Real Canadian cost per click estimates for 17 trades, how to turn them into cost per job and a sane budget, and the settings that quietly waste contractor ad spend.
The short answer: Google Ads for Canadian contractors usually cost somewhere around $1.30 to $5.50 per click, depending on your trade, according to SE Ranking estimates for common trade searches. What really matters is your cost per lead and cost per job, and those depend far more on how the account is set up than on the click price. Most contractors don't have a Google Ads cost problem. They have a wasted spend problem.
"How much do Google Ads cost?" is one of those questions where the honest answer is "it depends," which is exactly the answer that makes contractors want to throw their phone in the lake. So let's do better than that. Here are real Canadian numbers by trade, how to turn them into a budget, and where the money usually leaks out.
Fun timing note: Q4 is when a lot of owners set next year's marketing budget. If you're about to commit real money to Google in 2027, read this first.
Quick answer: Search ads are an auction. You pay when someone clicks your ad, and the price depends on how many other businesses want the same search, plus the quality of your ad and landing page.
There's no fixed rate card. Every time a homeowner searches "emergency plumber" in your area, Google runs an auction among the advertisers who want that search. Busy trades in big cities pay more. Clean, relevant ads that send people to a strong page tend to pay less for the same spot.
One detail most owners don't know: your daily budget is an average, not a hard cap. Google says "on a given day, your campaign might spend up to twice your average daily budget," but over a month you'll spend "no more than 30.4 times your average daily budget" (Google Ads Help). So a $50 a day budget means roughly $1,520 a month, not a strict $50 every day.
Quick answer: Emergency and high ticket trades sit at the top, around $3 to $5.50 a click. Planned and seasonal work like decks, snow removal and handyman jobs often run under $2.
These are SE Ranking's average cost per click estimates for Canadian searches as of November 2026. Your city, your competition and your account quality will move them, but they're a solid starting point:
Notice something? A click for a $7,000 furnace job costs about the same as a large coffee and a muffin. The click is rarely the expensive part. Paying for clicks that never had a chance of becoming jobs is.
Quick answer: Cost per lead equals cost per click divided by your conversion rate. Cost per job equals cost per lead divided by your close rate. Those two percentages matter more than the click price.
Here's a simple example with made up but realistic numbers for a plumber:
Now watch what happens when the landing page is weak and only one in twenty visitors calls. Same click price, but your cost per lead doubles to $80 and your cost per job jumps to $240. Nothing about Google changed. Your website did.
And here's the part shared lead platforms don't love: every one of those leads is yours alone. Nobody else got the phone number. Compare that with paying for a lead that went to several contractors at once, like we covered in Angi in Canada.
Quick answer: Work backwards from the number of jobs you want. Multiply jobs by your expected cost per job, and give a new account a couple of months of steady spend before you judge it.
Say you want ten more water heater and repair jobs a month, and your numbers land around $120 per job. That's a $1,200 monthly ad budget, or roughly $40 a day. Want twenty jobs? Double it. If your average job is worth $1,500, that math works out very nicely.
A few honest rules of thumb:
Quick answer: Broad targeting, missing negative keywords, ads running when nobody answers the phone, and weak landing pages. Fix those and the same budget brings noticeably more jobs.
Quick answer: Local Services Ads charge per lead instead of per click and sit at the very top of Google with a verified badge. For many trades, running both covers the most ground.
Google says with Local Services Ads you "only pay when a customer gets in touch from your ad" (Google Ads Help). They're great for urgent work like heating, plumbing and pest control. Regular search ads give you more control over keywords, ad copy and landing pages. We explained how the two work together in winter in HVAC Marketing in Canada.
Here's a cost nobody puts in the calculator. Plenty of agencies charge a percentage of your ad spend, often with a 12 month contract on top. Think about what that rewards. The more you spend, the more they make, whether or not your phone rings. There's no reason for them to tell you to cut wasted spend, because wasted spend pays them too.
Leads4Trades works differently:
SE Ranking estimates put common Canadian trade searches between about $1.30 and $5.50 per click as of November 2026. Emergency services like furnace repair and emergency plumbing sit at the top; seasonal work like snow removal and deck building sits near the bottom.
Work backwards from the jobs you want. Multiply the number of jobs by your expected cost per job. For many small trade businesses that lands somewhere in the low thousands of dollars a month, but your trade and city matter a lot.
Yes, on individual days. Google says a campaign can spend up to twice its average daily budget on a given day, but no more than 30.4 times the average daily budget over a month.
Usually it's wasted clicks from irrelevant searches, too wide a service area, a weak landing page, or missed calls. The search terms report, negative keywords and call tracking are the first places to look.
They work differently. Local Services Ads charge per lead instead of per click, and they show above regular ads. For urgent trades they're often great value, but many contractors get the best results running both.
Be careful with it. A percentage fee rewards the agency for higher spend, not better results. A fixed management fee keeps everyone focused on getting you more jobs for the same money.
Want to know what Google Ads would actually cost for your trade and city? Book a free consultation or call us at 1-833-454-4400.
Last updated: November 2026.
