I'm only listing ranges I could trace to a named source. Where a trade doesn't have a solid published number, I say so instead of guessing. And I'll show the number that actually matters to an owner: what each booked job costs you in ad spend.
| Trade | Cost per lead (range) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Electrical | About $39 | SearchLight, Feb 2026 |
| HVAC | About $51 to $80 | SearchLight, Feb 2026 |
| Plumbing | About $57 to $69 | SearchLight, Feb 2026 |
| Drain and sewer | About $59 | SearchLight, Feb 2026 |
| Roofing | About $71 to $162 | SearchLight, Feb 2026 |
| Cleaning | About $28 | LocaliQ, 2025 |
| All trades (blended) | About $53 | SearchLight, Feb 2026 |
| Garage door | No solid public dataset found | None published |
| Locksmith | No solid public dataset found | None published |
| Chimney | No solid public dataset found | None published |
Those are averages across many markets. A roofer in a dense metro after a hail storm will pay more than the top of that range. A plumber in a small town may pay less than the bottom. Treat the table as a starting point for your own math, not a quote.
SearchLight's same dataset reports a 43.9% book rate and about $233 in ad cost per paying customer across all trades. That's the figure to compare against your margin. Here's the math using the trade ranges above and a 1-in-3 booking rate, which is more conservative than SearchLight's average.
| Trade | Cost per lead used | Book rate | Ad cost per booked job |
|---|---|---|---|
| HVAC | $65 | 1 in 3 | $195 |
| Plumbing | $63 | 1 in 3 | $189 |
| Roofing | $115 | 1 in 3 | $345 |
| Electrical | $39 | 1 in 3 | $117 |
The cost per lead in each row is roughly the middle of the sourced range. Swap in your own numbers. If you book one lead in two, halve the last column. If you book one in five, multiply it by 5/3.
If ad cost per job is under a quarter of the gross profit on that job, LSA is probably earning its keep. If it's over half, you're working for Google. Those thresholds are my rule of thumb, not an industry standard.
Owners usually ask how LSA compares to Google search ads, lead sellers like Angi, and SEO. I do a full side-by-side in when LSA beats Google Ads and SEO. The short version:
Manual disputes are gone, which is the biggest change to LSA for contractors in years. Per Google's "About automated Local Services Ads lead credits" help page, Google's models review charged leads and credit the ones they judge invalid or low quality, without you filing anything. You can't appeal lead by lead the old way. That makes your own lead log more important: it's the only way to see if your real cost per lead is drifting up.
LSA is a good bridge. It gets calls in while your own rankings are thin. But lead prices don't fall as you grow, and they don't carry over when you stop paying. The owners I work with usually keep LSA running at a lower budget once their Google Maps SEO and organic pages start bringing calls on their own. If you're in roofing or HVAC, the trade-specific plans are in roofing SEO and HVAC marketing, and for plumbers in SEO for plumbing companies.
If you want to compare, our published pricing is on the site. A Starter plan costs $750 a month, which is roughly what 14 LSA leads cost at SearchLight's $53 blended average.
About $39 to $162 per lead in 2026, depending on trade and market, with a blended average of about $53, per SearchLight's February 2026 data.
About $51 to $80 per lead, per SearchLight's February 2026 data. Expect higher prices during heat waves and cold snaps.
About $57 to $69 per lead, per SearchLight's February 2026 data. Drain and sewer leads ran about $59.
About $71 to $162 per lead, per SearchLight's February 2026 data. Roofing is the most expensive of the major trades.
Leads Google judges invalid at first contact aren't charged, and charged leads can be credited automatically later. Wrong job type and out-of-area leads are no longer credited.
I'll look at your LSA numbers next to your Maps and organic rankings and tell you where the cheapest calls are.
Or ask for the free 24-hour audit.
I specialize in home services SEO: taking websites that sit invisible on page three and turning them into the business Google and ChatGPT recommend first. I started on the developer side, writing software and doing SEO on the side, until I saw how much home-service owners were overpaying for work that quietly hurt them. So I built a method that fixes the broken technical work and the outdated thinking behind it.
From garage door companies to plumbers, roofers, locksmiths and cleaning services, the playbook is the same: rank where your customers actually search, earn real reviews, and back it with a fast site that books the job. No PBNs, no bought reviews, no directory spam. Only work that survives Google’s next five updates. See exactly how it’s priced on the pricing page.
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