Research
Home Services Marketing DataFigures you can quote, with the source attached
Updated 2026-09-04Sources: LocaliQ, BrightLocal
What leads cost in home services
Search advertising benchmarks for the home & home improvement category — the numbers to judge your own cost per lead against.
| Metric | Figure | What it means for you | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average cost per lead — Google Search, home & home improvement | $90.92 | A booked-job lead from search ads costs a home services company roughly $91 on average, so anything under that is competitive and anything far above it needs a landing page or targeting fix before more budget. | LocaliQ, 2026 Search Advertising Benchmarks 2026 |
| Average cost per lead — all industries | $66.69 | Home services leads cost about 36% more than the all-industry average, which is why sloppy tracking hides real money in this trade. | LocaliQ, 2026 Search Advertising Benchmarks 2026 |
| Average cost per click — home & home improvement | $8.33 | Every click is expensive, so a page that buries the phone number or asks for ten form fields wastes real dollars, not just traffic. | LocaliQ, 2026 Search Advertising Benchmarks 2026 |
| Average click-through rate — home & home improvement | 6.47% | About one in fifteen people who see your search ad clicks it, so ad copy that names the service and the city matters more than the budget. | LocaliQ, 2026 Search Advertising Benchmarks 2026 |
| Average landing page conversion rate — home & home improvement | 8.05% | Roughly eight in a hundred clicks turn into a call or form fill; doubling that number is cheaper than doubling ad spend. | LocaliQ, 2026 Search Advertising Benchmarks 2026 |
How homeowners use reviews
Consumer research on how people read reviews before they call a contractor.
| Metric | Figure | What it means for you | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consumers who trust reviews as much as a personal recommendation | 42% | Trust in reviews has fallen from 79% in 2020, so recent, specific, named reviews now do more work than a high star average alone. | BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2025 January 2025 |
| Consumers who read reviews on two or more websites | 74% | Most homeowners cross-check you somewhere else, so Google alone is not enough — your profile has to look the same everywhere they look. | BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2025 January 2025 |
| Consumers who use only one review website | 27% | For a quarter of buyers the first profile they open is the whole decision, which is why the newest review on Google matters so much. | BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2025 January 2025 |
Questions about these numbers
What is the average cost per lead for a home service business?
LocaliQ's 2026 search advertising benchmarks put the home & home improvement average at $90.92 per lead from Google Search, compared with $66.69 across all industries. Home services leads cost roughly 36% more than the average industry pays.
What is a good conversion rate for a contractor website?
The home & home improvement average landing page conversion rate is 8.05%, so about eight in a hundred clicks become a call or a form fill. Anything under 5% usually means the page hides the phone number, asks for too much, or does not name the service and the city.
Do homeowners still trust online reviews?
Less than they used to. BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey 2025 found 42% of consumers trust reviews as much as a personal recommendation, down from 79% in 2020, and 74% read reviews on two or more websites before deciding.
How are these figures sourced?
Every figure on this page is published by a named third party — LocaliQ or BrightLocal — with the study and date linked next to it. Nothing here is modelled or estimated by Digital Marketing Coach, and our own first-party benchmark numbers publish separately once enough owners have contributed them.
Add your own numbers to the next report
First-party benchmarks for cost per lead, close rate, and marketing spend by trade publish once enough owners contribute anonymously. Nothing gets published until the sample is large enough to be honest about.
