If you’re running Google Ads for a professional service business, one of the biggest questions is:
What should I be paying for leads?
Professional services vary widely, but they share one common challenge in Google Ads: balancing lead quality with cost. This page breaks down real performance data from professional service campaigns across 3 years, based on accounts we’ve worked with, managed, and analyzed.
Here’s how performance has trended over time:
| Year | Industry | Accounts | Spend | Impressions | Clicks | Conversions | CTR | CVR | CPC | CPA | Conv Value | Conv Value / Cost | Zero-Conv Accounts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Professional Services | 4 | $44,239.55 | 7,552,010.00 | 38,080.00 | 8,398.63 | 0.50% | 22.06% | $1.16 | $5.27 | $0.00 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2024 | Professional Services | 6 | $95,967.14 | 9,934,819 | 103,446 | 24163.8 | 1.00% | 23.40% | $0.93 | $3.97 | $71,808.81 | 74.83% | 1 | |
| 2025 | Professional Services | 7 | $185,587.32 | 3,159,017 | 111,940 | 10,986.54 | 3.50% | 9.80% | $1.66 | $16.89 | $512,835.94 | 276% | 0 |
Unlike more standardized industries:
This makes benchmarks useful for direction, but not exact expectations.
Compared to legal:
Professional services often require:
This impacts:
We often see:
If you’re running Google Ads:
You should expect:
You should focus on:
You should avoid:
These numbers give you a realistic performance range, not a guarantee.
Your results will vary based on:
If your current results are:
There’s usually a fixable reason.
We specialize in Google Ads for service-based businesses, including painting companies.
We’ll show you: