Data Studies
Paid search research on what clicks cost and how advertisers compete. Most studies use Google Ads Keyword Planner cost-per-click estimates for US keywords, nationally and by state, often set against Microsoft Ads keyword prices. Others use the Google Ads Transparency Center to count advertisers and ad formats, Bing search results to study ad copy and bidding on brand names, and Google Maps results to check for paid listings. Use them to benchmark your costs by industry and location, and to plan how you structure and budget campaigns.
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A click on a personal injury Google Ads keyword costs $195.73 on average, 116 times the $1.68 auto dealers pay and 18 times the $10.82 average across all keywords. Half of all keywords cost $4.23 or less, and at the cheap end no wedding venue keyword costs more than $4.39 a click.
The most expensive Google Ads keyword in the US, "best houston truck accident lawyers", costs $972.50 per click, 90 times the $10.82 average. All 10 of the priciest keywords are searches for injury lawyers, and 208 keywords cost $100 or more per click.
A Google Ads click in Colorado costs $13.05 on average, 24% more than the $10.49 national price for the same keywords, the highest premium of the 25 largest US states. New York is the cheapest at $9.21, 13% below the national price.
53.9% of US Google advertisers have been showing ads for a year or more, and the median advertiser has been active for 412 days; just 9.1% have an ad history shorter than 30 days. Almost all of them are checked: 98.9% of advertisers showing Google ads in the US are identity-verified, and one in eight is based outside the US.
Video accounts for 9.9% of the ads US businesses run on Google, while plain text ads still make up 70.2%. Two in three Google advertisers have no video ad at all, and the advertisers with the largest ad libraries are more than twice as likely to use video as the rest.
State Farm has 100,000 Google ads on file, the most any advertiser can display, while the typical US advertiser has 6. The 100 most active advertisers have a median of 950 ads each, more than 150 times the typical advertiser.
When a search for a brand's own name showed ads on Bing, 100% of those results pages included an ad from another company's website, while the brand itself advertised on 10% of them. 96 of 1,747 brand-name searches showed ads.
74.3% of insurance search ads mention a price, rate or discount, against 49.4% of all search ads. Half of the ads people see when they search now lead with money, and one in five offers something "free".
On the same 12,242 US keywords, a Microsoft Ads click costs an estimated $3.72 on average against $12.26 on Google Ads, 70% less. Microsoft's price is lower on 86% of keywords, and the discount is deepest where Google is most expensive.
A click on a branded Google Ads keyword, a search for a specific company or website, costs $5.91 on average against $10.64 for all other keywords, 44% less. Searches where people compare options before buying cost the most, at $17.86, three times the branded average.
96% of Google Maps searches for local services show no paid listing at all; 4.1% show at least one promoted pin. Plumber searches show paid pins most often, on 10.1% of searches, and accountant searches least, on 0.6%.
9.3% of the 500,000 most visited websites carry a Google Ads conversion tag on their homepage, but the rate falls to 1.5% among the 1,000 biggest sites. Sites ranked 100,000 to 500,000 are about 7 times as likely as the top 1,000 to carry one.
Google Ads keywords searched 100,000 or more times a month cost $12.00 per click on average, 3% more than the $11.65 for keywords searched under 10,000 times. Search volume tells an advertiser almost nothing about what a click will cost.
A click on a personal injury law Google Ads keyword costs $195.73 on average, 18 times the $10.82 average across 23 industries and the most expensive of them all. Louisiana firms pay the most, 78% above the national price for the same searches.
A click on an insurance Google Ads keyword costs $31.22 on average, 2.9 times the $10.82 average across 23 industries and second only to personal injury law. Quote searches drive the price, led by "auto insurance quotes florida" at $243.16.
A click on a mortgage Google Ads keyword costs $10.58 on average, close to the $10.82 average across 23 industries, but "va home loan" costs $83.63, almost eight times as much. Searches from borrowers ready to apply cost several times the price of research searches such as mortgage calculators.
A click on a dental Google Ads keyword costs $8.25 on average, 24% less than the $10.82 average across 23 industries, but the searches that bring in new patients, such as "dentist near me" at $13.92, cost more. Implant searches top the price list, and Microsoft Ads charges 75% less for the same keywords.
A click on a plastic surgery Google Ads keyword costs $6.94 on average, 36% less than the $10.82 average across 23 industries, and not one plastic surgery keyword costs more than $20. Expensive elective procedures are among the cheaper searches to advertise on.
A click on an HVAC Google Ads keyword costs $7.64 on average, 29% less than the $10.82 average across 23 industries, but "hvac emergency service" costs $83.57, 11 times as much. Urgent repair searches carry the price; product and research searches are cheap.
Plumbing companies in Arizona pay 115% more per Google Ads click than the national price for the same searches, more than double. Nationally, a plumbing click costs $16.67 on average, 1.5 times the $10.82 average across 23 industries, and "24 hour plumber near me" costs $80.52.
A click on a roofing Google Ads keyword costs $6.22 on average, 42% less than the $10.82 average across 23 industries and less than HVAC, plumbing or pest control. Repair and gutter searches cost the most, led by "gutter replacement" at $36.45.
A click on a software (SaaS) Google Ads keyword costs $30.36 on average, 2.8 times the $10.82 average across 23 industries and the third highest of them. Business software categories cost the most, led by "ap automation software" at $295.91 a click.
A click on the Google Ads keyword "online criminal justice degree" costs $128.25, the most of any higher education search. Higher education clicks average $18.40, 1.7 times the $10.82 average across 23 industries, and online degree searches fill the top of the price list.
A click on a real estate Google Ads keyword costs $1.78 on average, 84% less than the $10.82 average across 23 industries, making real estate the second cheapest of the 23. The searches that cost real money are the ones from home sellers, investors and agents, led by "real estate agent selling a house" at $39.29.
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