How much does Google Ads cost in the UK?
The average cost per click across UK Google Ads campaigns in 2026 sits between £3.50 and £3.65, but that average hides enormous variation by industry. Legal services commonly pay £9 or more per click, while retail and hospitality often pay under £1. Monthly budgets for UK small and mid-market businesses typically range from £750 at the low end for keyword testing, £3,000 to £10,000 for established campaigns generating measurable ROI, and £15,000 or more for programs that run across multiple product lines, verticals, or regions. There is no single "Google Ads cost" in the UK. What matters is whether the cost per acquisition at your CPC level supports the unit economics of your business.
Why UK CPCs are generally cheaper than US CPCs
For many categories, running Google Ads in the UK costs noticeably less than running the same campaigns in the United States. WordStream's international CPC analysis places UK CPCs about 13% below the US average, though the gap varies significantly by vertical. The reason is straightforward: the US market has more advertisers competing for the same auctions, which pushes CPCs higher. For UK-based advertisers or companies targeting UK audiences, this means CPCs for B2B SaaS, legal services, professional services, and most commercial categories are typically lower than what the same keywords cost in the US, sometimes by 20–40%.
This matters strategically for two groups. First, UK companies selling domestically benefit from running into less competitive auctions than their US counterparts. Second, US-based companies expanding into the UK often find that the UK market offers a cheaper entry point into paid search than attempting to scale US campaigns further.
UK CPC benchmarks by industry
Industry variation in the UK follows similar patterns to the US, but at generally lower absolute levels:
- Legal services: £8–£12 per click, with central London conveyancing, personal injury, and corporate law on the higher end.
- Financial services and insurance: £5–£10 per click, with mortgage and insurance comparison queries at the top of the range.
- B2B SaaS and software: £4–£8 per click on core commercial terms, lower on long-tail vertical-specific queries.
- Professional services (consulting, accounting, advisory): £3–£7 per click.
- Ecommerce and retail: £0.70–£2 per click, with Google Shopping campaigns often cheaper than Search.
- Travel and hospitality: £1.50–£3 per click on average.
London-specific campaigns typically run 15–30% higher than the same keywords targeted at other UK regions. A solicitor bidding on "conveyancing solicitor" in central London might pay £12 per click, while the same keyword in Leeds or Manchester might cost £7.
How to think about UK budget size
The right Google Ads budget in the UK is calculated from the economics of the business, not from any industry average. The practical framework starts with gross profit per customer, maximum acceptable acquisition cost, expected conversion rate, and working back to what CPC level your campaigns can tolerate.
If your business generates £200 gross profit per customer and you are comfortable spending 25% of that on acquisition (£50), a 5% conversion rate on qualified traffic means you can afford £2.50 per click. A 2% conversion rate means £1 per click. If the CPCs in your vertical exceed what your conversion rate and profit margins support, Google Ads may not be viable in that category without fixing conversion rate, targeting precision, or offer first.
For UK B2B, this calculation usually produces a higher tolerable CPC than ecommerce because deal values are larger and sales cycles are longer. A B2B SaaS company with £30,000 average contract values can rationally pay £15–£20 per click on high-intent keywords if the conversion rate from click to closed-won supports it. For B2B Google Ads programs specifically, we often see UK campaigns run at meaningfully better efficiency than equivalent US campaigns because of the CPC differential. At the same conversion rate, lower CPCs produce lower cost per qualified opportunity.