We looked at 1,266 enquiries from 14 Australian trade and home service businesses between May and October 2026. Most of them, 71%, came from Google search and Google Business Profile, not from ads. The six businesses running Google Ads with us paid $7.34 a click and about $99 an enquiry. Electricians paid nearly twice as much per click as the other trades. No business is named.
- Google search (38%) and Google Business Profile (33%) brought 71% of 1,266 enquiries.
- Google Ads cost $7.34 a click and about $99 an enquiry, across $13,641 of spend.
- Electrical and solar paid $10.74 a click and $128 an enquiry. Other home services paid $5.87 and $84.
- About 1 in 14 ad clicks turned into an enquiry.
- 10 of the 14 businesses got at least one enquiry from an AI assistant like ChatGPT.
The numbers at a glance
| Measure | Result | Based on |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads cost per click | $7.34 | 1,858 clicks, 6 businesses |
| Google Ads cost per enquiry | About $99 | 138 enquiries |
| Cost per enquiry, cheapest and dearest month | $29 to $354 | 17 months with an enquiry |
| Ad clicks that became an enquiry | 7.4% | 1,858 clicks |
| Enquiries from Google search and Google Business Profile | 71% | 1,266 enquiries, 14 businesses |
| Enquiries from AI assistants | 3.2% | 41 enquiries, 10 of 14 businesses |
What does a Google Ads click cost a tradie in 2026?
Across six accounts it was $7.34 a click. Single months ran from $3.88 to $14.49. Electrical and solar paid the most.
| Trade group | Businesses | Spend | Cost per click | Cost per enquiry |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electrical and solar | 3 | $6,038 | $10.74 | $128 |
| Other home services | 3 | $7,604 | $5.87 | $84 |
| All six | 6 | $13,641 | $7.34 | $99 |
In our electrical accounts it ran from about $7 to $14 a click. Our view is that electricians pay more because so many of them bid on the same searches. Plan your budget around that number, not a general small business average.
How much does a lead from Google Ads cost?
About $99 an enquiry overall. Single months ran from $29 to $354 an enquiry, and one month brought none. Cost per enquiry jumps around from month to month, even in the same account. Judge a campaign on three months, not three weeks.
The real figure is likely a bit lower. 36 enquiries in those months had no tracked source, and some of them came from ads.
An enquiry isn’t a job. If you win one quote in three, a $99 enquiry means about $300 in ad spend for each job you win. Work out what a job is worth to you before you decide if that’s good.
Where do tradie leads actually come from?
| Source | Enquiries | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Google search (not ads) | 478 | 37.8% |
| Google Business Profile | 422 | 33.3% |
| Google Ads | 141 | 11.1% |
| Typed the website in directly | 110 | 8.7% |
| AI assistants (ChatGPT and others) | 41 | 3.2% |
| Other websites | 39 | 3.1% |
| Social media | 34 | 2.7% |
| Paid social | 1 | 0.1% |
For 13 of the 14 businesses, the biggest source was Google search or their Google Business Profile. The other one was tied between ads and its Google profile.
Six of the 14 ran Google Ads with us, so ads look smaller in the total than they would for a business that runs them. For those six, ads brought about one enquiry in five (22%). Most of the rest came from search and their Google profile.
That’s why we tell tradies to get the website and Google Business Profile working first. They keep bringing enquiries with no cost per click. Ads are the tap you turn up when you want more work this month.
Are tradies really getting work from ChatGPT?
Yes, but it’s small for now. 41 enquiries, or 3.2%, came from AI assistants like ChatGPT. It’s spread wide: 10 of the 14 businesses got at least one.
How we counted
- Who: 14 trade and home service businesses that are Dossis Digital clients, in south-east Australia. Six are electrical or solar, and the other eight are cleaning, outdoor and property services. Three of them make up about half of all enquiries.
- When: May to October 2026. Each business counts from when its tracking was set up, so some have one month and some have six.
- What counts as an enquiry: someone who tapped to call from the website or Google profile, or sent a form. These are enquiries, not confirmed jobs. On the website, a person who called and also sent a form counts once. Calls from the Google profile are counted as taps, so the same person can show up twice there. Test enquiries and enquiries from outside Australia are taken out.
- Google Ads: 18 months of spend across six accounts. Two of those are part months, where the ads started mid-month. Months under $100 of spend are left out. Spend and clicks come from Google Ads. Enquiries come from each site’s tracking.
- Sources come from Google Analytics and Google Business Profile. Some of the businesses run their own Google Ads or use someone else for them, and those ad enquiries aren’t counted. So the Google Ads share here is a floor.
- Two enquiry counts: the sources table counts every month. The ad costs only count months with $100 or more of spend, so the two Google Ads numbers differ.
- Limits: this is a small sample, not a survey of the whole industry. Six ad accounts are enough to show a pattern, not to set a price for your trade and town.
Want your own numbers?
Our clients get a live dashboard showing where their enquiries come from. If we run their ads, it shows what each enquiry cost too. Want to know what your enquiries are costing you right now? Get in touch and we’ll take a look.
Cite this report: Dossis Digital, “Tradie Lead Cost Report 2026”, dossisdigital.com.au, updated November 2026.
What It's Done for Tradies Like You
7x back on Google jobs
C&J Gardens, Bacchus Marsh. In September 2026 every $1 of our fee and ads came back as about $7 in jobs from Google, by their own books.
See the case study$2.40 back for every $1
NextGen Electricians, Bacchus Marsh. Paid work matched to website forms alone, phone calls not even counted. Top Google result for "electrician bacchus marsh".
See the case study8 to 26 enquiries a month
TACT Bio Recovery, Melbourne. From a website almost nobody could find to a steady flow of jobs from Google search, ads and AI.
See the case study416 enquiries in October 2026
Across the 14 trade businesses we work with, each person counted once. Every month on the board, by trade.
See the results boardWant Us to Do This for You?
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