Ask Google what its ads cost and you’ll get a calculator. Ask an agency and you’ll often get “it depends” followed by a pitch. Both answers are useless when you’re trying to work out whether $10 a day is brave or stupid for a plumbing business in Wellington.
So here are real numbers. We manage Google Ads for dozens of NZ trade and local businesses, and below is what they actually pay per click, by trade, from our own accounts. No other NZ agency we know of publishes this.
What NZ trade businesses actually pay per click
The Central North Island column is real averages from the NZ Google Ads accounts we manage: Search campaigns only, 12 months to July 2026, GST-exclusive. The Metros column is estimated from that same data using Google’s own bid figures for Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch (how, below the table). Every account is different; treat both as a guide, not a promise.
| Trade | Central North Island | Metros (estimated) |
|---|---|---|
| Automotive services | $0.65 to $1.95 | $0.80 to $3.50 |
| HVAC & refrigeration | $0.95 to $1.05 | $1.15 to $1.90 |
| Pumps & water treatment | $1.20 to $2.10 | $1.45 to $3.80 |
| House relocation | $2.15 to $2.40 | $2.60 to $4.30 |
| Garage doors | $2.15 to $2.30 | $2.60 to $4.15 |
| Plumbing & gasfitting | $2.20 to $5.10 | $2.65 to $9.20 |
| Electrical | $2.20 to $6.50 | $2.65 to $11.70 |
| Painting & decorating | $2.80 to $4.80 | $3.35 to $8.65 |
| Roofing & spouting | $3.10 to $4.00 | $3.70 to $7.20 |
| Solar | ~$3.10 | $3.70 to $5.60 |
| Exterior house washing | $3.70 to $4.20 | $4.45 to $7.55 |
| Landscaping & outdoor living | $3.80 to $6.00 | $4.55 to $10.80 |
| Marketing services (our own ads, for contrast) | $11 to $13 | $11 to $13 |
Yes, the dearest clicks in that whole table are our own. Marketing is a brutally competitive auction, which is also why we don’t flinch at paying for it: the maths still works when the job behind the click is worth enough.
How the Metros column is built: our accounts mostly run in the central North Island, so that column is measured. For the main centres we applied the gap Google’s own bid estimates show for identical searches: roughly 20 to 30% higher in Wellington and Christchurch, and 35 to 80% higher in Auckland. That’s also why the metro ranges are wide: Auckland lives at the top of them, Wellington and Christchurch nearer the bottom.
How Google Ads pricing works in plain English
There’s no rate card. Every search triggers an instant auction between the businesses that want that click, and you pay just enough to beat the advertiser below you. That’s why a click costs what the table says: it’s what your competitors made it cost.
Three things follow from that:
- You control the total, not the price. You set a daily budget and Google will never bill past it across the month. What each click costs inside that budget is the auction’s doing.
- Quality is a discount. Google charges relevant, well-built ads less for the same position. A tight campaign with good landing pages genuinely pays less per click than a lazy one. This is the closest thing to a cheat code the platform has.
- You only pay when someone clicks. Showing up costs nothing, which is why the real question is never “what does a click cost” but “what does a customer cost”.
Is $10 or $20 a day enough?
The question everyone asks. Here’s the arithmetic, using the real CPCs above.
At $10 a day (about $300 a month) and a $3 average click, you’re buying roughly 100 visits a month. If your website turns even one in ten of those into an enquiry, that’s around 10 enquiries; win a third and it’s 3 or 4 jobs. For a regional plumber, sparky or painter where a job is worth hundreds to thousands of dollars, that maths usually works, and it’s exactly why our entry-level recommendation for regional trade campaigns starts around that mark.
Where $10 a day falls over:
- Metro campaigns. At Auckland click prices, $10 buys you two or three clicks a day. You’ll spend a month learning nothing. Budget $20 to $30+ a day in the main centres.
- Expensive trades. At $6 a click, $10 a day is not a campaign, it’s a raffle ticket.
- A website that doesn’t convert. If the site turns one in fifty visitors into an enquiry instead of one in ten, no budget is enough. Fix the bucket before paying for more water.
$20 a day roughly doubles all of the good numbers and is the more comfortable starting point for competitive trades or bigger service areas.
What a realistic monthly setup looks like
Two costs, and it pays to keep them separate in your head:
- Media (paid to Google): from around $300 a month for a regional trade campaign, more in metros and competitive trades, as above. This is yours to throttle up or down any month.
- Management (paid to whoever runs it): our plans start at $497 +GST a month, and that covers more than the ads: the smart website the clicks land on, and the automation that replies to every enquiry instantly by email and follows up until you get an answer. Your ad budget is separate, paid straight to Google, and never marked up by us.
Whoever you use, insist on that same transparency: know exactly what goes to Google and what goes to management, and own your own account so the history stays yours if you leave.
Where Google Ads budgets actually get wasted
The table above is what clicks cost when an account is run properly. Badly run accounts pay the same prices for the wrong clicks:
- Broad match left wide open. Your “plumber napier” budget quietly buys searches for job vacancies, DIY questions and suburbs you don’t serve.
- No negative keywords. The words “free”, “course”, “salary” and “how to” should be blocked from day one, and reviewed monthly forever.
- Ads pointing at a homepage. The searcher wanted hot water cylinder help and landed on your life story. They leave; you still paid.
- No conversion tracking. If the account can’t see which clicks became enquiries, it optimises toward clicks. Clicks are not jobs.
This is where “we tried Google Ads and it didn’t work” almost always comes from. The auction was fine; the account was leaky.
When Google Ads pays for itself
Work backwards from a job, not forwards from a click:
- What’s an average job worth to you? Say $800.
- What share of quotes do you win? Say half, so an enquiry is worth about $400 of pipeline.
- If clicks are $3 and one visitor in ten enquires, an enquiry costs about $30.
Paying $30 to win $400 of pipeline is the whole business case, and it’s why trades with solid job values rarely regret well-run search ads. Run your own numbers with your own job value; if the gap is thin, Google Ads vs SEO covers when a slower, cheaper channel makes more sense first, and our complete guide to lead generation for tradies puts ads alongside every other channel.
Google Ads cost FAQ
How much do Google Ads cost in NZ?
For trade and local services, most clicks cost between $1 and $6.50 across the central North Island accounts we manage, and roughly 20 to 80% more in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch (full table above). Total cost is your daily media budget, from around $300 a month, plus management if someone runs it for you.
Is it worth paying for Google Ads?
If people search for what you sell and a job is worth meaningfully more than a click, usually yes. If nobody searches for it, no; that’s a job for social media, and it’s the first thing an agency should tell you rather than take your money.
Can I cap what I spend?
Yes, hard. You set a daily budget and can change or pause it any time. Google can exceed the daily figure on busy days but never your monthly total (daily budget × 30.4).
Why are my clicks dearer than your table?
Location is the usual reason (metro auctions run hotter), then competition in your specific service, then account quality: Google charges poorly-matched ads more for the same spot. If your CPC is far above the range for your trade, the account is usually fixable.
Do you mark up the ad spend?
No. Your media budget goes straight to Google, and you can verify every dollar in your own account. Management is the only thing we charge for, and we publish those prices.
Want the numbers run for your trade, your area and your job values instead of averages? Get a free game plan: 20 minutes, real figures, no obligation.