Most Australian plumbers spend roughly A$1,500 to A$5,000 a month on Google Ads click costs, with cost per click commonly around A$8 to A$30 for plumbing keywords. Add a management fee (Scalepoint starts at A$990/month + ad spend, ex GST). Expect a realistic cost per booked job once the account has had time to learn.
There is no single price for Google Ads — your cost depends on how competitive your suburbs are, which jobs you bid on, and how well the account is run. But the ranges below give a plumber a realistic starting picture for budgeting.
The three costs that make up your Google Ads bill
- Ad spend — what you pay Google when someone clicks. This goes directly from your card to Google; a good agency never marks it up.
- Management fee — what you pay someone to build, run and optimise the account. Scalepoint’s Google Ads management starts at A$990/month + ad spend (ex GST).
- Setup — conversion tracking, call tracking and campaign build. Some agencies charge a one-off; it is worth doing properly because untracked accounts waste spend.
What a click actually costs
Plumbing is a high-intent, competitive category, so clicks are not cheap. As a rough guide (illustrative), emergency and "near me" plumbing keywords often run A$8–A$30 per click in Australian metro areas, with emergency terms at the top of that range because the searcher is ready to book right now. Regional and less competitive suburbs tend to sit lower.
A simple monthly budget example (illustrative)
Say your average cost per click is A$15 and your landing page converts 1 in 10 clicks into an enquiry. A A$2,000 monthly ad spend buys about 133 clicks, which is roughly 13 enquiries. If you book half of those, that is around 6–7 booked jobs from A$2,000 of spend — before your management fee. The maths shifts a lot with your conversion rate and close rate, which is exactly where good management earns its keep.
The number that matters is not cost per click — it is cost per booked job. A higher cost per click that produces cheaper booked jobs beats a cheap click that never converts.
How to keep the cost down
- Tight suburb and keyword targeting so you stop paying for clicks outside your service area.
- A strong negative keyword list to block tyre-kickers and DIY searches.
- Call tracking, so you can prove which spend produced which booked job and cut the rest.
- A fast, clear landing page — doubling your conversion rate halves your effective cost per lead without spending an extra dollar on clicks.
If you want a figure specific to your trade and suburbs rather than a national range, the fastest way is a free audit — we will look at your area, your competitors and likely click costs, and send back a written estimate.