If you’re thinking about running a Google Ads campaign and don’t quite know how much Google Ads costs or what you should set aside as your budget, that’s what we’re going to cover today.
I’m going to walk you through the process that I use when it comes to actually quoting out budgets for potential clients and how you can use the Google Ads Keyword Planner to figure out what your budget should be and how much you should set aside for Google Ads.
The biggest caveat with this is that I can’t give one blanket answer for every single business. It’s going to be different based upon the industry that you’re in and the competitiveness of the market that you’re in right now.
What I’m going to do in this post is walk you through the process that I use and give you the tools to figure it out on your end.
If you’d prefer to watch a video on all of this, you can check out the video above. Or, you can read on to see how to calculate what Google Ads might cost for your business.
Why You Need To Be Realistic About Google Ads Costs
Before we get into the actual process, I think it’s really important to set realistic expectations around what your budget could be depending on your industry and your market.
There are some instances where if your daily and monthly budget is just not enough for Google Ads, I would probably advise somebody to go towards something like Facebook Ads instead of Google Ads.
Google has always been a more expensive platform, and it’s gotten even more expensive in the past couple of years. Click costs have gotten inflated, more people are coming onto the platform, and competition has gone up.
It’s just an expensive platform, and that’s the reality of it.
It’s better to go into Google Ads being realistic about costs and having proper expectations instead of coming into a market and just not being competitive enough because you’re not spending enough to go up against other businesses in the area.
If you only have $500 a month to spend and your competitors are spending $5,000 a month, you’re going to have a really hard time generating consistent results.
That doesn’t mean Google Ads won’t work for you, but you need to understand the landscape you’re entering and whether your budget is realistic for your market.
The Formula I Use To Calculate Google Ads Budgets
Typically, the way I figure out an average daily budget for Google Ads is you want to take whatever the rough average estimated click cost would be and then multiply it by five.
That’ll give you a daily budget estimate that you could go with for your business, and you can multiply that out for however many days that you want to advertise.
Why Multiply By Five?
The reason I say multiply by five is because when I’m thinking about getting results for a client, I want to try to get at least five clicks a day.
Ultimately, I’m trying to shoot for at least a 20% conversion rate. Getting five clicks a day is going to give somebody enough momentum with that campaign to try to get one new lead a day from that Google Ads campaign.
If you want more leads from there, you can scale up the amount of traffic from that point.
So the formula is simple:
Average Cost Per Click × 5 = Daily Budget
For example:
- If your average cost per click is $10, your daily budget should be around $50
- If your average cost per click is $20, your daily budget should be around $100
- If your average cost per click is $40, your daily budget should be around $200
Keep in mind that this is what I would start with, but there are ways to try to reduce that initial investment that we’ll talk about in a second.
How Many Days Per Week Should You Advertise?
Typically, I recommend five days a week, Monday to Friday. That works pretty well for most businesses.
Obviously, it’s going to vary depending on the industry. If you’re in something like pool services or a more weekend-oriented industry when people are actually thinking about that thing, sometimes the weekend’s a little bit better.
But for most local service businesses, five days a week Monday through Friday is a good starting point.
This is where you can try to save a bit on your monthly budget if you don’t have enough runway to advertise 5 days/week right now.
For example, by trimming out one day of the week on a $100/day ad spend, you would effectively be saving about $400 to $500 per month on your monthly ad spend.
How To Use Google Ads Keyword Planner
To actually get started on this process and start figuring out what that budget’s going to be, the first thing you need to do is set up a Google Ads account if you don’t have one already.
Setting Up Your Google Ads Account
It’s really simple to do. Just go to ads.google.com and they’re going to guide you through the steps to get an account set up.
It’s very likely that Google’s going to make you set up a campaign to start. You can set up a campaign and you’re probably going to have to put in your card info, but you can pause the campaign, set it to a dollar a day, and just make sure it doesn’t actually spend any money.
You are going to need to set up a Google Ads account to actually access the Google Ads Keyword Planner.
Accessing The Keyword Planner
Once you have an account set up, you’re most likely going to have to switch it over to Expert Mode if you haven’t already.
Click on “Tools” at the top of your Google Ads account, and then under “Planning” you’ll see “Keyword Planner”. Click on that.
You’re going to see a page with a few options. We want to select “Discover new keywords”.
Entering Your Keywords
In the box, you just want to put in some base level keywords for your industry based upon what somebody might search to find your service.
For example, if you’re a tree service company, you might enter:
- tree service
- tree removal
- tree trimming
- tree service [your city name]
Put in a few keywords that are relevant to your business, then hit “Get results”.
Understanding The Keyword Planner Data
Once you hit “Get results”, Google is going to populate the page with keyword data.
Before you dive into the specific keywords, you want to set your location targeting to match your actual service area.
Setting Your Location
At the top of the page, you’ll see a location option. Click on that and enter your target market.
You can target by city, county, zip code, or state. Try to keep it roughly in your targeted location.
For example, if you service Seattle, type in Seattle and select it. Get rid of “United States” as the default location and hit save.
You’ll see the numbers update to reflect costs in your specific market.
This is important because costs can vary dramatically from one market to another.
Finding Your Average Cost Per Click
Now it’s time to look at the data and figure out what your average cost per click might be.
One really important thing to keep in mind: take these numbers with a grain of salt. The Keyword Planner is not 100% accurate. There’s a lot of things that impact keyword costs, but it’s a good way to get a rough idea of how expensive a market might be.
What I like to do is look at a rough average of some of the main keywords – the things that people are going to be searching primarily.
Look for high intent keywords like:
- “[your service] near me”
- “[your service] [city name]”
- “[your service] company”
These are the keywords where people are actively looking to hire someone, not just browsing for information.
You’ll see a range for each keyword showing the low end and high end of the cost per click. I typically look at the higher end of that range to be conservative with my estimates.
Real World Examples
Let me give you a few examples to show you how dramatically costs can vary by industry and location.
Tree Service Example
When I looked up tree service keywords for Seattle, some of the main keywords like “tree service near me” were showing costs as high as $40 per click on the high end.
Using my formula of cost per click times five, that would mean a daily budget of around $200 per day for a tree service company in Seattle.
If you’re advertising five days a week, that’s $1,000 per week or roughly $4,000 to $4,500 per month.
Now, if I changed the location to Portland instead of Seattle, those same keywords dropped to around $25 per click.
Same industry, different market, and the costs went from $40 per click down to $25 per click. That’s a huge difference.
In Portland, you’d be looking at around $125 per day instead of $200 per day.
That’s the impact of not only the industry you’re in, but the market that you’re in as well.
Lower Cost Example
On the other end of the spectrum, I looked at dumpster rental keywords in Portland.
High intent keywords like “dumpster rental near me” and “dumpster rental Portland” were coming in around $7 to $8 per click.
In that case, I’d probably recommend a daily budget of around $40 to $50 per day. Much more affordable than tree service.
High Cost Example
To show you the high end of what Google Ads can cost, I looked at roofing in Portland.
Keywords like “roofing companies Portland” and “roofers Portland” were showing costs of $100+ per click.
At $100 per click, you’d need to be spending around $500 per day to be competitive in that market.
If you only have $1,000 per month to spend and you’re getting $100 clicks, you’re going to get 10 clicks in a month. Maybe you’ll get one or two leads if you’re lucky.
In a situation like that, I would recommend going to something like Facebook Ads instead because Google Ads just isn’t realistic with that budget in that market.
Factors That Impact Google Ads Costs
As you can see from those examples, there are several factors that impact how much Google Ads will cost:
Your Industry
Some industries are just more expensive than others. Legal services, roofing, plumbing, and HVAC tend to be on the higher end. Services like lawn care, cleaning services, or handyman services tend to be on the lower end.
The more expensive the average customer is worth, the more businesses are willing to pay per click.
Your Market
Major metro areas are going to be more expensive than smaller towns. Seattle, New York, Los Angeles, and other big cities will have higher costs than smaller markets.
More population means more competition, which drives up the cost per click.
Competition
The number of businesses advertising in your market impacts costs. If you’re in a market with 20 other businesses all running Google Ads, costs are going to be higher than a market where only 2 or 3 businesses are advertising.
Seasonality
Some industries have seasonal fluctuations. Tree service might be more expensive in spring and summer when people are thinking about their yards. Pool service might be cheaper in winter when demand drops.
The time of year you run your ads can impact your costs.
Conclusion
So, how much do Google Ads cost in 2026? The honest answer is: it depends.
It depends on your industry, your market, your competition, and the time of year.
The best way to get a realistic estimate is to use the Google Ads Keyword Planner to research costs in your specific market for your specific services.
Take the average cost per click for your main keywords, multiply it by five, and that gives you a realistic daily budget to start with.
From there, you can make an informed decision about whether Google Ads is the right platform for your business with your budget.
Need Help With Your Google Ads Campaign?
If you need help figuring out your Google Ads budget or want someone to set up and manage a campaign for your business, feel free to reach out.
Click the button below to apply for a free consultation. I’ll review your application personally, and if I feel like I can help you out, I’ll reach out to schedule a call.
Want to see more Google Ads content? Check out this post we made about Tree Service Google Ads tips for running profitable Google Ads.
Thanks for reading!
Recent Comments