# Google Ads Budget Bands

> What £1,000 to £10,000 a month of Google Ads buys at 2026 benchmark medians, in clicks and leads, with the exchange rate and every step of the working shown.

Source: https://saasadsstudio.com/research/google-ads-budget-bands/  
Author: The SaaS Ads Studio  
Published: 2026-10-21  
Updated: 2026-10-21

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## Key figures
- **100**: Leads a month from £5,000 at the all-industry median cost per lead, derived on this page
- **$5.42**: All-industry median cost per click, Google Ads and Microsoft Ads blended, US campaigns, USD
- **$1.3347**: US dollars per pound used here, cross rate from ECB reference rates of 20 October 2026
- **£49.97**: All-industry median cost per lead in pounds, derived at that cross rate
- **29.2%**: Gap between the two routes to a business services cost per lead, derived

If you are about to put £1,000 to £10,000 a month into Google Ads, the first question is what that buys. Nobody publishes the answer for SaaS, so this page works it through from [the most-cited public benchmark set](https://www.theedigital.com/blog/google-ads-benchmarks), at [one dated exchange rate](https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/index.en.html), with every step shown so you can swap your own numbers in.

## The inputs, and what they describe {#inputs}

The inputs are the WordStream by LocaliQ 2026 search advertising benchmarks, the tenth annual edition, page last updated 16 September 2026 and read on 21 October 2026. The all-industry figures are a cost per click of $5.42, a conversion rate of 8.18% and a cost per lead of $66.69, all in US dollars, from 13,474 US search campaigns across 23 industries running April 2025 to March 2026, blending Google Ads and Microsoft Ads. The same figures, sample and period are carried by [TheeDigital's write-up of the dataset](https://www.theedigital.com/blog/google-ads-benchmarks), also read on 21 October 2026, which also records that they are medians rather than means.

WordStream and LocaliQ are one company publishing one dataset, so they are one source, not two. WordStream is also on this site's competitor list, so it is named here with the date and not linked; the primary sits at wordstream.com/blog/2026-google-ads-benchmarks. The edition says cost per lead fell for the first time in five years, which is the publisher's claim about its own dataset, repeated in [Web Tonic's write-up](https://www.webtonic.io/blog/google-ads-benchmarks) read on 21 October 2026, and it is labelled as a claim here.

The second case is the business services category, the nearest thing in the set to a home for a B2B product: a median cost per click of $5.87, a conversion rate of 4.85% and a cost per lead of $93.69, in US dollars. Those were read off the primary on 21 October 2026 and checked against [Mega Digital's reproduction of the industry table](https://megadigital.ai/en/blog/google-ads-benchmarks/), read the same day. There is no software or SaaS category in the set, a gap set out in full in [why Google Ads benchmarks miss SaaS](/research/why-google-ads-benchmarks-miss-saas/).

## The exchange rate, used once {#exchange-rate}

The benchmark is in dollars and your budget is in pounds, so the budget is converted once and the benchmark is left in its own currency. The [ECB euro reference rates for 20 October 2026](https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/index.en.html), the latest published when this page was written, give 1.1215 US dollars and 0.84028 pounds to the euro.

$1.334674 per pound: derived, 1.1215 divided by 0.84028, both from the [ECB reference rates of 20 October 2026](https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/index.en.html), printed as $1.3347 and used unrounded. The reverse, 0.84028 divided by 1.1215, is £0.749247 per dollar. The ECB says its reference rates are for information only, which is exactly how they are used here.

For readers who want the benchmark in pounds, at that rate the all-industry median cost per click of $5.42 is £4.06 and the median cost per lead of $66.69 is £49.97; the business services figures of $5.87 and $93.69 are £4.40 and £70.20. Each is derived, the dollar figure multiplied by 0.749247, with the dollar inputs from [TheeDigital](https://www.theedigital.com/blog/google-ads-benchmarks) and [Mega Digital](https://megadigital.ai/en/blog/google-ads-benchmarks/), read on 21 October 2026. None of them is a price anyone measured in pounds.

## What each budget band buys {#bands}

![Grouped bar chart of Google Ads leads a month at budgets of £1,000, £2,500, £5,000 and £10,000, derived from 2026 benchmark medians](/images/blog/google-ads-budget-bands-bands.svg "Three routes through the 2026 medians at each budget, so the spread between them is visible at a glance")

Take £5,000 a month as the worked example. £5,000 multiplied by 1.334674 is $6,673.37. Divided by the $5.42 all-industry median cost per click, that is 1,231.25 clicks, so about 1,231. Multiplied by the 8.18% conversion rate, that is 100.7 leads; dividing the budget by the $66.69 median cost per lead instead gives 100.07. Every input is from [TheeDigital's write-up of the 2026 dataset](https://www.theedigital.com/blog/google-ads-benchmarks) and the [ECB rates of 20 October 2026](https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/index.en.html), and every output is derived, not measured.

The same arithmetic on the business services medians, from [Mega Digital's copy of the table](https://megadigital.ai/en/blog/google-ads-benchmarks/) read on 21 October 2026: $6,673.37 divided by $5.87 is 1,136.86 clicks, multiplied by 4.85% is 55.1 leads, while $6,673.37 divided by $93.69 is 71.2 leads. The table below repeats the working for all four bands, rounded to whole clicks and leads, using the [ECB cross rate](https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/index.en.html) above throughout.

| Monthly budget | In USD at the [ECB cross rate](https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/index.en.html) | All-industry clicks | All-industry leads (budget divided by $66.69) | Business services leads (budget divided by $93.69) | Business services leads (clicks at $5.87 times 4.85%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £1,000 | $1,334.67 | 246 | 20 | 14 | 11 |
| £2,500 | $3,336.69 | 616 | 50 | 36 | 28 |
| £5,000 | $6,673.37 | 1,231 | 100 | 71 | 55 |
| £10,000 | $13,346.74 | 2,462 | 200 | 142 | 110 |

On the all-industry figures the click route gives 20, 50, 101 and 201 leads, within one lead of the cost per lead route at every band, because those two routes agree to within 0.6% at the headline level, as the [same dataset](https://www.theedigital.com/blog/google-ads-benchmarks) shows. On business services they do not agree, and that is the next section.

## Why business services gives two answers {#business-services}

![Bar chart comparing cost per lead derived from cost per click and conversion rate with the published median, for all industries and for business services](/images/blog/google-ads-budget-bands-two-routes.svg "The headline figures reconcile; the business services row does not, which is why the bands carry two numbers")

$121.03 per lead, in US dollars: derived, the business services median cost per click of $5.87 divided by its median conversion rate of 4.85%, both from [Mega Digital's reproduction of the 2026 table](https://megadigital.ai/en/blog/google-ads-benchmarks/), read on 21 October 2026. The published business services median cost per lead is $93.69. The gap is $27.34, or 29.2% of the published figure. At the all-industry level the same derivation gives $66.26 against a published $66.69, a gap of 0.6%, from [TheeDigital's figures](https://www.theedigital.com/blog/google-ads-benchmarks).

The reason is the medians. Each metric's median is taken on its own, so the campaign with the median cost per click is not necessarily the campaign with the median conversion rate, and dividing one median by another does not have to land on the third. That is why the band chart shows a range for business services rather than a point, and why neither number should be quoted as what a B2B account will get.

## What these bands are not {#limits}

They are not SaaS figures. The 23 categories behind the [2026 medians](https://www.theedigital.com/blog/google-ads-benchmarks) are mostly local and consumer service verticals, measured across two ad platforms in the US, and a SaaS conversion is usually a trial or a demo request, not a phone call or a booking. The one SaaS cost figure we can publish is our own: three-word non-brand keywords cost £124 per conversion, Atlas account data, 14 SaaS accounts, published at [SaaS Keyword Cost by Length](/research/saas-keyword-cost-by-length/) on 16 September 2026. That is a cost per conversion in pounds from SaaS accounts, not a cost per lead in dollars from local services, and it is not divided into these bands here.

The SaaS-specific version of this page waits on Atlas account data passing its floors of five accounts per cell, which no cut does yet. Until then, the [research index](/research/) and our [register of which benchmark to cite](/research/saas-ad-benchmark-sources/) list what else is published.

## Method

Every input was read on 21 October 2026, except the exchange rates, which are the ECB reference rates dated 20 October 2026. The WordStream by LocaliQ figures were read off the publisher's own 2026 page and second-sourced the same day: the four headline figures and the median basis to TheeDigital, the business services row to Mega Digital's reproduction of the industry table, and the five-year cost per lead claim to Web Tonic. Those are the links, because this site does not link a listed competitor; the primary is named in the text with its address.

Derived on this page, and marked as derived where each appears: the cross rate of $1.334674 per pound and its reverse of £0.749247 per dollar; the four budgets in dollars; clicks as budget divided by median cost per click; leads as clicks times median conversion rate, and separately as budget divided by median cost per lead; the pound versions of four dollar figures; the business services cost per lead of $121.03 and its 29.2% gap; and the all-industry $66.26 and its 0.6% gap. Clicks and leads in the table are rounded to the nearest whole number; the arithmetic underneath them is not. The inputs are those of [TheeDigital](https://www.theedigital.com/blog/google-ads-benchmarks), [Mega Digital](https://megadigital.ai/en/blog/google-ads-benchmarks/) and the [ECB](https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/index.en.html). Two statements are a vendor's claim about itself: the first fall in cost per lead in five years, and the sample, which is the publisher's own client campaigns.

No Atlas figure here was computed by this page. The £124 is quoted as published in [SaaS Keyword Cost by Length](https://saasadsstudio.com/research/saas-keyword-cost-by-length/), with its account count.

## What this means if you are running ads

Read the bands as an order of magnitude, then replace the medians with your own cost per click and conversion rate in the same two lines of arithmetic. At the bottom of the band there is very little data in a week to decide anything, so fewer, tighter keywords matter more than more budget. If you want that done in your own account, Atlas builds and runs [Google Ads for SaaS](/google-ads-for-saas/) at the approval tier you set, starting from [the app](https://app.saasadsstudio.com).

## Questions people ask about this

**How many leads does £1,000 a month of Google Ads get?**

At the 2026 all-industry median cost per lead of $66.69, converted at the ECB cross rate of 20 October 2026, about 20 a month. At the business services medians it is 11 to 14, depending on which route through the medians you take. Both are derived from US local service campaigns, not measured in SaaS accounts.

**Why convert the budget to dollars rather than the benchmark to pounds?**

The benchmark was measured in US dollars on US campaigns, so it stays in its own currency and only your budget moves, once, at one dated rate that is printed on the page. The pound figures for cost per click and cost per lead are given as well, labelled as converted.

**Is there a SaaS row in the 2026 benchmark set?**

No. The set has 23 industry categories, mostly local and consumer service verticals, and none is software or SaaS. Business services is the nearest home for a B2B product and is used here as a second case for that reason only.

**Will these bands hold if my CPC is higher than $5.42?**

No, they scale inversely. Clicks are budget divided by cost per click, so doubling the cost per click halves the clicks at any budget. Put your own cost per click and conversion rate into the same arithmetic and your own numbers replace the medians.

## Sources
1. [TheeDigital, 2026 Google Ads Benchmarks (write-up of the WordStream by LocaliQ 2026 dataset)](https://www.theedigital.com/blog/google-ads-benchmarks), read 2026-10-21
2. [Mega Digital, Google Ads Benchmarks 2026 (reproduction of the WordStream by LocaliQ 2026 industry table)](https://megadigital.ai/en/blog/google-ads-benchmarks/), read 2026-10-21
3. [Web Tonic, Google Ads Benchmarks 2026 (write-up of the same dataset, medians and the cost per lead claim)](https://www.webtonic.io/blog/google-ads-benchmarks), read 2026-10-21
4. [European Central Bank, euro foreign exchange reference rates, 20 October 2026](https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/index.en.html), read 2026-10-20
5. [SaaS Ads Studio, SaaS Keyword Cost by Length (Atlas account data, 14 SaaS accounts)](https://saasadsstudio.com/research/saas-keyword-cost-by-length/), read 2026-09-16

## Cite this page
Free to quote with a link back. Figures last checked 2026-10-21.

> The SaaS Ads Studio, "Google Ads Budget Bands", 2026. https://saasadsstudio.com/research/google-ads-budget-bands/