Is Google Ads Profitable For £500+ Jobs? How To Tell
Yes, Google Ads can be very profitable for £500+ jobs, but only when you know four numbers: your cost per lead, close rate, average job value, and profit margin. Without those, you are guessing. This article shows you the exact calculation, real UK benchmarks, and the mistakes that make profitable campaigns look unprofitable.
If your average job is worth £500 or more, whether it is a boiler install, a kitchen fit, a course of dental implants or a coaching package, you are probably already spending money on Google Ads and wondering if it is actually making you money, or just keeping you busy. This is one of the most common questions we get asked, and the good news is that you do not need to be a marketer to work it out. You need four numbers and a calculator.
The Four Numbers That Tell You the Truth
Forget click-through rates and impression share for a moment. Profitability comes down to one simple chain. You need to know each of these four things about your own business:
Multiply job value by margin by close rate, then compare the result to your cost per lead. If the result is comfortably higher, Google Ads is working. If it is close or lower, you are breaking even or losing money, even if the enquiries keep coming in.
A Worked Example With a £500 Job
Say you run a plumbing or electrical business. Your average job is £500 and after materials and your time you keep 40% as profit. You close 1 in 4 enquiries that come through your website form. Here is how that plays out:
Each lead is worth £50 to you on average (£200 profit divided across 4 leads, only one of which converts). If your cost per lead is £30, you are making roughly £20 profit per lead once you account for the ones that do not convert. If your cost per lead creeps up to £60, you are losing money on every single enquiry, even though your ads are technically working and generating calls.
The businesses that win are not the ones paying the least per click. They are the ones with the best close rate, because a strong sales process turns an average cost per lead into a very good cost per customer.
MapLeads MediaWhat Realistic UK Benchmarks Look Like Right Now
Numbers vary a lot by trade and area, but here is a sense check based on current UK data:
| Metric | Low end | Typical | High end / competitive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per click (local trades) | £1.50 | £3.00 | £5–£14+ (cities) |
| Cost per lead (well-run) | £30 | £50 | £80–£100+ |
| Click-to-lead conversion rate | 3% | 5–8% | 12–15% |
| Return on ad spend (profit) | 1x (break even) | 2–3x | 5–8x |
If your numbers are wildly outside these ranges, either a much higher cost per lead with no obvious reason, or suspiciously low with no real enquiries behind it, that is worth investigating before you commit more budget.
Where the Maths Quietly Breaks Down
Most business owners we speak to have never calculated their true close rate or true cost per lead, because the numbers are scattered across Google Ads, a spreadsheet, and someone's memory. These are the four most common ways the calculation quietly falls apart:
- 01Counting all form fills as leadsSome are spam, wrong numbers, or people outside your service area. This makes your real cost per lead look better than it is, and your conversion rate looks worse. Filter them out before you calculate.
- 02Not tracking close rate at allIf you have no idea what percentage of enquiries you actually book, you cannot tell if a cheap lead is a good lead. A £20 lead that never converts is more expensive than a £60 lead that closes.
- 03Using revenue instead of profitA £500 job with 15% margin behaves very differently to a £500 job with 40% margin, even though the job value looks the same. Always run the calculation on profit, not turnover.
- 04Judging profitability too earlyGoogle Ads typically needs 60 to 90 days and a reasonable volume of clicks before the numbers settle into something reliable. Judging week one is like judging a diet after one meal.
How to Track This Without a Marketing Degree
You do not need fancy software. A simple spreadsheet with five columns does the job. Update it weekly for two to three months and you will have your own real close rate and lead value, rather than a guess. Then cross-reference that against what Google Ads is telling you in the cost-per-conversion column of your account, and you have the full picture.
If you run your business through a VAT-registered entity, your effective job value in this calculation should use the ex-VAT figure. You collect VAT on behalf of HMRC, not for yourself, so including it in your job value will make your maths look more profitable than it really is.
Google Ads is rarely cheap when your job value is high, because competitors know the same thing you do: that one £500+ job easily covers a lot of clicks. That pushes cost per click up. The businesses that win consistently are not paying the least per click. They are converting the most from each lead, and they know their numbers well enough to spot immediately when something is off.
Want to know if your numbers
actually add up?
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