A click on "building quote" costs £7.66, more than a click on "builders london" (£5.47). Google charges more for someone asking for a quote than for someone looking for a builder, and it is right to: the first person has already decided to have the work done (DataForSEO, Google Ads UK, September 2026; CPC converted from USD at £1 = $1.3242).
Marketing for a construction company is built around the quote request, not around the company name. In the UK it also has to be built around the directories. In Italy quote portals are weak (Instapro has 95 first positions across the whole country); here they got there first: Checkatrade ranks for 197,369 UK keywords and holds 12,051 first positions.
Below: what each type of job is worth, when the requests come in, and how to catch them before they end up on a directory.
The price of a click tells you which job to chase
| Search | Monthly volume | CPC | Peak |
|---|---|---|---|
| builders near me | 18,100 | £2.46 | 27,100 in January 2026 |
| external wall insulation | 8,100 | £2.87 | 14,800 in October 2025 |
| loft conversion cost | 4,400 | £3.72 | 6,600 in January 2026 |
| boiler upgrade scheme | 4,400 | £5.54 | 6,600 in November 2025 and January 2026 |
| bathroom renovation cost | 2,900 | £3.04 | 3,600 in September, October 2025 and January 2026 |
| house renovation | 1,900 | £3.34 | 4,400 in September 2025 |
| house extension cost | 1,900 | £3.14 | 4,400 in September 2025 |
| upvc windows prices | 720 | £3.56 | 1,000 in March 2026 |
| builders london | 720 | £5.47 | 1,000 from January to March 2026 |
| double glazing london | 590 | £15.22 | 1,000 in September and October 2025 |
| building quote | 590 | £7.66 | 880 in September 2025 |
The two biggest searches are among the cheapest: "builders near me" costs £2.46 a click with 18,100 searches a month, "external wall insulation" £2.87 with 8,100. The cheapest of all are the cost questions, such as "extension cost per m2" at £1.86: informational searches that few firms buy, and that a builder can hold in organic results with almost no commercial competition.
Grant searches are not cheap in the UK. "boiler upgrade scheme" costs £5.54 a click because heating installers bid on it, while in Italy the equivalent search on the renovation tax bonus costs a tenth of a commercial click.
Windows are the most contested job locally, at £15.22 a click for "double glazing london": high margin and a short sales cycle. A full renovation costs less per click but is worth a whole project.
September and January, not spring
The demand calendar is not the building calendar. "house renovation" jumps from an average of 1,900 searches to 4,400 in September 2025, "house extension cost" does the same, and "construction company london" reaches 5,400 in September against an average of 2,400: more than twice the usual level.
The second moment is January, when "builders near me" hits 27,100, "loft conversion cost" 6,600 and "bathroom renovation cost" 3,600. Insulation comes a little earlier: "external wall insulation" peaks at 14,800 in October, with the first cold weeks and the first heating bills. January to March is when "builders london" holds at 1,000, as people move from weighing up the job to choosing who does it.
So ranking work has to be done in summer to be found in September, and in autumn to be found in January. A company that starts working on its website in spring, when the phone rings less, is always one cycle late.
The directories own half of page one
On the first page for "builders london" the first element is a "Find results on" carousel with Checkatrade, MyBuilder, TrustATrader, Bark and Yell. Of the ten organic results, five are directories or trade bodies: the Federation of Master Builders, Checkatrade, MyBuilder, TrustATrader and Which? Trusted Traders (DataForSEO, Google UK, London, September 2026).
The platforms are strong: Checkatrade has 12,051 first positions and an estimated 2.4 million organic visits a month in the UK, MyBuilder 1,700 first positions. For comparison, the strongest quote portal in Italy has 95.
The other five results are builders' own sites: Elite Builders London, KPD Construction, London Design and Build, builderslondon.org and GBG Building Services. A company with a well-kept site still gets onto page one, but competes for half the space. On lead platforms the same job is often sent to several firms, so the cost per lead from a directory has to be weighed against this alternative, and a directory profile is also a way to appear in the half you cannot take.
Recommended reading: SEO for builders.
The content that brings in quotes is the price
Four of the biggest searches in the sector contain the word cost: "loft conversion cost" 4,400 searches, "bathroom renovation cost" 2,900, "house extension cost" 1,900, "extension cost per m2" 880. People want a ballpark figure before they call anyone.
Almost no builder publishes those numbers, for the reasonable reason that every job is different. What works is publishing ranges with their conditions: what a full renovation costs per square metre in a given bracket, what pushes it up, what is not included, with the date it was last updated. The reader understands whether they can afford it and calls already informed; the one who could not afford it does not call, which saves time.
The other content that pays is the project written up: before and after photos, real timings, the problems found along the way. It is the one thing a directory cannot copy, and the questions on the London results page, such as "How to find a good builder in London?", show that people are looking for proof before they pick up the phone.
Frequently asked questions
Is it worth buying leads from directories?
It is worth it to fill gaps, with two caveats: on many platforms the same job goes to several firms, so you compete on price; and the contact never becomes a channel of your own. In the UK the directories are strong enough that a profile on one or two of them is part of being visible, but your own site is what brings in the requests nobody else is quoting on.
How much do reviews matter for a builder?
They matter for getting into the local pack, where the three London builders shown for "builders london" have between 4 and 18 Google reviews: a low bar compared with other sectors. Asking for them at the end of the job, when the client can see the result, is the right moment and almost nobody does it.
Is Google Ads worth it at these CPCs?
With clicks between £5 and £8 on commercial searches, and £15 for double glazing in London, a lead can easily cost more than a hundred pounds. On a project worth tens of thousands the numbers work; on a single window replacement it depends on the margin. Cost questions such as "extension cost per m2" cost a third as much and belong in organic.
Should grant schemes still be used in content?
The searches are there, 4,400 a month for "boiler upgrade scheme" alone, but the rules change often: a page about grants has to be dated and kept up to date, otherwise it becomes a wrong source that brings in enquiries based on outdated conditions.
Better to specialise or offer everything?
On the website, specialising pays, because searches are specific: bathroom, loft, insulation, windows, each with its own season and its own price. A "turnkey renovations" page catches none of them.
Where to start
Look at the quotes requested over the last six months and count how many are for the same type of job. That is the job people look for you for, and it is the page to write first, with indicative costs and photos of a real project. If the page already exists and brings in no requests, check whether it contains a single number: on almost every builder's site we look at, there isn't one. If you want an opinion, get in touch.
