Google Ads Cost Per Lead Has Increased for 91% of Industries YoY

Everything You Need to Know in Less Than 50 Words

The cost per lead has increased by an average of 19% for 91% of industries, with some notable outliers. This change is due to steadily growing inflation and consumers tightening their belts.

Tell Me More

Cost per lead is vital for planning campaigns, generating revenue, and marketing overall. After all, attracting customers is the heart of every business. However, it’s only gotten more expensive to generate leads, primarily due to inflation, but with significant increases in specific industries.

While the overall cost per lead has increased a lot overall, significant outliers affect the data. Namely, the Arts and Entertainment, Travel, and Furniture industries increased quite a bit, raising the average.

Arts and Entertainment

The Arts and Entertainment sector saw the most change, with cost per lead increasing by a whopping 134% from 2021. The click-through rate also had a significant drop since 2021, indicating this industry is having more trouble generating leads and interest, though it still leads with the highest click-through rate of all sectors.

Travel

The next sector with the most significant change is Travel, which saw an increase of 69% to cost per lead. They also decreased in the click-through rate, though not to the extent of the Arts and Entertainment industry.

Furniture

And finally, Furniture had a cost per lead increase of 54%. However, unlike the previous two industries, it saw a rise of 25% in its click-through rate. This makes more sense when you look at the conversion rate for this industry and see that it’s dropped 30%.

However, the cost per lead didn’t increase for every industry. The Education and Finance industries saw a decrease of 29% and 2%, respectively. The fact that they managed to buck this demoralizing trend means more people are interested in those sectors and following through on their interests.

What Does This Mean?

But what does this mean for the market overall? Inflation is undoubtedly on the rise, but that’s not the only reason for the increase. Instead, the high prices on luxury items, like Arts and Entertainment, Travel, and Furniture, are being passed up for more practical and essential industries like Education and Finance.

This means consumers are saving their money and trying not to spend on nonessentials, unsurprising considering the high inflation and predicted recession.

What does that mean for you, though? If you’re in one of these nonessential industries, you could look at more challenging times ahead of you. Go through your SEO and only buy ads for keywords that match the search intent of your website.

Try to cut down costs if you can, and find other low-cost campaigns to boost awareness and engagement, which can lower the cost per lead for your business. When it comes to reducing cost per lead, the real key is to get a higher conversion rate through better search intent and more awareness.

Otherwise, do your best to cut costs to weather the storm ahead for all nonessential industries.

Source: WordStream