Google Ads Cost and Budget Calculator for Local Businesses

Local Google Ads clicks cost from about CA$0.43 for a hair salon to CA$79.72 for a personal injury lawyer in Canada (top-of-page bid estimates from Google Keyword Planner, pulled 14 November 2026). Pick your industry and country below to turn a budget into clicks, leads, cost per lead and ROI, in your own currency.

How the calculator works

Choose an industry and a country, then tell us either your monthly ad budget or how many leads you want each month. Add your average customer value and the share of leads who become paying customers. The calculator runs three scenarios using the low end, the midpoint and the high end of the click-price range, so you see a best case, a typical case and a worst case instead of one flattering number.

Every amount appears in the currency of the country you pick. Two warnings sit under the results: whether your cost per lead beats your break-even, and whether your budget is below the minimum we consider viable.

Where the click prices come from

We typed four typical searches for each of 14 storefront industries into the Keyword Planner tool inside Google Ads on 14 November 2026, once for each country. For every search we recorded the low and high top-of-page bid range, then took the median of the lows and the median of the highs. Keyword Planner reports in the account currency, Canadian dollars, so we convert to your currency with Bank of Canada exchange rates dated 12 November 2026.

That gives 84 combinations of industry and country. Eighty have data. Four are marked UNCONFIRMED because fewer than two of our searches returned a bid range: tire shop in New Zealand, chiropractor in Ireland, and personal injury lawyer in both New Zealand and Ireland. We would rather show nothing than guess. Several other cells rest on only two searches, and the calculator tells you how many searches sit behind the figure you are looking at.

Where the conversion rates come from

The click-to-lead rate starts from the WordStream 2026 Google Ads Benchmarks, which cover 13,474 US search campaigns between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026 and report medians by category. We matched each industry to the closest category ourselves, so treat the mapping as our judgement:

• Auto repair, quick lube and tire shop use Auto Repair, Service and Parts at 15.51%.
• Dentist and orthodontist use Dentists at 10.67%.
• Physiotherapist and chiropractor use Health and Fitness at 6.94%.
• Med spa and hair salon use Beauty and Personal Care at 10.35%.
• Optometrist uses Physicians and Surgeons at 12.43%.
• Vet uses Animals and Pets at 16.22%.
• Both lawyer types use Attorneys at 5.55%, and accountant uses Business Services at 4.85%.

These figures are US-only, and we apply them to every country as an estimate. You can overwrite the rate in the calculator at any time. The starting customer values are also our own estimates, not a benchmark, so replace them with what a customer is really worth to you.

How to read your results

Start with the break-even cost per lead. It is your average customer value multiplied by your close rate, and it is the most you can pay for a lead before the lead loses money. If the cost per lead in a scenario is higher than that number, the campaign loses money in that scenario no matter how many clicks it brings.

Then compare ROI across the three scenarios. A wide gap between best and worst case means the result depends on the click price you actually get, so start small and measure.

What the calculator leaves out

Ad spend goes to Google. The numbers exclude management fees, call tracking and landing page work, and they assume you answer every lead. If you miss calls from people who found you through ads, try our AI receptionist cost and missed-call calculator, or browse our free tools.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Google Ads cost for a local business?

It depends on the industry and country. In Canada, top-of-page bids ranged from CA$0.43 to CA$1.52 for hair salons and CA$3.75 to CA$26.76 for dentists (Keyword Planner, 14 November 2026).

What is a good monthly budget to start with?

Our rule of thumb, which is an estimate and not a Google figure, is enough budget for about 100 clicks a month at the midpoint click price. Below that, one month of data is too small to tell a good campaign from a bad one. The calculator shows this number for your industry and country.

What conversion rate should I assume?

The calculator starts from WordStream 2026 Google Ads Benchmarks, which report median search conversion rates between 4.85% and 16.22% depending on the category. Those are US medians and your own rate can be far higher or lower, so overwrite it with your real figure if you have one.

Why do click prices differ so much between countries?

Keyword Planner bids reflect how many advertisers compete for the same searches. Dentist clicks showed CA$4.10 to CA$21.19 in the US and CA$1.77 to CA$7.15 in the UK in our pull.

Are the numbers exact?

No. They are estimates built from bid ranges and benchmark medians, and actual click prices depend on your ads, landing page, location settings and competitors. Treat the three scenarios as a range, and enter your own click price in the optional boxes if your account already has real data.