Google Ads cost in Australia · 2026 edition
How much does Google Ads cost in Australia in 2026?
Australian businesses in our data paid a median $3.12 per click on Google Search between August and October 2026. Half of all accounts paid between $1.78 and $7.18.
Not estimates copied from a US benchmark. What accounts actually paid, read from the platforms by BFJ Labs across $3.5 million of 2026 ad spend. Updated every quarter.
Written by Hardeep GillPerformance Media Specialist, BFJ Digital. Reviewed by Ben Henzell, Founder.Key numbers
What a click costs in Australia, August to October 2026.
| Campaign type | Median cost per click | Middle half of accounts | Median click-through rate | Spend behind the number |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Search | $3.12 | $1.78 – $7.18 | 9.4% | $652k |
| Google Performance Max | $1.35 | $0.68 – $2.41 | 3.1% | $302k |
| Meta (leads, sales and traffic campaigns) | $0.59 | $0.22 – $1.40 | 2.0% | $337k |
On Meta, the cost to reach 1,000 people (CPM) was a median $10.99. All figures are Australian dollars, GST excluded. CPC is cost per click, CPM is cost per 1,000 impressions, CTR is click-through rate.
How to read it. Each account’s own cost per click was worked out first, then we took the median across accounts, so a few big spenders can’t drag the number. “Middle half” is the 25th to 75th percentile: if your Search CPC sits inside $1.78 to $7.18 you’re in normal territory. Above $7 usually means healthcare, legal or professional services, where a click is worth more.
Performance Max looks cheap because it spreads spend across Display, YouTube, Gmail and Shopping as well as Search. Cheaper clicks, lower intent. Compare the two on cost per lead, never on cost per click.
Industry figures for healthcare, dental, aged care, property and home services come in the December update.
Is it getting dearer?
Yes. A Google lead costs 21% more than a year ago.
That’s the median change across the same businesses, Q3 2025 to Q3 2026. Reaching 1,000 people on Google costs 21% more, a click 6% more, and fewer of those clicks convert (−13%). Meta is flatter: clicks up 15%, reach about the same (+2%). Across 2026 to October against the same months of 2025, a Google lead cost 15% more and a click 7% more. That’s with the cash rate at 4.85% after five rises this year.
Where does your account sit?
Compare your cost per click with the Australian median.
Open Google Ads, take last month’s average cost per click and spend, and put them in. You’ll see where you sit straight away. The full report, with the likely causes and a 30-day plan, comes to your inbox.
What drives your cost per click
Six things set the price. You control four of them.
None of this needs more budget. It needs someone looking at the account every week. That’s the job of a Google Ads agency, and the difference between a tidy account and a loose one is usually bigger than the difference between industries.
BFJ Digital, BrisbaneThe auction
Every search runs an auction. You pay just enough to beat the advertiser below you, so the price is set by who else wants that click, not by Google.
Your industry
A click is worth what a customer is worth. Healthcare, legal, finance and property pay more per click because one new customer pays for hundreds of them.
Quality Score
Google discounts ads that people click and pages that answer the search. A better landing page is the cheapest CPC cut there is.
Match type and keywords
Broad match buys reach and junk. Exact and phrase match buy intent. Most overspend in the accounts we audit starts with search terms nobody meant to pay for.
Location and device
Brisbane CBD costs more than regional Queensland. Mobile clicks are often cheaper and convert less. Bid by where the leads come from, not by default.
Campaign type
Search clicks cost the most and mean the most. Performance Max, Display and video are cheaper per click and lower intent. Judge each on cost per lead.
Cost per lead
The number that matters, and why we publish the change rather than the dollars.
Cost per lead is cost per click divided by your lead rate. At the Search median, a 5% lead rate puts a lead at about $62 and a 2% lead rate at about $156. Same clicks, two and a half times the price. That’s why lead rate, not CPC, is the first number to fix.
We publish how cost per lead is changing (up 21% in a year, see the Squeeze) but not a dollar figure yet, because each account counts leads its own way and some count things that aren’t leads. We’re auditing conversion setups across every account; dollar cost-per-lead benchmarks by industry follow once that’s done. Until then, the benchmark above works yours out from your own lead rate.
If you want to know what a lead costs you right now, including the ones that came through the phone, that’s attribution work, and it’s most of what the audit does.
Meta, for comparison
Cheaper clicks, a different job.
Meta clicks cost a median $0.59, reaching 1,000 people $10.99, and 2% of people who see an ad click it. Over the year, Meta clicks got 15% dearer while reach stayed about the same. Meta finds people who weren’t looking; Search catches people who were. Most businesses in our data run both, and the accounts that work treat Meta as the top of the funnel and Search as the bottom, measured on the same cost per lead.
A full Meta cost page, with CPM and CPC by objective, is coming. The Meta advertising page covers how we run it.
What does a budget buy?
Clicks are easy to buy. Revenue isn’t.
What a monthly budget buys at the Australian median, and in a dearer industry, with a 5% lead rate. Put your own numbers into the benchmark above for your account.
| Monthly budget | Clicks at the median | Clicks, dearer industry | Leads at a 5% lead rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500 | ~160 | ~70 | 3 – 8 |
| $2,000 | ~640 | ~280 | 14 – 32 |
| $5,000 | ~1,600 | ~700 | 35 – 80 |
Google Search, August to October 2026 medians. A lead rate is the share of visits that become an enquiry, call or booking.
Questions people ask
Straight answers, with the numbers.
Is $500 a month enough for Google Ads in Australia?
At the median Search cost per click, $500 buys about 160 clicks a month. In a dearer industry, about 70. At a 5% lead rate that’s three to eight leads. Enough to learn whether your offer converts. Rarely enough to scale.
Is $100 a month enough?
About 30 clicks at the median, 14 in a dearer industry. That’s a test, not a channel. Spend it fixing the landing page first.
Are Google Ads still worth it in 2026?
For most businesses in our data, yes. But the margin for a loose account is gone. A Google lead costs 21% more than it did a year ago, so the accounts that win are the ones that know which clicks turn into revenue.
What’s a good cost per click in Australia?
There isn’t one number. The Search median is $3.12 and half of accounts sit between $1.78 and $7.18. Healthcare and professional services run higher, retail and e-commerce lower. Judge your CPC against cost per lead and payback, not a national average.
Why is Performance Max cheaper per click than Search?
It spends across Display, YouTube, Gmail and Shopping as well as Search. Cheaper clicks, lower intent. Compare the two on cost per lead.
How much should I budget?
Work backwards: the leads you need multiplied by your cost per lead. The benchmark above works it out from your own lead rate. If you don’t know your lead rate, that’s the first problem to fix.
Is Google Ads getting more expensive in Australia?
Yes. In the same businesses, a Google lead cost 21% more in the September quarter of 2026 than a year earlier, and reaching 1,000 people cost 21% more. We track it every quarter in the Squeeze Index.
What does it cost to have an agency run Google Ads?
Ad spend goes to Google; the fee goes to whoever runs the account. The fee is usually a flat retainer or a share of spend, and what you get for it varies more than the price does. We’ve written up what agencies charge in Australia, and there’s a matching page on what SEO costs.
The market around these numbers
More dollars, same auctions.
Australian businesses spent $19.8 billion on internet advertising in the year to June 2026, up 14%. Search took $8.6 billion of it, about 43% of the market, and it’s still growing faster than the economy. More dollars chasing the same auctions is why clicks got dearer.
Source: IAB Australia Internet Advertising Revenue Report FY26, prepared by PwC, 31 August 2026.
How we worked it out
- Period: 1 August to 31 October 2026. Refreshed every quarter after each Squeeze Index edition.
- Source: BFJ Labs, our data platform, which reads the Google Ads and Meta accounts BFJ manages through the platforms’ own APIs.
- Sample: 53 Google Search accounts, 32 Performance Max accounts and 25 Meta accounts, each spending at least $900 in the period.
- Method: ratios worked out per account first (spend ÷ clicks; clicks ÷ impressions; spend ÷ impressions × 1,000), then the median across accounts, so large spenders can’t dominate. “Middle half” is the 25th to 75th percentile.
- Campaign type comes from the platform’s own campaign objective. Search means Search campaigns only. Performance Max is reported separately. Meta covers lead, sales and traffic objectives; awareness and engagement campaigns are excluded.
- Currency: Australian dollars, GST excluded.
- Excluded: Shopping, Display, Video and Demand Gen (too few accounts to publish), accounts whose conversion tracking changed mid-year, and cost per lead in dollars until conversion actions are audited.
- Limits: these are BFJ-managed accounts, weighted to Queensland lead-generation businesses. Not a random sample of Australia. Part of any quarter-on-quarter rise is seasonal.
Use this data
Free to use with a link back.
Journalists, agencies and anyone writing about what advertising costs in Australia can take the numbers and the CSV. Questions about the data: hello@bfj.com.au.
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Research by BFJ Labs, BrisbaneYour numbers
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