| Segment | Channel | Benchmarks | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| All industries (blended) | Google Search Ads | Cost per lead: $66.69 Cost per click: $5.42 CPL down from $70.11 in 2025. |
WordStream 2026 Google Ads Benchmarks (2026) |
| Home & Home Improvement (HVAC, plumbing, roofing, remodeling) | Google Search Ads | Cost per lead: $90.92 Cost per click: $8.33 Conversion rate: 8.05% Click-through rate: 6.47% Google groups the home-service trades into one benchmarking category. |
WordStream 2026 Google Ads Benchmarks (2026) |
| Finance & Insurance (mortgage, lending, insurance) | Google Search Ads | Cost per lead: $74.44 Cost per click: $3.39 Conversion rate: 2.64% Lowest conversion rate of any tracked category — cheap clicks, expensive scrutiny. Scale check for mortgage lenders: that lead cost is under 1% of the ~$11,109 all-in cost to produce one closed loan (commissions, staff, overhead; Q3 2025). — Mortgage Bankers Association (2025) |
WordStream 2026 Google Ads Benchmarks (2026) |
| Industrial & Commercial (manufacturing) | Google Search Ads | Cost per lead: $75.19 Below the Business Services median despite the technical audience. |
WordStream 2026 Google Ads Benchmarks (2026) |
| Business Services (B2B, SaaS, professional services) | Google Search Ads | Cost per lead: $93.69 Cost per click: $5.87 |
WordStream 2026 Google Ads Benchmarks (2026) |
| All industries (blended) | LinkedIn Ads | Cost per click: $11.12 Traffic campaigns run $6–8 per click; lead-generation campaigns average $30+. Google Ads' blended equivalent in the same dataset: $5.45. |
Search Engine Land, June 2026 B2B campaign analysis (2026) |
| All industries (blended) | Meta (Facebook & Instagram) Ads | Cost per lead: $27.66 Up 20.9% year over year. |
WordStream Facebook Ads Benchmarks (2026) |
| Professional services | Website (all traffic) | Conversion rate: 6.1% Normal range 4–8%; legal services averages 7.9%. From 110M+ sessions and 5M+ tracked conversions. |
Ruler Analytics conversion benchmarks (2026) |
| All industries (blended) | Marketing budget | Share of company revenue: 7.8% | Gartner 2026 CMO Spend Survey (2026) |
Every figure links to the primary source that published it. Figures are medians or averages as defined by each source; see the notes on reading them below.
How should you read these benchmarks?
Treat each figure as an anchor, not a target. Benchmark sources mix medians and means, define industry categories differently, and mostly count form fills — Google groups HVAC, plumbing, roofing and remodeling into one Home & Home Improvement bucket, and phone calls often go untracked entirely, which understates true lead volume for call-heavy trades. A company's real cost per lead can sit well above or below its category anchor and still be healthy; what matters is the trend against your own baseline and the value of the job or contract a lead can become.
Where do these numbers come from?
This index is compiled and re-verified quarterly by Refinex Media from published primary sources only: advertising platforms, research firms, industry associations and trade publications. Each row links the exact source page for its figure, with the year the data covers. Numbers from marketing agencies' own blogs are never included, and when a source retires a figure, the row is updated or removed rather than left stale. The verification date in the page header changes only when every row has been re-checked.
How do you cite this index?
Cite it as the Refinex Media Marketing Benchmarks Index, with the canonical URL refinexmedia.com/marketing-benchmarks and the last-verified date shown above. Citation with attribution is free and welcome — for a single figure, credit the row's original primary source as well.
Which guides go deeper on each benchmark?
Each figure in the table has a full breakdown: HVAC and plumbing lead generation and roofing cost per lead for the home-service trades, mortgage cost per lead for finance, manufacturing marketing budgets for industrial, LinkedIn ads cost for B2B social, and website conversion benchmarks for professional services.
FAQ: marketing benchmarks in 2026
What is a good cost per lead in 2026?
The blended average across Google Search Ads is $66.69 per lead in 2026, per WordStream's benchmarks. A good number depends on the category: Meta ads average $27.66, finance and insurance $74.44 on Google, home-service trades $90.92, and business services $93.69 — judged against the revenue one closed lead produces.
Why do cost-per-lead benchmarks differ between sources?
Sources mix medians and means, define industry categories differently, and usually count only tracked form conversions, leaving phone calls out. Two credible studies can honestly publish different numbers for the same industry, which is why every figure in this index links the source and its definition.
How often is this index updated?
Quarterly. Every row is re-verified against its primary source, updated figures are swapped in, retired ones are removed, and the last-verified date in the header is changed only when the full re-check is complete. The canonical URL never changes.
