What a healthcare lead costs on Google Ads.
By Conner Crowe · Q3 2026, to · Published , wording updated · Download the data · Next edition January 2027
These are 8 healthcare practices whose Google Ads I manage, grouped only as specialist or general care so no practice can be picked out. It shows what they paid from 1 July to 30 September 2026, not what Google costs every practice. A lead here is mostly a phone call from the ad, not a booked patient. N next to a figure is how many practices it comes from.
The short version
- I looked at the Google Ads of 8 healthcare practices I manage, from July to September 2026.
- For the 6 whose lead counts I trust, a lead cost the typical practice $39.54 (N = 6). The cheapest paid $6.08 and the dearest $118.78.
- Calls were most of the leads in all 8 practices. For the typical practice, calls were 100% of what it counted as a lead, and 5 of 8 counted nothing else (N = 8).
- A click cost the middle half of practices $2.05 to $6.98 (N = 8), and the typical practice turned 12.1% of clicks into leads (N = 6).
- All 8 ran only regular search ads, no Performance Max, and every one lost more than 28% of its possible ad showings to budget (N = 8).
- $39.54 typical cost per lead, practices with lead counts I trust (N = 6)
- 19.5x gap between the cheapest and the dearest lead (N = 6)
- 5 of 8 counted phone calls as their only lead (N = 8)
- 35.4% of the searches its ads could show on, the typical practice showed on (N = 8)
All four: healthcare practices whose Google Ads I manage, 1 July to 30 September 2026.
From $6.08 to $118.78,
and each counts a lead its own way.
The typical practice with lead counts I trust paid $39.54 a lead, and the middle half paid $12.00 to $66.75 (N = 6). The cheapest paid $6.08 and the dearest $118.78, 19.5 times as much. Each row is one practice, and each one decides what counts as a lead, so the definition changes from row to row. Read a row as one practice, and the typical figure as the benchmark.
Cost per lead by practice, July to September 2026
One practice per row. H8 is left out of the typical figure while its tracking is on review.
Why the cheap end is cheap
H1 (N = 1) counts every call that comes from the ad. I couldn't confirm a minimum call length on that action, so a call from an existing patient counts the same as a call from a new one. That likely explains part of the 21.6% conversion rate and the $6.08 lead. H2 (N = 1) counts two call sources at once, calls from the ad and calls from the website, and lands at 21.0% and $9.89. Both work as volume signals. I'd read either as a new-patient cost only after checking call length.
Why two practices are left out
H8 (N = 1) converted 1.6% of clicks, and its all-conversions column ran 10.2x the leads it counted. That reads as calls going uncounted, so I leave it out of cost per lead and conversion rate while its tracking is on review. The other one has no row here. It counted actions that aren't leads, so its cost per lead isn't comparable and it's out too. Both stay in every tracking finding.
The full table: click price, click rate, conversion rate and cost per lead by practice
| Code | Practice group | N | Cost per click | Click-through rate | Conv. rate | Cost per lead | What counts as a lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H1 | Specialist practice | 1 | $1.31 | 13.0% | 21.6% | $6.08 | Calls from ads only |
| H2 | Specialist practice | 1 | $2.08 | 14.0% | 21.0% | $9.89 | Calls from ads and website calls, plus forms |
| H3 | General and ancillary care | 1 | $1.95 | 16.8% | 10.7% | $18.34 | Call extension calls only |
| H4 | General and ancillary care | 1 | $7.74 | 10.6% | 12.8% | $60.73 | Calls from ads only |
| H5 | General and ancillary care | 1 | $7.88 | 3.2% | 11.5% | $68.76 | Call extension calls only |
| H7 | General and ancillary care | 1 | $6.73 | 5.8% | 5.7% | $118.78 | Two call actions plus a lead form |
| H8 | Specialist practice | 1 | $3.36 | 6.8% | 1.6%, excl. | Excluded | Excluded from median: undertracking on review |
| Typical (median) | 8 / 6 | Not shown | Not shown | 12.1% | $39.54 | ||
| Lower quartile | 8 / 6 | $2.05 | 6.6% | 10.9% | $12.00 | ||
| Upper quartile | 8 / 6 | $6.98 | 13.2% | 19.0% | $66.75 | ||
Some accounts belong to clients I name elsewhere on this site. They count in every typical figure and total here, but I don't show them as their own row, because a row would publish a named client's numbers. On this page that's one of the 8, so the table has 7 rows. Where a summary figure would let you work that account's number back out from the 7 rows shown, the cell says not shown. Click price and click-through summaries cover all 8 practices (N = 8). Conversion rate and cost per lead summaries cover the 6 with clean tracking (N = 6). H8 and the practice without a row are left out of those two, for the reasons above and in the method. Typical figures come from each practice's unrounded figure and are rounded once. Quartiles use the inclusive method, the same as the account-wide benchmark.
Cheaper than LocaliQ's figure,
but not like for like.
My typical cost per lead sits $26.48 under the vendor benchmark I compare against, at $39.54 (N = 6) against $66.02. That benchmark is LocaliQ's healthcare search ads report, last updated 13 January 2026. It covers 3,542 search campaigns running between 1 October 2024 and 30 September 2025, across 16 specialties. LocaliQ says its "averages" are medians. Several practice types in my sample have no LocaliQ category, so I compare the headline figures only.
| Measure | This report, typical (Q3 2026) | LocaliQ, median (3,542 campaigns) |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per click | Middle half $2.05 to $6.98 (N = 8) | $5.64 |
| Click-through rate | Middle half 6.6% to 13.2% (N = 8) | 6.07% |
| Conversion rate | 12.1% (N = 6) | 8.09% |
| Cost per lead | $39.54 (N = 6) | $66.02 |
Both are medians, but theirs is across campaigns and mine is across practices, the windows don't overlap, and their report doesn't say what each campaign counted as a lead. My practices convert at a higher rate. LocaliQ's 6.07% click-through rate sits below the lower quartile of mine, and its $5.64 click sits inside the middle half of mine.
A healthcare lead is
mostly a phone call.
Calls were most of the leads in all 8 practices, and for the typical practice they were all of them: a median of 100% (N = 8). Five of the 8 counted calls and nothing else. Only 3 of 8 counted anything other than a call.
-
7 of 8
left conversion value unused. Three report zero value and four carry a flat placeholder of 1 or less per conversion (N = 8). A return on ad spend (ROAS) figure from any of them means nothing.
-
4.4x
was the typical ratio of everything an account tracks to the leads it counts (all conversions to primary conversions), from 1.7x to 19.8x (N = 5).
-
100%
of Q3 2026 spend went to regular search ads in all 8 practices, across 27 campaigns. No Performance Max, Display, Video or Demand Gen (N = 8).
When the lead is a call, the call settings decide the cost per lead: which call actions count, whether a short call counts, and whether a booked patient ever makes it back to Google. None of those settings shows up in the cost per lead column.
What I'd do: count the new patient.
The fix I run on medical accounts starts with one lead that means a new patient, then feeds booked appointments back to Google without sending any protected health information. That second step raises legal questions before technical ones. The medical practice marketing library covers it question by question.
- Can a medical practice use Google Ads conversion tracking without violating HIPAA?
- How to track which ads produce booked patients without sending PHI
- Do I need a BAA with my call tracking provider?
- How to track phone calls as conversions in Google Ads
The full architecture, from call to booked patient to the bid, is the Lead Quality Stack. The wider diagnosis library is Lead Quality.
Seven of eight lost more
to budget than to rank.
Impression share is how often an ad showed out of all the searches it could have shown on. When it misses one, Google says why: the budget ran out, or the ad ranked too low. Every practice lost more than 28% of its possible showings to budget, and budget loss beat rank loss in 7 of 8 (N = 8). The exception is H8, which lost 40.4% to rank against 35.0% to budget (N = 1). The typical practice showed on 35.4%, and the range ran from 21.2% to 47.4% (N = 8).
Where each practice's search showings went
Share of possible showings won, lost to budget and lost to rank, spend-weighted across each practice's campaigns.
Searches for somebody else
Of the search spend Google listed, the typical practice with clean tracking put 26.5% into searches that got two or more clicks and no lead, from 10.0% to 41.0% (N = 6). In three of the general and ancillary care practices, the main pattern was people searching for a different provider by name (N = 3). A fourth mixed competitor names with broad research searches (N = 1).
Quality Score goes unreported
Quality Score is Google's 1 to 10 grade for a keyword. The typical practice had 52.7% of keyword spend on keywords with no score at all (N = 8). Three of the 8 had 77.5% to 100% of keyword spend in that state. Where a score was reported, the typical practice had 0% of keyword spend in the 1 to 3 band (N = 8).
The full table: showings, search waste, mobile share and Quality Score by practice
| Code | Practice group | N | Impression share | Lost to budget | Lost to rank | Zero-conv. term spend | Mobile share of spend | Keyword spend with no Quality Score | Hours served |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H1 | Specialist practice | 1 | 33.0% | 45.1% | 21.9% | 10.0% | 99.2% | 47.9% | 15 |
| H2 | Specialist practice | 1 | 37.9% | 36.8% | 25.4% | 15.3% | 91.8% | 28.9% | 24 |
| H3 | General and ancillary care | 1 | 46.7% | 41.7% | 11.6% | 30.8% | 96.5% | 24.8% | 18 |
| H4 | General and ancillary care | 1 | 47.4% | 29.0% | 23.6% | 22.3% | 96.2% | 96.9% | 15 |
| H5 | General and ancillary care | 1 | 21.2% | 53.7% | 25.0% | 31.5% | 100% | 100% | 22 |
| H7 | General and ancillary care | 1 | 29.6% | 37.9% | 32.5% | 41.0% | 90.7% | 57.5% | 24 |
| H8 | Specialist practice | 1 | 24.6% | 35.0% | 40.4% | 41.6%, excl. | 86.3% | 77.5% | 24 |
| Typical (median) | 8 | 35.4% | 37.4% | 25.2% | 26.5% (N = 6) | 94.0% | 52.7% | ||
| Lower quartile | 8 | 28.4% | Not shown | 23.2% | 17.0% (N = 6) | Not shown | 27.9% | ||
| Upper quartile | 8 | Not shown | 42.5% | Not shown | 31.3% (N = 6) | 97.2% | 82.4% | ||
Impression share is weighted by spend across each practice's campaigns. Zero-conversion term spend is the share of spend visible in the search-terms report that went to terms with 2 or more clicks and no conversion. Visible terms covered 34% to 71% of each account's spend (N = 8). Its typical figure and quartiles cover the 6 practices with clean tracking (N = 6); the H8 value is shown and left out. Summary cells marked not shown would give back the number of the account without a row. One account's keyword report covered 68% of its spend (N = 1).
Office-hours leads were
cheaper in five of six.
In the 6 clean-tracking practices with 30 or more leads, a lead between 8am and 5pm cost less than one after hours in 5 (N = 6). After-hours leads typically cost 1.4x the office-hours figure (N = 6). The widest gap was one specialist practice, $20.73 off-hours against $9.39 in business hours, or 2.2x (N = 1). One general-care practice went the other way, at $90 off-hours against $126 during the day (N = 1). I'd test why before acting on it. Five of the 8 practices show ads fewer than 24 hours a day, between 15 and 22 hours (N = 8).
Phones took most of the money: the typical practice spent 94.0% on mobile, and the range ran from 86.3% to 100% (N = 8). Mobile converted at a higher rate than desktop in 5 of the 6 clean-tracking practices (N = 6). The same general-care practice was the exception again, with desktop at 10.1% against mobile at 5.2% (N = 1). Part of the mobile edge comes from counting calls, which mostly happen on phones.
How I measured, and
how sure to be.
Source and window
Google Ads API reads on healthcare accounts I have managed, read-only. No client is ever named. Every query was a SELECT. Nothing was written to any account. The window is fixed at 1 July to 30 September 2026, evaluated in each account's own time zone. It won't move when you reload the page. These are accounts I manage, so how I run them is part of every number. Read them as what these practices paid, not as a measure of all of Google.
Inclusion and exclusion
- Included: healthcare advertisers with an enabled account and at least $300 of spend in the window. Eight accounts qualified, one per practice.
- Not in the sample: closed or cancelled accounts. The API returns nothing for them, including history from before they closed.
- Accounts without a row: Some accounts belong to clients I name elsewhere on this site. They count in every typical figure and total here, but I don't show them as their own row, because a row would publish a named client's numbers. That's one of the 8 here, so the tables and the CSV have 7 rows.
- Tracking flags: an account is flagged for overcounting if conversions exceed 40% of clicks or exceed clicks, for undertracking if it spent more than $1,000 with fewer than 3 conversions, and for missing tracking if it recorded zero conversions on more than $500. A flagged account is excluded from cost-per-lead figures and still counted in the tracking findings. An account can also be excluded on review when its conversion setup shows it isn't counting leads.
- Result this edition: no account tripped a mechanical flag. On review, 2 of the 8 are left out of cost per lead, conversion rate, zero-conversion term spend, device conversion rates and the hourly comparison. H8 shows undertracking: a 1.6% conversion rate and all conversions at 10.2x primary. The account without a row counted non-lead actions as primary conversions. Both stay in every tracking finding (N = 8). The account-wide benchmark uses the same two exclusions.
- One caveat on comparability: one account changed its conversion actions in the last two weeks of the window.
- Small numbers: eight practices, one per row. A row is one example, not a rule for that kind of practice, and a different eight could land somewhere else.
What counts as a lead
- Lead, or conversion. Whatever the account counts in its Conversions column, meaning its primary conversion actions. That's the number bidding optimizes toward.
- Cost per lead. Cost divided by primary conversions, for the whole window.
- Call share. Conversions from actions Google classifies as phone call leads, as a share of primary conversions. Everything else counted as primary is a non-call conversion.
- All conversions. Every conversion action, counted in bidding or not. The multiple is all conversions divided by primary conversions, reported for the 5 accounts where my data carries it (N = 5).
- Business hours. 8am to 5pm in the account's time zone. Reported only for clean-tracking accounts with 30 or more conversions (N = 6).
- Zero-conversion term. A search term with 2 or more clicks and no conversion in the window.
How typical figures were taken
I computed each account's figure first, took the median across accounts, and rounded once at the end. With 8 accounts the median is the mean of the fourth and fifth values. With 6, it's the mean of the third and fourth. Quartiles use the inclusive method (linear interpolation between ranked accounts), the same method as the account-wide benchmark. Nothing is weighted by spend, so the largest account counts once like the others. N = 8 is a small sample and one account per row. Read a row as one practice and the typical figure as the benchmark.
Spend, revenue and conversion values stay private. Every published figure is a unit price, a ratio, a share or a count of accounts. These rules are the benchmarks standard.
Words used here
- Lead, or conversion
- The action an account tells Google to count and bid toward. Here it's mostly a phone call from the ad. Not a booked patient.
- Cost per lead (CPL)
- What the practice spent on Google Ads divided by the leads it got.
- Cost per click (CPC)
- What a practice pays Google each time someone clicks its ad.
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Out of every 100 times the ad was shown, how many times it was clicked.
- Conversion rate
- Out of every 100 clicks, how many became a lead.
- All conversions
- Every action an account tracks, whether or not it counts as a lead for bidding.
- Impression share
- Out of all the searches an ad could have shown on, the share where it did show.
- Lost to budget, lost to rank
- The searches an ad missed because the daily budget ran out, or because its Ad Rank (Google's score from the bid and the ad's quality) was too low.
- Quality Score
- Google's 1 to 10 grade for a keyword's ad and landing page. Many keywords get no score.
- Performance Max
- A Google campaign type that runs across search, YouTube, Gmail and more.
- ROAS
- Return on ad spend: the conversion value the account records divided by what the ads cost. It only reflects sales or bookings if the account sends that value, and 7 of 8 here didn’t (N = 8).
- Typical
- The middle practice when you line them all up from lowest to highest. With an even number, it's the average of the two in the middle. Statisticians call it the median.
- Middle half
- Line the practices up and drop the bottom quarter and the top quarter. The middle half is the range of what's left. Its ends are the lower and upper quartile.
- N
- How many practices a number is based on. N = 1 means one practice.
Figures you can quote.
Each line carries its scope, so it stays accurate when it's copied on its own. If you use one, link this page so readers can check the N and the window.
- Across 6 healthcare Google Ads accounts managed by Conner Crowe with clean tracking, the median cost per tracked lead was $39.54 in Q3 2026, 1 July to 30 September. Managed accounts, not a market measure (N = 6).
- Among 6 healthcare Google Ads accounts managed by Conner Crowe with clean tracking, Q3 2026 cost per lead ran from $6.08 to $118.78 across accounts, a 19.5x spread (N = 6).
- Phone calls were a median 100% of primary conversions across 8 healthcare Google Ads accounts managed by Conner Crowe in Q3 2026, and only 3 of 8 counted any conversion other than a call (N = 8).
- All 8 healthcare Google Ads accounts managed by Conner Crowe put 100% of Q3 2026 spend into Search campaigns, and none ran Performance Max (N = 8).
- Each of 8 healthcare Google Ads accounts managed by Conner Crowe lost more than 28% of its search impression share to budget in Q3 2026, and budget loss beat rank loss in 7 of 8 (N = 8).
- In 6 healthcare Google Ads accounts managed by Conner Crowe with clean tracking, a median 26.5% of visible search-term spend went to terms with 2 or more clicks and zero conversions in Q3 2026 (N = 6).
- Conversion value was unused in 7 of 8 healthcare Google Ads accounts managed by Conner Crowe in Q3 2026, so their ROAS figures carry no meaning (N = 8).
- Off-hours cost per lead ran a median 1.4x the 8am to 5pm figure across 6 healthcare Google Ads accounts managed by Conner Crowe with clean tracking in Q3 2026 (N = 6).
How to cite
Crowe, C. (2026). Healthcare Google Ads Benchmarks: Cost per Lead by Practice Type (Q3 2026). Q3 2026 edition, published 3 October 2026, updated 30 October 2026. https://connercrowe.com/benchmarks/healthcare-google-ads/
Quote the edition, because the next refresh in January 2027 will publish new numbers and mark these superseded. The anonymized rows are in the CSV: code, descriptor, N, window, every per-account metric in the tables, and a column marking which rows are in the conversion medians. It has 7 rows for the 8 accounts, for the reason in the method. Data licensed CC BY 4.0, attribution to Conner Crowe with a link.
What practices ask.
What is the average cost per lead for healthcare Google Ads in 2026?
How much does a Google Ads click cost for a medical practice?
What is a good conversion rate for healthcare Google Ads?
Are phone calls the main lead source for medical practice Google Ads?
Should a medical practice use Performance Max for Google Ads?
Why is my healthcare cost per lead so different from published benchmarks?
More benchmarks
- Google Ads account benchmarks The same Q3 2026 window, across every vertical I manage.
- Meta ads CPM by placement What each placement costs per thousand impressions.
- Home services cost per lead by trade The service-business counterpart to this report.
- AI answers field report How often AI assistants name a business, and get its facts right.
- All benchmarks The index, and the rules every report is held to.
I'll show you what your account
counts as a lead.
Add me as a read-only user and I'll write the audit myself: which calls your account counts, how short a call can be and still count, and what your cost per lead is measuring, 5 to 7 pages, back within 24 hours of access. No call needed. If you'd rather talk first, a call is open too.