UK Trades Google Cost Report 2026: what trades pay per click and how crowded Google Maps is
On 22 October 2026 we measured what advertisers pay per click on Google Ads for 75 common trade searches across 15 UK trades, compared 25 of those searches in 10 UK cities, and counted 15,442 Google Maps listings for plumbers, electricians, roofers, heating engineers and locksmiths within 10 km of those city centres. The short version for a trade owner: emergency and locksmith searches are the most expensive clicks on Google by a distance, London costs far more than anywhere else, and most of your competitors on Google Maps have fewer than 10 reviews, so a well run profile still stands out. Unavoidable Marketing is a UK-wide, Leeds-based agency that runs Google Ads, Local Services Ads and local SEO for trades across the UK, and founder Andrew Heppinstall is on every strategy call.
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Published: 22 October 2026. Source: Unavoidable Marketing analysis of Google Ads keyword data and Google Maps listings (via DataForSEO), 22 October 2026.
Key findings
1. One emergency click can cost £37.99
“Emergency locksmith” was the most expensive keyword we measured, at £37.99 per click nationally. That is the price of one visit to your website, not one job. If you advertise for urgent work, every wasted click hurts.
2. Locksmiths pay more than three times any other trade
The median cost per click for locksmith searches was £30.32. The next most expensive trade, removals, was £9.18, and plumbers were third at £8.09. Locksmiths need tighter campaigns than anyone.
3. The typical trade click costs £5.33
Across all 75 national keywords the median cost per click was £5.33. Window cleaners had the cheapest median at £2.41, so for some trades paid search is a low cost way to test demand.
4. 14.7% of keywords cost £10 or more
11 of the 75 keywords cost £10 or more per click. Most of them are urgent or high value jobs, such as emergency call outs and boiler installation at £19.88.
5. “Emergency” nearly triples the price
“Emergency plumber” cost £23.21 per click against £8.09 for “plumber near me”. All 4 “emergency” keywords in our list made the national top 10. Only bid on emergency terms if you can actually answer and attend.
6. London is the most expensive city
The median cost per click in London was £12.49 across 5 trades, against £5.65 in Glasgow, the cheapest of the 10 cities. Where you work changes your budget as much as what you do.
7. 60.1% of Maps listings have under 10 reviews
9,281 of 15,442 listings had fewer than 10 Google reviews. A steady habit of asking every happy customer for a review puts you ahead of most of the field.
8. 34.4% show no website and 20.2% are unclaimed
5,316 listings had no website on the profile and 3,118 (20.2%) had never been claimed by the business. Claiming your profile and linking a proper site are free wins many competitors have not taken.
1. What trades pay per click on Google
Cost per click (CPC) is the average amount advertisers paid Google for one click on an ad shown for that search. It is set by auction, so it rises when lots of firms want the same customer and when each job is worth a lot. It is not the cost of a lead or a job: many clicks never turn into a call.
We took 5 typical searches for each of 15 trades, such as “plumber near me”, “boiler repair”, “roof repair” and “tree surgeon”, and pulled UK-wide figures from Google Ads. The chart shows the median CPC for each trade, the middle value of its 5 keywords.
The spread is wide. A locksmith pays £30.32 for a typical click, a plumber £8.09, an electrician £6.38, a roofer £5.61 and a tree surgeon £3.09. The trades at the top share two things: urgent customers who ring the first firm they find, and jobs where one booking is worth a lot. Heating engineers show the second effect clearly. “Boiler installation” cost £19.88 per click, more than double the £7.42 trade median, because a new boiler is a big ticket job.
The ten most expensive keywords nationally are below. Monthly searches are Google’s average for October 2025 to September 2026.
| Keyword | Trade | CPC | Monthly searches |
|---|---|---|---|
| emergency locksmith | Locksmiths | £37.99 | 4,400 |
| locked out of house | Locksmiths | £35.30 | 390 |
| locksmith | Locksmiths | £30.32 | 33,100 |
| locksmith near me | Locksmiths | £28.14 | 74,000 |
| emergency glazier | Glaziers | £24.16 | 390 |
| emergency plumber | Plumbers | £23.21 | 12,100 |
| boiler installation | Heating engineers | £19.88 | 4,400 |
| blocked drain plumber | Plumbers | £19.09 | 320 |
| house extension builders | Builders | £13.25 | 210 |
| emergency electrician | Electricians | £11.44 | 4,400 |
Locksmith searches take the top four places. Note how search volume and price do not move together: “locked out of house” has only 390 searches a month but costs £35.30 a click, while “locksmith near me” has 74,000 searches at £28.14. “Blocked drain plumber” cost £19.09 per click with just 320 searches a month. Small, specific searches can be expensive because the person searching is ready to book right now.
2. How costs change by city
We repeated 25 of the keywords, 5 each for plumbers, electricians, roofers, heating engineers and locksmiths, in 10 cities: London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool, Bristol, Sheffield, Newcastle upon Tyne and Cardiff. The chart shows the median CPC across all keywords that returned a price in each city.
London stands well apart at £12.49. Sheffield came second at £9.70 and Bristol third at £8.75, while Glasgow was cheapest at £5.65. Most other cities sat between £7.23 and £7.87. The table shows three of the five trades. The figure in brackets is how many of that trade’s 5 keywords returned a CPC in the city; where it is low, treat the number with care.
| City | Median CPC (5 trades) | Plumbers | Electricians | Locksmiths |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | £12.49 | £16.67 (5 of 5) | £9.64 (5 of 5) | £47.01 (5 of 5) |
| Birmingham | £7.23 | £8.97 (5 of 5) | £6.06 (5 of 5) | £23.02 (5 of 5) |
| Manchester | £7.87 | £10.44 (4 of 5) | £5.90 (4 of 5) | £22.15 (4 of 5) |
| Leeds | £7.27 | £10.77 (4 of 5) | £6.37 (5 of 5) | £25.14 (3 of 5) |
| Glasgow | £5.65 | £9.05 (5 of 5) | £5.13 (5 of 5) | £26.41 (4 of 5) |
| Liverpool | £7.59 | £4.99 (5 of 5) | £6.46 (4 of 5) | £27.70 (4 of 5) |
| Bristol | £8.75 | £9.25 (4 of 5) | £4.00 (5 of 5) | £32.31 (5 of 5) |
| Sheffield | £9.70 | £6.04 (4 of 5) | £8.71 (4 of 5) | £23.01 (4 of 5) |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | £7.70 | £11.10 (3 of 5) | £5.09 (4 of 5) | £38.81 (3 of 5) |
| Cardiff | £7.74 | £9.13 (4 of 5) | £6.49 (4 of 5) | £20.17 (3 of 5) |
Locksmith clicks were the most expensive trade in every city, from £20.17 in Cardiff to £47.01 in London. The single priciest search we found anywhere was “locked out of house” in London at £69.89 a click, with about 70 searches a month. In Newcastle upon Tyne, “emergency locksmith” cost £64.17 a click with about 30 searches a month. Roofers show how local the market can be: £10.41 per click in Bristol against £3.02 in Glasgow.
The lesson for a trade owner is simple. A national average tells you little about your patch. Check the figures for your own town before you set a budget.
3. How crowded Google Maps is
For plumbers, electricians, roofers, heating engineers and locksmiths we counted every Google Maps listing DataForSEO holds within 10 km of each city centre, then counted how many had fewer than 10 reviews, no website on the profile, or had never been claimed by the business.
By trade, totals across all 10 cities. The last column is the median of the 10 city median review counts.
| Trade | Listings | Under 10 reviews | No website | Unclaimed | Median reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbers | 4,622 | 59.4% (2747 of 4622) | 38.9% (1798 of 4622) | 18.5% (856 of 4622) | 6 |
| Electricians | 4,280 | 66.8% (2857 of 4280) | 38.5% (1648 of 4280) | 24.2% (1035 of 4280) | 3 |
| Roofers | 2,957 | 65.3% (1930 of 2957) | 32.2% (952 of 2957) | 26.3% (777 of 2957) | 4 |
| Heating engineers | 2,283 | 50.2% (1146 of 2283) | 28.8% (657 of 2283) | 17.1% (391 of 2283) | 9.75 |
| Locksmiths | 1,300 | 46.2% (601 of 1300) | 20.1% (261 of 1300) | 4.5% (59 of 1300) | 24 |
Locksmiths are the odd one out. Only 4.5% of their listings are unclaimed and the typical listing has 24 reviews, so the profiles are more mature, which fits with the high click prices: locksmiths fight hard for every customer, on the map as well as in the ads. Electricians and roofers are the opposite. Around two thirds of their listings have under 10 reviews, and roofers have the highest unclaimed share at 26.3%.
By city, all 5 trades combined:
| City | Listings | Under 10 reviews | No website | Unclaimed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | 5,362 | 59.8% | 33.4% | 18.7% |
| Birmingham | 1,614 | 64.4% | 41.3% | 23.2% |
| Manchester | 1,759 | 59.6% | 33.7% | 17.9% |
| Leeds | 1,090 | 58.2% | 32.3% | 22.6% |
| Glasgow | 1,039 | 56.5% | 31.0% | 20.8% |
| Liverpool | 1,144 | 64.2% | 43.4% | 24.0% |
| Bristol | 1,170 | 58.3% | 30.3% | 19.0% |
| Sheffield | 740 | 60.0% | 30.5% | 20.3% |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | 950 | 58.3% | 33.8% | 21.8% |
| Cardiff | 574 | 60.8% | 33.8% | 18.8% |
London has by far the most listings, 5,362, so a London trade is competing with more firms on the map as well as paying more per click. Liverpool had the highest share of listings with no website at 43.4%, and Birmingham the highest share with under 10 reviews at 64.4%. Glasgow had the lowest share with under 10 reviews at 56.5%. In every city, more than half of listings had fewer than 10 reviews.
4. What this means for your business
Reviews are the cheapest advantage you have
When 60.1% of trade listings have fewer than 10 reviews, a business with a steady flow of recent, detailed reviews looks very different to a customer scrolling the map. Ask every happy customer, the same day, with a direct link. Ask them to mention the job and the town, for example “new consumer unit fitted in Leicester” or “boiler repair in Swansea”, because that detail helps both customers and Google. For electricians and roofers, where around two thirds of listings have under 10 reviews, this matters most.
A website still matters
34.4% of listings had no website on the profile. A customer comparing three plumbers in Norwich will often tap through to check photos, accreditations and the areas covered before they ring. A fast, simple site with tap-to-call, real job photos and clear service pages answers those questions, and it gives Google and AI assistants more to read about you.
Claim your profile, today
20.2% of listings were unclaimed. If you have not claimed your Google Business Profile, you cannot reply to reviews, fix your hours, add photos or choose your categories, and anyone can suggest edits to it. Claiming it is free. Then fill in every section and add photos of real jobs.
Why locksmith and emergency keywords cost so much
Emergency customers do not shop around. Someone locked out at night or with water through the ceiling rings the first credible firm, so every advertiser bids hard for that click. That is why “emergency locksmith” cost £37.99 and “emergency plumber” £23.21. If you bid on these terms, show your ads only in the hours you can answer, keep your service area tight, and send the click straight to a page with a phone number at the top. If you cannot attend in an hour, do not pay emergency prices for customers you will lose.
Compare Local Services Ads, which charge per lead
Google Local Services Ads, the listings with the Google Verified badge, charge per lead (a call or message) rather than per click. You set a weekly budget and the lead budget is paid straight to Google. For trades where clicks are dear, such as locksmiths, plumbers and heating engineers, it is worth comparing what a lead costs you there against what a lead costs you from search ads. We did not measure Local Services Ads lead prices in this study, so use your own figures. Google no longer lets you dispute bad leads by hand, so the real protection is the set-up: tight service areas, only the job types you actually do, opening hours that match when you can answer, and rating every lead in your dashboard. Google is also moving UK Local Services Ads accounts into Google Ads in 2027, so export your lead history.
Work out your own cost per enquiry
CPC only becomes useful when you turn it into a cost per enquiry and a cost per booked job. The sum is: cost per click, divided by the share of clicks that become enquiries. Then divide that by the share of enquiries that become booked jobs.
Example only, not a measured figure: say a plumber pays the national median of £8.09 per click for “plumber near me”, 1 in 10 clicks turns into an enquiry, and 1 in 3 enquiries becomes a booked job. Each enquiry would cost £80.90 in clicks, and each booked job £242.70. Your own numbers will differ, and those two rates are the ones you can improve with a better landing page, faster answering and tighter targeting. Put your own figures into our free trade lead cost calculator to see yours.
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5. Method
Source. All data came from DataForSEO, accessed on 22 October 2026 (UTC). Every request and its exact settings was logged, and every full response was saved.
Keyword costs. We used DataForSEO’s Google Ads search volume data, which returns Google Ads figures for a list of keywords. For UK-wide figures the location was the United Kingdom and the language English. Monthly searches are the average for October 2025 to September 2026. CPC, the low and high top of page bids and the competition level are as Google Ads returned them, in pounds. There were 75 national keywords, 5 for each of 15 trades, sent in batches of 10.
City costs. We repeated 25 keywords, 5 each for plumbers, electricians, roofers, heating engineers and locksmiths, using Google Ads city locations found through DataForSEO’s Google Ads locations lookup: London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool, Bristol, Sheffield, Newcastle upon Tyne and Cardiff. Medians use only keywords that returned a CPC.
Google Maps listings. We used DataForSEO’s business listings search, which searches its database of Google Maps listings. Categories were plumber, electrician, roofing contractor, heating contractor (Google’s “Central Heating Service”; the boiler repair category returned no results) and locksmith. A category match includes businesses that list it as their main or an extra category.
Radius and centre points. Each search covered a 10 km radius from these points: London 51.5074, -0.1278; Birmingham 52.4796, -1.9030; Manchester 53.4808, -2.2426; Leeds 53.7997, -1.5492; Glasgow 55.8611, -4.2502; Liverpool 53.4084, -2.9916; Bristol 51.4545, -2.5879; Sheffield 53.3811, -1.4701; Newcastle upon Tyne 54.9738, -1.6131; Cardiff 51.4816, -3.1791.
How counts were made. The service returns a total count of matching listings with every search, so we counted the full population rather than a sample. For each city and trade we ran four counts: all listings, claimed listings, listings with a website, and listings with 10 or more reviews. Unclaimed is all minus claimed, no website is all minus with a website, and under 10 reviews is all minus 10 or more (listings with no reviews count as under 10). We checked these sums on Leeds plumbers: 255 claimed plus 58 unclaimed made 313, and 202 with a website plus 111 without made 313. Median review counts are exact: for London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds we ordered listings by review count and fetched the one in the middle; for the other cities we narrowed it down by counting listings above a series of review thresholds. Average ratings come only from a sample of up to 10 listings per city and trade.
6. Limitations
- CPC is the average amount advertisers paid per click in Google Ads. It is not a cost per lead or per job, and many clicks never become enquiries.
- Google Ads search volumes are rounded, and city figures are small. Some city keywords returned no CPC or no bid data; we left them blank rather than guess, so some city medians rest on fewer than 5 keywords per trade.
- The service returns at most 10 listings per request, so we counted every listing it holds within the radius instead of studying a sample of 100. Detail on single listings, such as rating, comes from a sample of up to 10 per city and trade.
- Each search is a 10 km radius from one centre point. It does not follow council or postcode boundaries; for example it takes in Gateshead for Newcastle and Salford for Manchester.
- The listings database includes some permanently closed businesses: 6.8% (34 of 500) of sampled listings were marked closed for good. The totals include them.
- Businesses choose their own categories, so trades overlap (plumbing and heating firms often appear under both) and some listings are suppliers rather than tradespeople.
- This is a snapshot from 22 October 2026. Listings, reviews and bid prices change every day.
7. Use this data
You are free to quote, chart and republish any figure in this report under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC BY 4.0). Please credit “Unavoidable Marketing, UK Trades Google Cost Report 2026” and link to this page. Journalists, trade bodies and researchers who want the full dataset, including every keyword, city and listing count, can email Andrew Heppinstall at andrew@unavoidablem.com.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a click on Google Ads cost for a UK trade?
In our 22 October 2026 data the median cost per click across 75 trade keywords was £5.33, but it varies hugely by trade, from a median of £2.41 for window cleaners to £30.32 for locksmiths. It also varies by city, with London the most expensive of the 10 cities we checked.
Is cost per click the same as cost per lead?
No. Cost per click is what you pay each time someone clicks your ad. Only some of those people call or send an enquiry, and only some enquiries become jobs, so your cost per lead and cost per booked job are always higher than your cost per click.
Why are locksmith keywords so expensive?
Locksmith customers are usually in a hurry and ring the first firm that looks credible, so many advertisers bid hard for the same click. “Emergency locksmith” cost £37.99 per click nationally and the median for locksmith searches was £30.32, more than three times any other trade we measured.
How many reviews do I need to compete on Google Maps?
There is no fixed number, but 60.1% of the trade listings we counted had fewer than 10 reviews, and the median of the city and trade medians was 5.75. A steady stream of recent, detailed reviews will put most trade businesses ahead of the typical competitor.
Does it matter if my Google Business Profile has no website?
Yes. 34.4% of the trade listings we counted had no website, which means many customers cannot check photos, accreditations or service areas before they call. A simple, fast website gives customers and Google more reasons to choose you.
Can I use these figures in an article or presentation?
Yes. The data is free to use under a CC BY 4.0 licence as long as you credit Unavoidable Marketing, UK Trades Google Cost Report 2026, and link to the report page. Journalists can email Andrew Heppinstall for the full dataset.
Ask us about this for your trade business
Send a quick message and Andrew will come back to you, usually the same working day.