London is the most expensive of the ten UK cities we checked for trade Google Ads, with a median of £12.49 per click across plumbers, electricians, roofers, heating engineers and locksmiths. Most other cities sat between £7.23 and £9.70, and Glasgow was the cheapest at £5.65. City figures are built on small search numbers, though, so use them as a guide to the market rather than a price list.
Unavoidable Marketing is a UK-wide, Leeds-based agency that runs Google Ads for trade businesses all over the country, from single-van firms to companies covering several cities. We looked up the same 25 keywords (five per trade) in each of ten cities using Google Ads keyword data. The full figures and method are in our UK Trades Google Cost Report 2026.
Median cost per click by city
This is the median cost per click (CPC) across all the keywords that returned a figure in each city, for the five trades together.
London stands well clear. Outside the capital the spread is much tighter: Manchester, Cardiff, Newcastle upon Tyne, Liverpool, Leeds and Birmingham all sit between £7.23 and £7.87. Sheffield and Bristol are a little higher, and Glasgow is noticeably cheaper.
How London compares trade by trade
London is dearer for every one of the five trades than the UK national median for the same keywords. The gap is biggest where clicks are already expensive.
| Trade | London median CPC | UK national median CPC |
|---|---|---|
| Locksmiths | £47.01 | £30.32 |
| Heating engineers | £18.76 | £7.42 |
| Plumbers | £16.67 | £8.09 |
| Electricians | £9.64 | £6.38 |
| Roofers | £7.70 | £5.61 |
Keyword data shows what advertisers paid, not why. But a big city with lots of firms chasing the same urgent jobs is exactly where you would expect an auction to run hot. The most expensive single keyword we found anywhere was “locked out of house” in London at £69.89 a click. It gets around 70 searches a month in the city. Very few searches, very high price: that is typical of emergency terms.
Not every city follows the pattern
Look at the city figures trade by trade and some surprises turn up. They are a good reminder not to assume your city works like the national picture.
| City | Plumbers | Electricians | Roofers | Heating engineers | Locksmiths |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | £16.67 | £9.64 | £7.70 | £18.76 | £47.01 |
| Birmingham | £8.97 | £6.06 | £5.23 | £6.91 | £23.02 |
| Manchester | £10.44 | £5.90 | £4.85 | £10.02 | £22.15 |
| Leeds | £10.77 | £6.37 | £4.71 | £7.73 | £25.14 |
| Glasgow | £9.05 | £5.13 | £3.02 | £6.37 | £26.41 |
| Liverpool | £4.99 | £6.46 | £4.38 | £9.41 | £27.70 |
| Bristol | £9.25 | £4.00 | £10.41 | £7.39 | £32.31 |
| Sheffield | £6.04 | £8.71 | £6.49 | £7.95 | £23.01 |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | £11.10 | £5.09 | £4.79 | £5.71 | £38.81 |
| Cardiff | £9.13 | £6.49 | £4.38 | £12.18 | £20.17 |
- Bristol roofers had a median of £10.41, higher than London roofers at £7.70.
- Liverpool plumbers came in at £4.99, below the UK national median for plumbers of £8.09.
- Sheffield electricians at £8.71 were the dearest outside London, while Bristol electricians were the cheapest at £4.00.
- Newcastle upon Tyne locksmiths at £38.81 were the highest outside London.
Why you should be careful with city figures
City level Google Ads data is thin. Search numbers are small and rounded, and some keywords return no CPC at all when there is not enough data. In London and Birmingham all 25 keywords returned a figure. In Newcastle upon Tyne only 18 of 25 did, and in Cardiff 17 of 25. The Cardiff heating engineer median of £12.18 is based on just 2 of 5 keywords, so one expensive search has a big effect.
The most expensive keyword in several cities had tiny search volumes. “Emergency locksmith” cost £64.17 a click in Newcastle upon Tyne with around 30 searches a month, and £56.68 in Liverpool with around 40. Prices like that can come from a few advertisers on a handful of searches. They are real figures from Google Ads, but they can swing a lot from month to month.
So here is how to read the table: the overall shape (London dearest, Glasgow cheapest, emergency and locksmith terms dear everywhere) is solid. A single city and trade figure is a starting point for your own testing, not a quote.
What this means for your budget
- Do not copy a London budget into another city, or the other way round. Set bids from your own account data once you have a few weeks of it.
- If you cover several cities, split your campaigns by location. That way you can see the real cost per enquiry in each one and move budget to where it books jobs.
- Keep emergency terms in their own campaign. They are the dearest in nearly every city, so only run them when someone will answer.
- Work on the free side too. A strong Google Business Profile and good local SEO bring in calls you do not pay per click for. Our guide to SEO for tradesmen explains how.
- Measure cost per booked job, not CPC. CPC is the price of a click, not the price of a lead. Our guide to Google Ads for UK trades covers how to set up tracking that shows what each job really cost.
Figures: Unavoidable Marketing analysis of Google Ads keyword data and Google Maps listings (via DataForSEO), 22 October 2026. Full method: UK Trades Google Cost Report 2026.
Want to know what a lead might cost in your city? Put your trade and your own numbers into the free trade lead cost calculator, then book a free 30-minute call with founder Andrew Heppinstall to talk it through. We work on a flat monthly fee, quoted after a free call, with no contract.
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About the author: Andrew Heppinstall is the founder of Unavoidable Marketing, a Leeds agency that helps UK trades and local service businesses win work through Google Local Services Ads, SEO and paid search. His article “What makes Google ads effective?” appeared on the Business Matters page of PHAM News in September 2026.