Contractors running Google Ads generally pay three separate things: ad spend to Google, a management fee, and the cost of the landing pages the clicks go to. Across our own contractor programmes over the twelve months to October 2026, cost per lead came in around $58 and $63. A&B Consulting Group manages contractor Google Ads from Burr Ridge, Illinois, serving Chicago and the western suburbs and clients in 17 states.
Most answers to this question quote a cost per click, which is close to useless. A click is not a lead, a lead is not a job, and the trade that pays twice as much per click can still have the cheaper cost per booked job.
What follows is how the money actually splits, what contractors in this market realistically pay, and the figures from our own client programmes — which are the only numbers on this page we can source directly.
| Option | Typical range | What that buys |
|---|---|---|
| Ad spend (to Google) | $1,500–$10,000+ a month | Paid directly to Google, never through us. What it needs to be depends on your service area and how many jobs you want. Too thin a budget across too wide an area produces nothing and reads as proof the channel failed. |
| Cost per click | $8–$50+ | Highly trade-dependent. Emergency and high-ticket exterior work sits at the top of that range; less urgent services considerably below it. Competitive suburbs cost more than outlying ones. |
| Cost per lead — our programmes | Around $58 and $63 | Measured over twelve months to October 2026: roughly $58 per Meta lead for a multi-location contractor in Illinois, and roughly $63 average per lead for a roofing and siding contractor in Illinois. |
| Local Services Ads | Per lead, not per click | Charged per enquiry rather than per click, and usually the cheapest lead available where your trade qualifies. Requires licensing and background verification, which is a barrier worth clearing because it keeps the field smaller. |
| Management fee | 10–20% of spend, or a flat monthly | The two common models. Percentage creates an incentive to recommend higher budgets, which is why we price management to scope instead and keep your spend going directly to Google. |
Click and lead costs vary enormously by trade, by metro and by season — storm season roofing in a competitive suburb does not behave like gutter cleaning in January. Treat these as the shape of the market rather than a forecast. The A&B cost-per-lead figures in the row below are real, measured over twelve months to October 2026 and published under anonymised client labels.
A contractor paying $40 a click and converting one visitor in ten has a $400 cost per lead. One paying $12 a click and converting one in fifty has a $600 cost per lead while believing they are getting the better deal.
Go one step further and the picture changes again. If those leads close at one in five on a $25,000 ticket, a $400 lead is excellent. If they close at one in twenty-five on a $4,000 ticket, it is a business-ending number. Same ad account, opposite verdict.
Which is why we report on cost per booked job and treat everything above it as diagnostic. It is also why the first thing we fix in an inherited account is usually tracking — without calls and forms counted as conversions, nobody can answer the only question that matters.
Two contractor programmes over the twelve months to October 2026, both Google Ads led, both measured through Windsor.
A multi-location contractor in Illinois produced 1,300+ leads and 1,500+ calls through Google Ads, alongside 950+ leads from Meta at roughly $58 each — 3,800+ total leads and calls, from 48,000+ clicks and 8.2M+ impressions. Monthly call volume grew roughly fivefold from winter into peak season.
A roofing and siding contractor in Illinois produced 550+ leads and 100+ calls from 6,700+ clicks, at an average cost per lead around $63. That programme also ran through November to February at roughly 68 leads a month — the stretch when most roofers go quiet, which is when paid search is least contested and cheapest.
We do not publish spend, for any client, under any framing. The cost-per-lead figures are the part that is useful to you anyway.
Mostly things that are fixable, which is the encouraging part.
The honest floor is set by your market rather than by a rule. You need enough to appear consistently for the terms that matter in the area you cover — and spreading a small budget thinly across a wide area is the most common way contractors conclude Google Ads does not work.
If the budget cannot cover the whole service area at a useful frequency, narrow the area rather than the frequency. Dominating three suburbs beats being occasionally visible across twenty.
And if the maths genuinely does not work — if a lead in your market costs more than the job can bear — we will tell you before taking the work. That conversation is cheaper for everyone than three months of proving it.
Management is priced to the scope of the work, and your ad spend goes directly to Google rather than through us.
We avoid percentage-of-spend because of what it does to the advice: an agency paid a percentage has a standing incentive to recommend a bigger budget, and that incentive should not be in the room when you are deciding how much to spend.
You keep ownership of the account throughout. We work inside yours rather than running your campaigns through ours, so the conversion history and the campaign learning stay with you regardless of what happens to the relationship.
It varies by trade, market and season. In our own programmes over the twelve months to October 2026, cost per lead came in around $58 for a multi-location contractor in Illinois and around $63 for a roofing and siding contractor in Illinois. Whether that is good depends entirely on your close rate and ticket size — a $60 lead is excellent at one-in-five on a large job and poor at one-in-thirty on a small one.
The market runs roughly 10 to 20 percent of spend, or a flat monthly fee. We price to scope instead, because a percentage gives the agency a permanent incentive to recommend a larger budget. Whichever model you choose, your ad spend should go directly to Google rather than through the agency's account.
Start with Local Services Ads where your trade qualifies — they sit above everything else, carry the Google Guaranteed badge, and charge per lead rather than per click. Standard search then covers the terms LSA does not reach. Running both is normal, and the split shifts as you learn which produces better-qualified enquiries.
Often yes, and it is the most overlooked opportunity in contractor paid search. Competition thins when everyone pauses, so clicks get cheaper. One of our roofing programmes ran at roughly 68 leads a month through November to February — the months most roofers go dark.
Usually one of four things: clicks landing on the homepage instead of a matching page, keywords too broad, negatives never maintained, or a slow site that both raises your click cost and loses the visitor. All four are fixable, and all four are more common in inherited accounts than any targeting problem.
Enough to appear consistently for your key terms across the area you want covered — which is a function of your market, not a general figure. If that is more than you have, narrow the service area rather than thin the budget across all of it. We would rather scope that against your numbers than quote a starting budget blind.
How we run these accounts.
Read →3,800+ leads and calls in 12 months.
Read →550+ leads at around $63 each.
Read →The service page for the trades.
Read →The channel that keeps producing.
Read →Tell us what you have now and what you are trying to fix. We will scope it honestly — and if you do not need us yet, we will say so.