Avg. CPC column in your own account describes only your campaigns. A benchmark CPC is an aggregate across thousands of other advertisers’ keywords, bids and markets. Use the benchmark to sanity-check your account. It won’t predict what you’ll pay.
Average cost per click by industry
High-value service categories pay the most per click. These are the top 2026 rows from the LocaliQ/WordStream report:
| Industry | 2026 cost per click (US search) |
|---|---|
| Attorneys & Legal Services | $9.87 |
| Dentists & Dental Services | $8.00 |
Both categories sell high-value jobs, so one new client for a law firm or a dental practice can cover many expensive clicks. For these businesses, cost per lead says more than cost per click: a $9.87 click that turns into a lead often enough can beat a cheaper click that rarely converts.
How the 2026 figures compare with earlier editions
Search click costs kept rising in the 2026 edition, but more slowly than the year before. The 2025 edition raised the all-industry CPC from $4.66 to $5.26, a 12.88% increase. The 2026 edition moved it from $5.26 to $5.42, according to Digital Applied’s comparison. Conversion rates also improved. The 2025 WordStream report put the average Google Ads conversion rate at 7.52%.
Alphabet reported Google Search and other cost per click up 3% year on year in Q2 2026. That number covers Google’s whole business. It’s a useful signal of direction, but it isn’t a benchmark for any one advertiser.
Each edition uses a different set of campaigns, so read these year-on-year changes as indicative, not exact.
Several outdated figures still circulate. A $2.69 search CPC and a 3.17% CTR come from WordStream’s older all-industry benchmark, built on data as of 2018. Legal services at $6.75 per click is also a legacy figure from that period, and the 2026 legal row is $9.87. If a budget proposal cites the older numbers, it probably understates current costs. Video placements are priced differently again. Our comparison of YouTube ads versus TV ads covers that side of Google’s inventory.
Turning a benchmark into a budget
Here’s a scenario built only from arithmetic on the benchmark figures. It isn’t a forecast or an Adwave result.
At $5.42 per click, a $67 daily budget buys about 12 clicks a day. At the benchmark cost per lead of $66.69, that spend points to roughly one lead a day, or about 30 leads over a 30-day month.
Your numbers will move with a few factors:
- Industry: a legal or home improvement account starts well above the blended CPC.
- Offer: a clear price or a same-day booking can lift conversion rate.
- Landing page: if the page doesn’t match the ad, people click and leave.
- Geography: competitive metros cost more than smaller markets.
The 30-lead figure is a reference point. Measure your own cost per lead with conversion tracking on the actions that matter to you, such as calls, forms and bookings. Then compare that number with the benchmark after a few weeks. For prerequisites before you spend anything, see our guide to Google Ads costs and prerequisites for small businesses.
Google alongside TV and Meta in one budget
Search benchmarks don’t line up with other channels’ numbers. In WordStream and LocaliQ’s 2026 Facebook benchmarks, reported by Digital Applied, traffic campaigns paid a median $0.60 per click, while lead campaigns paid $1.80 per click and $27.39 per lead. A social click and a search click come from people in different situations. Someone who searched for a plumber is not the same as someone who tapped an ad in a feed. TV is priced per thousand impressions, not per click. This page doesn’t rank the channels, because the figures measure different things. Our guide to choosing between Google, Facebook and TV covers that decision, and the CTV performance benchmarks cover what TV numbers mean.
If you want to run Google next to TV and social without managing separate accounts, Adwave is one option. It makes the ads from your business website and buys media from one prepaid daily budget, with no separate ad accounts to open. You can read more about creating ads from your website URL. Adwave’s published pricing starts daily budgets at $30, which covers TV, Google (YouTube and Demand Gen), Facebook and Instagram as eligible. Budget, audience, creative and content eligibility decide which channels run. Adwave doesn’t guarantee sales or a return on spend.
Limits of these benchmarks
- The sample is one vendor’s US client accounts, not the whole Google Ads market.
- Each advertiser decides what counts as a conversion, so conversion rate and cost per lead aren’t strictly comparable across accounts.
- The figures cover search campaigns only. Display, YouTube and Performance Max costs are different.
- The industry rows come from the same single dataset, so there’s no independent check on them.
- The measurement period ends in March 2026, and auction prices have moved since.
We’ll check this page again when WordStream publishes its next annual edition. If you’re weighing search against streaming and social, see our breakdown of how CTV and Meta ads compare.
