Home-Service Cost Per Lead Benchmarks 2026: Real Numbers From Our Accounts

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Updated 16 October 2026: Third-party 2026 benchmarks: Google Search ads for home and home improvement average $90.92 a lead, $8.33 a click and an 8.05% conversion rate (LocaliQ, Apr 2025–Mar 2026). Across the accounts Opus Group runs (all trades), leads average $63, $44–$90 in clients' best months, with a 27x return on ad spend and $1M+ of work won every month.

Summary: Across the home-service accounts Opus Group runs, the last twelve months averaged $63 a lead, and in their best months clients have paid between $44 and $90 for each call or message from Google. Those accounts win clients $1M+ of work every month, at a 27× return on ad spend over the last twelve months. A lead price only means something next to your own close rate, so the number to budget against is cost per booked job: lead cost ÷ close rate, worked out from your own records.

Most published "average cost per lead" figures are guesses scraped from other guesses. These come from live accounts — leads tagged to source and traced through to booked jobs. Use them to sanity-check your own numbers.

What our accounts pay per lead

• Average: $63 a lead across the accounts we run over the last twelve months.
• Best months: $44 to $90 for each call or message from Google. 1776 Tree Service paid $44 an enquiry in June 2026, Isaac's Tree Service $52 in March 2026, and R & J Plumbing & Backflow $90 in September 2024.
• A plumbing client last month: $14.1K of Google Ads brought 237 calls and forms at roughly $60 each, and about $300K of work followed.
• Why the spread: lead prices move with trade, market, season and job type, so treat any single figure as a starting point, not a quote. A $60 lead that closes into a $12,000 patio is cheap; the same price for a one-off small job may not be.

Close rates: measure your own

• Your close rate is yours: it varies by trade, job type, lead source and how fast you answer, so take it from your own job records rather than anyone's benchmark.
• Shared marketplace leads (Angi, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack): you pay for the lead whether or not you win the job, and the homeowner often hears from several pros, so track these separately. They usually book less often than leads that come only to you.

The metric that actually matters: cost per booked job

Divide lead cost by close rate. Example numbers to swap for yours: a $63 lead that books one time in three costs about $189 per booked job; a cheaper $40 lead that books one time in ten costs $400. Cost per lead is a vanity metric; cost per booked job pays the bills.

What to budget

Across trades, set the budget from your cost per booked job and the jobs you want to add, weighted toward exclusive owned channels — Local Services Ads first, Search on high-ticket keywords second, local SEO compounding underneath. Across our accounts, that blend works because every lead is exclusive and traced to booked revenue.

How to use these numbers

Tag every job to its source for 30 days. If your cost per lead looks good next to our $63 average but your cost per booked job doesn't, you have a close-rate problem (usually response speed or reviews). If both lag, your budget is pointed at the wrong searches.

Paid media benchmarks: 2026 update

Third-party figures are labelled with their source; they are not Opus Group claims.

Sources for the 2026 update

• LocaliQ: 2026 search advertising benchmarks (Apr 2025–Mar 2026)
• LocaliQ: home services search ad benchmarks (Apr 2024–Mar 2025)
• SearchLight: LSA cost per lead by trade, 2026
• Founders Resource: Angi lead cost by trade, mid-2026
• LeadTruffle: Angi lead cost and contract terms, 2026
• Tack Tools Pro: 5,985 Thumbtack leads, Mar–Sep 2026
• SuperDupr: Yelp Ads click costs for contractors, 2026
• 3D Media: Yelp Ads cost for contractors, 2026

Checked 16 October 2026.

New: 2026 paid media benchmarks by trade · Yelp Ads vs LSA · Thumbtack vs LSA

FAQ

What are the 2026 paid media benchmarks for home services?

Third-party 2026 benchmarks: Google Search ads for home and home improvement average $90.92 a lead, $8.33 a click and an 8.05% conversion rate (LocaliQ, Apr 2025–Mar 2026). Across the accounts Opus Group runs (all trades), leads average $63, $44–$90 in clients' best months, with a 27x return on ad spend and $1M+ of work won every month.

What is the average cost per lead for home services ads in 2026?

LocaliQ's 2026 benchmark for home and home improvement search ads is $90.92 a lead, against $66.69 for all industries. Per-trade figures are on our 2026 paid media benchmarks by trade page.

What's a good cost per lead for home services in 2026?

Across the accounts we run, the last twelve months averaged $63 a lead, with client cases from $44 to $90 — but judge cost per booked job: lead cost ÷ close rate.

Why do shared leads close so much worse?

They can be resold to several contractors; speed and price decide, and most buyers of the lead lose by design.

Do these benchmarks include SEO leads?

They come from the Local Services Ads and Google Ads we run. Mature local SEO brings calls with no cost per click, so over time it usually comes in below them.

How much should I budget in total?

Set it from your cost per booked job and the jobs you want to add, weighted to exclusive channels and high-ticket keywords.

Opus Group runs Google Ads, Local Services Ads and high-converting landing pages for local service businesses. See how it works.

Opus Group is a marketing agency for HVAC, plumbing, roofing, electrical, landscaping, tree service and pest control companies.

Theo Prada is the founder of Opus Group, a US agency that markets exclusively for home-service contractors.