The short answer
- The market average is roughly £21 per lead on Meta and £51 on Google, based on public benchmarks from thousands of advertisers.
- Well built Meta campaigns for consumer services typically land at £8 to £40 per lead, well below the average for most sectors.
- Higher value work such as roofing, accountancy, legal services and commercial solar usually sits between £30 and £150.
- London and the South East typically run 30 to 50 percent higher.
- The number that really matters is cost per customer, not cost per lead.
Try it with your own numbers. Our free cost per lead calculator uses the figures in this guide to estimate your leads, cost per customer and revenue for any monthly budget.
What's in this guide
How to read these numbers
This guide shows two sets of numbers for each sector:
- Market average. What advertisers pay on average, from WordStream by LocaliQ's 2026 benchmarks, which cover thousands of advertisers' campaigns. The data is from US advertisers, so we have converted it to pounds at roughly 77p to the dollar. Treat it as a guide to the going rate.
- Well built campaigns. What we see across Upscale client campaigns in 2026, plus results published in our case studies.
Our figures all come from the same kind of campaign, so you can compare like with like:
- Exclusive leads. Each enquiry goes to one business only. Shared broker leads, sold to several firms at once, are a different product and are covered separately below.
- Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram) unless stated otherwise, with a dedicated landing page or lead form.
- Settled campaigns. The first few weeks of any campaign are a learning period. These ranges reflect campaigns 30 to 45 days in.
- Outside London unless stated. Add 30 to 50 percent for London and the South East.
Your own numbers will move with your offer, your area and how strong your creative is, so treat our figures as a guide to what good looks like rather than a promise.
Cost per lead by sector at a glance
| Sector | Market average, Meta | Market average, Google | Well built campaigns |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aesthetics clinics | About £39 | About £30 | £10 to £15 |
| Dentists | About £47 | About £56 | £8 to £150, by treatment |
| Plumbing and heating | About £33 | About £70 | £8 to £40 |
| Solar installers | About £33 | About £70 | £15 to £40 |
| Roofers | About £33 | About £70 | £30 to £100 |
| Accountants | Not published | About £72 | £30 to £150 |
| Solicitors | Not published | About £101 | Around £40 to £150 |
| Motor dealers | About £27 | About £34 | £2.70 in our case study |
Market averages use the closest published category: Beauty and Personal Care for aesthetics, Home and Home Improvement for plumbing, solar and roofing, Business Services for accountants, Attorneys and Legal Services for solicitors, and Automotive For Sale for motor dealers. The averages cover every kind of advertiser, from excellent campaigns to poor ones, which is why well built campaigns usually come in well under them.
The motor figure is a single client result rather than a range, but it shows how far a strong offer and a well built lead form can push costs down. You can read the full story in the Northern Motor Group case study.
Sector breakdowns: dentists, trades and solar
A single figure per sector hides a lot. In sectors with very different services, cost per lead depends far more on the service you advertise than on the sector itself.
Dentists, by treatment
| Treatment | Cost per lead | Average ticket |
|---|---|---|
| Teeth whitening | £8 to £25 | £300 to £700 |
| New patient exam (private) | £10 to £25 | £95 to £180 |
| Composite bonding | £15 to £40 | £800 to £2,500 |
| Invisalign and clear aligners | £25 to £60 | £3,500 to £5,000 |
| Single dental implant | £40 to £100 | £2,500 to £4,500 |
| Cosmetic smile makeover | £50 to £120 | £8,000 to £20,000+ |
| Full arch implants | £60 to £150 | £12,000 to £25,000 |
More detail, including conversion rates and break even figures, is in our Meta ads guide for dentists.
Plumbing and heating, by service
| Service | Exclusive lead | Shared broker lead |
|---|---|---|
| Boiler service and gas safety | £6 to £14 | £20 to £45 |
| Emergency call out | £8 to £18 | £30 to £60 |
| Boiler installation | £15 to £35 | £60 to £120 |
| Bathroom installation | £20 to £40 | £70 to £140 |
| Air source heat pump | £25 to £60 | £90 to £180 |
| Commercial and landlord contracts | £40 to £120 | Rarely available |
See the Meta ads playbook for plumbers for how emergency and planned work need different funnels.
Solar and battery, by service
| Service | Cost per lead | Average install value |
|---|---|---|
| EV charger install | £10 to £25 | £700 to £1,500 |
| Residential solar (3.5 to 6 kW) | £15 to £35 | £5,000 to £10,000 |
| Solar and battery bundle | £20 to £45 | £9,000 to £15,000 |
| Battery storage on its own | £25 to £50 | £3,500 to £8,000 |
| In roof solar | £30 to £60 | £8,000 to £14,000 |
| Air source heat pump | £40 to £90 | £8,000 to £15,000 |
| Commercial solar | £60 to £180 | £15,000 to £150,000+ |
The full breakdown is in our Meta ads guide for solar installers.
Why cost per lead varies so much
Two businesses in the same sector can pay very different amounts for a lead. These are the factors that move it most:
- Value of the job. Bigger tickets attract more competition, so the auction costs more. A full arch implant lead will always cost more than a whitening lead.
- Region. London and the South East run 30 to 50 percent higher than the rest of the UK.
- The offer. A clear, specific offer, such as a free survey or a fixed price consultation, lowers the cost of every lead.
- Creative. Real photos and short videos of your work beat stock images every time. Creative is often the difference between a £40 lead and a £15 lead.
- The form. A few qualifying questions slightly raise cost per lead but sharply raise quality. No questions at all gives you cheap leads you can't use.
- Audience size. Very narrow targeting can push prices up, because the platform has fewer people to choose from.
Cost per lead vs cost per customer
Cost per lead is the easiest number to measure and the easiest to be misled by. What pays the bills is the cost of winning a customer.
Take a boiler installation lead at £35. If 15 percent of those leads become installs, each install costs about £233 in advertising. On a job worth several thousand pounds, that is an excellent return, even though £35 sounds expensive next to a £10 emergency lead.
The same works in reverse. An aesthetics lead at £10 that converts 10 to 20 percent of the time means each new patient costs £50 to £100 to win, and many come back for repeat treatments.
Rule of thumb: work out what a customer is worth to you over their first year, decide what share of that you are happy to spend to win them, then divide by your conversion rate. That gives you the most you can afford to pay per lead.
Exclusive leads vs shared broker leads
Lead brokers sell the same enquiry to several businesses at once. The price per lead looks reasonable, but you are racing three or four competitors to the phone, and most of the time someone else wins.
As the plumbing table above shows, shared leads often cost more than exclusive ones, before you account for the jobs lost to faster competitors. With exclusive leads, every enquiry is yours, so a fast reply turns into far more booked work. Our guide on how fast to contact a lead explains why that first hour matters so much.
How to lower your cost per lead
- One service per campaign. Separate ads and landing pages for each service, rather than one campaign for everything.
- Refresh creative regularly. Ads tire as the same people see them repeatedly. New creative every few weeks keeps costs down.
- Match the landing page to the ad. If the ad promises a free survey, the page should lead with the free survey.
- Use your real customers. Audiences modelled on past customers usually outperform broad interest targeting.
- Feed results back. Tell the platform which leads became customers, so it finds more people like them.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good cost per lead in the UK?
Public benchmarks put the average at roughly £21 per lead on Meta and £51 on Google, with big differences by sector. For consumer services on Meta, well built campaigns typically land between £8 and £40 per lead, while higher value work such as roofing, accountancy, legal services and commercial solar often sits between £30 and £150. A good cost per lead is one that still leaves a healthy profit once you factor in how many leads become customers.
Why is my cost per lead higher than these benchmarks?
The usual causes are weak creative, a landing page that does not match the ad, too many form fields or none at all, an audience that is too broad or too narrow, and targeting an expensive region such as London. Slow follow up does not change the cost per lead, but it does push up your cost per customer.
Are cheaper leads always better?
No. A cheap lead that never answers the phone costs you more than a pricier lead that books. Judge campaigns on cost per customer, not cost per lead, and add qualifying questions so the leads you pay for are worth calling.
How much more do leads cost in London?
Expect London and the South East to run roughly 30 to 50 percent higher than the rest of the UK, because click prices are higher and audiences see more ads.
How long before cost per lead settles?
Most campaigns settle after 30 to 45 days, once there is enough data to optimise towards the people who actually enquire and book.
Want to know what leads would cost for your business?
Every sector, region and offer is different. On a free 30 minute discovery call we look at your services, your area and your current lead sources, and give you a realistic view of the cost per lead and cost per customer you could expect. Book a free discovery call.
For the wider picture, read the complete guide to lead generation for UK businesses.
Sources
- WordStream by LocaliQ (2026). Facebook advertising benchmarks. Average cost per lead for lead campaigns, by industry.
- WordStream by LocaliQ (2026). Search advertising benchmarks. Average cost per lead for Google and Microsoft search ads, by industry.
- Well built campaign figures: Upscale client campaigns in 2026 and our published case studies.