Owners of cleaning companies usually ask two questions: how much should I spend, and what will a lead cost? Honest answer: it depends on your market, the jobs you advertise and how well the account is built. But the factors are predictable, and you can work out what makes sense for your business before spending anything.
What you actually pay for
- Ad spend — paid to Google, per click. You set the budget.
- Management — if you hire someone to build and run the account.
- Landing pages and tracking — often a one-time setup cost.
For context, the WordStream/LOCALiQ 2025 benchmarks, as reported by Search Engine Land put the average cost per lead across all industries at about $70 in 2025, with average cost per click rising year over year. Home improvement was listed among the higher-cost categories, with clicks often above $7, while local, high-intent services such as home services tended to convert at above-average rates.
What makes cleaning clicks cost more or less
- Job type. Recurring residential searches and one-time cleans searches are priced differently because competitors value them differently.
- Market. Large, high-income metro areas cost more than smaller towns.
- Season. Spring cleaning season and the summer moving season bring spikes in deep-clean and move-out searches.
- Quality. Relevant ads and landing pages can lower what you pay per click.
How to set your budget
Work backwards from the job:
- Average gross profit on the service you’ll advertise
- Your close rate on leads (how many become booked jobs)
- Profit × close rate = the most you can pay per lead and break even
- Monthly leads you can handle × target cost per lead = a starting monthly budget
Illustrative example (not a quote)If a job earns $1,200 gross profit and you book one in three leads, a lead is worth about $400 to you. If you can handle 20 more jobs a month, that’s about 60 leads — and at a $70 cost per lead, roughly $4,200 a month in ad spend.
How to lower your cost per lead
- Separate campaigns by job type and budget by job value
- Block irrelevant searches with negative keywords
- Send each service to its own landing page
- Run ads only when calls are answered
- Track only real calls and forms as conversions
Want a realistic number for your area? Ask us — or read how we run Google Ads for cleaning companies.
Cole Mello is the founder of Altura Marketing Group. He studied marketing at Washington State University and manages Google Ads, Local Services Ads and Meta campaigns for local service businesses. About Altura