What should I spend on Google Ads? is one of the first questions BC business owners ask us. The honest answer is not a single number. It depends on what a customer is worth to you, how many jobs you can handle and how competitive your service is in your area.
This guide gives you real benchmark numbers, a simple way to set your own budget, and the mistakes that waste the most money.
How you pay for Google Ads
Google Ads works like an auction. Your ad appears when someone searches for what you do, such as "furnace repair Surrey" or "emergency plumber Vancouver", and you pay each time someone clicks. You set a daily budget, and Google never charges more than that over a month.
On some days Google can spend up to twice your daily budget, then less on others. Over a month, it averages out to roughly your daily budget times 30.4.
What clicks and leads cost
Here are the most useful public benchmarks we know of. Treat them as a ballpark, not a quote.
- Average cost per click for home services: about $12.45 CAD ($8.86 USD), with a median of about $8.20 CAD, according to a 2025 study of more than a million US keywords by Backlinko and Semrush.
- Cost per lead by trade: in LocaliQ's benchmarks from thousands of North American home service accounts, plumbing averaged about $69 CAD per lead, heating and furnaces about $87, roofing and gutters about $143 and landscaping about $54.
All figures are converted from US dollars at about 1.41 CAD per USD (October 2026). Two things to keep in mind. These benchmarks come from across North America, and competitive Metro Vancouver searches can cost more than the average while smaller BC towns often cost less. Emergency searches, like "burst pipe" or "no heat", usually cost the most per click because they convert the best.
The most accurate number is your own. Google's free Keyword Planner shows estimated costs for the exact searches in the cities you serve.
A real example from the Lower Mainland
Local campaigns can come in well under those averages. For a Lower Mainland property maintenance company we work with, Google Ads clicks averaged $3.00 CAD over 30 days this fall: 352 clicks and 13,400 impressions for about $1,060 in ad spend. That's roughly a quarter of the average above.
What usually keeps click costs down for a local service business:
- Targeting only the cities you actually serve, instead of the whole province
- One ad group per service, so each ad matches what people searched for
- Cutting searches that will never become customers, like "jobs" or "DIY"
- Sending clicks to a page about that exact service, which Google rewards with lower costs
A cheap click is only half the story. It still has to become a call or a form, and that enquiry still has to be answered quickly. That's why we always track conversions, not just clicks.
How to work out your budget
Work backwards from your business, not from what a competitor spends. You need three numbers.
- How many extra jobs you want each month. Be realistic about what your team can handle.
- Your close rate. Out of every 10 genuine enquiries, how many become paying jobs?
- A realistic cost per lead. Start with the benchmarks above for your trade.
Then do the math:
- Leads needed = jobs wanted ÷ close rate
- Monthly budget = leads needed × cost per lead
Example: a Metro Vancouver HVAC company wants 10 more jobs a month and wins about 1 in 3 enquiries. It needs about 30 leads. At around $85 per lead, that's a monthly ad budget of about $2,550.
Now check it against what a job is worth. If an average job brings in $2,500, then 10 jobs for $2,550 in ads is about a 10x return. If an average job is $250, the same spend doesn't work, and you'd need a cheaper channel or a better offer.
Typical starting budgets
Based on the accounts we see, these are sensible starting points for service businesses in BC:
- Under $1,000 a month: enough to test one service in a small area, but data comes in slowly.
- $1,500 to $3,000 a month: a solid start for most trades in Metro Vancouver, with enough leads to see what works within a month or two.
- $3,000 and up: for businesses ready to grow fast, covering several services or a larger area.
If your budget is tight, cover fewer services in fewer cities rather than spreading a small budget thinly. A strong campaign in Surrey and Langley beats a weak one across the whole Lower Mainland.
What to expect in the first 90 days
- Weeks 1 to 4: Google is learning, and so are you. Costs can be higher at first while you find which searches bring real customers.
- Months 2 to 3: you cut the searches that waste money, raise bids on the ones that book jobs, and your cost per lead usually comes down.
Judging a campaign after two weeks is the most common reason businesses give up on Google Ads too early.
The mistakes that waste the most money
- No negative keywords. Without them, you pay for searches like "plumber jobs" or "DIY furnace repair".
- Sending clicks to your homepage. A landing page for the exact service, with a clear phone number, converts far better.
- No call tracking. If you can't see which calls came from ads, you can't tell what's working.
- Missing the calls you paid for. A click that rings through to voicemail is wasted money. We call this the Response Gap, and an AI receptionist or fast call forwarding fixes it.
- Bundling ad spend and management fees. Keep them separate so you can see your true cost per lead.
Is Google the right channel for you?
Google works best when people search for your service when they need it, especially for urgent jobs. If your work is more visual or planned, like renovations or exterior upgrades, Meta ads can bring cheaper leads. Our guide on Google Ads vs Facebook ads explains how to choose.
Get a budget for your business
Book a free call and we'll look at your services, your area and your job values, then recommend a realistic starting budget and cost-per-lead target. Learn more about our Google Ads management for BC service businesses