Is Google Ads Really Getting More Expensive? The Data Says… 👇
2023-2025 CAC, ROAS and More!
👋 Hey, Jon here! 3rd time is a charm this week, but I’ve got more data I was too excited to hold back.
After I published our last Google Ads article, Shawn Busse posed a great question I wanted to answer for you all today:
“Do you have historical numbers on [CAC for Google Ads]? I’d love real data on the increasing cost of paid digital media. Business owners don’t have a good grasp of the trend (greater costs).”
I am going to do exactly that today.
This is data from full year 2023, 2024, and January 2025 through December 4th, 2025, for Google Ads: $214.27 million in total spend and $2.25 billion in revenue opportunity tracked during that time frame.
This is not a small sample, and my goal is to show both Google Ad cost trends and performance. Please note that this analysis includes Branded and Unbranded campaigns (if you want a deeper dive into underbranded Google Ads campaigns, you can read that here).
Let’s dive in 👇
Google Ads Cost per Conversion Trended 2023 to 2025
Cost per conversion (definition below) from Google Ads for HVAC/Plumbing contractors increased from $90.17 in 2023 to $93.88 in 2024.
However, the cost per conversion came back down below 2023 levels, hitting $85.83 in 2025:
$4.34 per conversion may not seem like much, but across the 1.5 million conversions we tracked, that adds up to $6.51 million!
Put another way, in 2023, to get the same number of conversions as 2025, it would’ve cost these businesses $6.51 million more. Just over $500k more per month.
That $4.34 ended up being a 5% decrease since 2023:
Conversion Definition: The total number of times your business has been contacted in the selected time period. This includes form leads, phone calls, bookings, chats, and other integrated sources. This is not a unique count: a single customer that submitted a form and called will report as two conversions.
Let’s keep going.
Google Ads Cost per Unique Lead Trended 2023 to 2025
Cost per unique lead (definition below) from Google Ads for HVAC/Plumbing contractors increased from $122.84 in 2023 to $129.22 in 2024.
However, the cost per unique lead came back down below 2023 levels, hitting $118.84 in 2025:
Doing the same math above, businesses in this sample spent $4 less per unique lead in 2025 than 2023, but with 1.1 million unique leads across the businesses in this sample, it cost $4.4 million for that volume of leads than it would have in 2023.
That $4 ended up being a 3% decrease since 2023:
Unique Lead Definition: The unique number of individuals who contacted your business (phone, forms, chats) in the selected time frame. This does NOT mean those leads were bookable.
Google Ads Cost per Booked Customer Trended 2023 to 2025
Cost per booked customer (definition below) from Google Ads for HVAC/Plumbing contractors decreased from $308.16 in 2023 to $308.14 in 2024.
And, the cost per booked customer came down again in 2025, hitting $282.94:
The $25.22 difference is significant, as it cost $11.51 million less on Google Ads to acquire booked customers for these contractors than it would have in 2023!
That’s an 8% decrease in 2 years:
As we go down the funnel, efficiency matters more and more, which can affect the cost of any ad channel.
If book rates go up (they did, but only slightly), we’ll likely see costs come down. If ads are better managed, costs can come down, etc.
But this is a reasonably large sample, and it indicates that despite some spikes in 2024, Google Ad costs in 2025 have come down from years past.
Cost per Booked Customer Definition: The total number of booked customers in the selected time period divided by the spend. This does not mean paying customer. Just individuals who booked an appointment. This is why paying customers are so important. As we’ll see below.
Google Ads Cost per Paying Customer Trended 2023 to 2025
Cost per paying customer (definition below) from Google Ads for HVAC/Plumbing contractors increased from $642.67 in 2023 to $658.85 in 2024.
However, the cost per paying customer came down again in 2025, hitting $597.67:
The $45 difference is even more significant, as it cost $9.72 million less on Google Ads to acquire booked customers for these contractors than it would have in 2023!
That’s a 7% decrease in 2 years:
Cost per Paying Customer Definition: The total number of paying customers (individuals with a sold or closed job) in the selected time period divided by the spend.
Google Ads Return on Ad Spend Trended 2023 to 2025
It’s great to see Google Ads costs decrease from 2023 to 2025, but we also want to look at the ROAS numbers for a more rounded analysis.
ROAS is influenced by operations and marketing strategy so can’t place all the responsibility on Google for ROAS, but it’s still very helpful directionally:
ROAS potential (all dollar opportunities generated from Google Ads divided by the spend) stayed consistent over the last 3 years.
2024 was the ‘worst’ performing year overall for Google Ads, but still generated above a 10x ROAS potential (just keep in mind this is branded and unbranded campaigns).
In 2025, despite lower costs, it generated just 0.01 more in ROAS potential than in 2023.
Perhaps more interesting is that the blended average ticket (service and install) for 2023 was $3,061.59, but in 2025 it came down to $3,051.88.
However, ROAS closed (closed revenue generated by Google Ads divided by the spend) did increase from 2023 to 2025:
That 0.42x increase in closed ROAS translated to $54.18 million more in closed revenue in 2025 than it would have been in 2023!
Until next time . . .
-Jon