What a small business pays to appear at the top of Google depends heavily on where it trades. New figures from Google show tradespeople in London paying many times what their peers pay elsewhere, while cafés and restaurants across the UK still reach customers for pennies.
Five hours’ pay for one click
The National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour, rising to £13.21 next April. At the top of its typical range, one click on “emergency plumber” in London can cost £63.60: five hours’ pay at today’s rate, and more than twice the UK-wide figure of £26.30. Leeds is next among cities with enough searches, at £26.50.
Same search, different city
A click on “plumber near me” costs up to £39.87 in London and £3.43 in Belfast, almost 12 times less. Bristol is the dearest place outside London at £17.57. Electricians see the widest gap: £37.02 a click in London against £1.99 in Belfast. Locksmiths pay up to £31.88 in London, £22.59 in Bristol and £20.84 in Newcastle.
Hospitality stays cheap almost everywhere
As Christmas bookings start, a click on “restaurants near me” tops out between 56p in Belfast and £1.22 in Nottingham. Cafés are the exception in the north west: “café near me” reaches £3.91 in Liverpool and £3 in Manchester, against 75p in Glasgow.
Why the gap
Google sells these spots in an auction, so the price follows what a customer is worth and how many businesses are bidding. London has more firms chasing each emergency call-out, and each job is worth more.
“With wages and running costs going up again, no small business can afford to waste ad spend. A £60 click is fine if it books a £400 job, and a 20p click is wasted if nobody turns up. Judge your ads on what each new customer costs you.”A spokesperson for Duma Media
Before you pay for ads
- Show ads only within the distance you’ll actually travel or customers will come.
- Run them only in the hours you can answer the phone.
- Count the calls, bookings and direction requests your ads bring in, as well as clicks.
- Work out what a new customer is worth before you set a daily ad spend.
The figures by city
Top of the typical price range for a top-of-page ad, £ per click. “Too few” means Google reports under 100 monthly searches for that term in that city.
| City | Emergency plumber | Plumber near me | Electrician near me | Locksmith near me | Café near me | Restaurants near me |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belfast | too few | £3.43 | £1.99 | £10.62 | too few | £0.56 |
| Birmingham | £12.30 | £5.57 | £8.31 | £14.55 | £0.82 | £1.16 |
| Bristol | too few | £17.57 | £11.55 | £22.59 | £1.86 | £1.11 |
| Cardiff | too few | £5.72 | £10.31 | £12.11 | £1.72 | £1.06 |
| Edinburgh | £14.85 | £12.89 | £8.40 | £16.14 | £1.25 | £0.71 |
| Glasgow | £11.34 | £6.11 | £4.99 | £18.03 | £0.75 | £0.83 |
| Leeds | £26.50 | £11.40 | £6.35 | £15.12 | £1.15 | £1.02 |
| Liverpool | too few | £8.40 | £6.97 | £17.86 | £3.91 | £0.91 |
| London | £63.60 | £39.87 | £37.02 | £31.88 | £0.79 | £1.16 |
| Manchester | £14.85 | £7.63 | £8.03 | £13.08 | £3.00 | £0.93 |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | too few | £11.75 | £10.57 | £20.84 | too few | £1.05 |
| Nottingham | too few | too few | too few | too few | too few | £1.22 |
| Sheffield | too few | £7.70 | £7.16 | £15.15 | £1.63 | £0.98 |
How we did this
We used Google Keyword Planner on 3 November 2026, for Google Search in the UK and in 13 cities, one run per city. Prices are Google’s “top of page bid” range: its estimate of the 20th to 80th percentile of what advertisers paid for an ad at the top of the results over the previous 30 days. They are estimates, not invoices. We quote a city only where Google reports at least 100 monthly searches for the term there. Search volumes are Google’s monthly averages for October 2025 to September 2026. The National Living Wage is from GOV.UK.
Download the full data (CSV, 30 searches, UK and 13 cities). You’re welcome to use it with a credit to Duma Media.
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