Last Updated on July 27, 2026
Most electricians do not have a marketing budget. They have a Checkatrade bill, a Bark account and a nagging sense that both should be producing more work.
That is not a budget. That is a subscription habit.
A budget is a number you chose, split across channels you chose, measured against jobs you actually won. Very few electricians have one. This is what the real numbers look like in 2026, taken from our own UK electrician marketing cost research.
What electricians actually spend
There is no single right number. There is a sensible range for the size of business you are running.
| Business size | Monthly budget | What it realistically covers |
|---|---|---|
| Sole trader | £200-500 | Google Business Profile, a simple website, one paid channel |
| Small team (2-4) | £400-1,500 | Paid search managed properly, plus local SEO |
| Growing firm (5-10) | £1,500-3,000 | Multi-channel, tracked, with a real website behind it |
| Established firm (10+) | £3,000+ | Brand, content and paid working together |
The number matters less than the split. A sole trader spending £400 well beats a firm spending £2,000 on the wrong three things.
What each channel actually costs
| Channel | DIY cost | Outsourced cost | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | £0 | £200-500 one-off | Do first |
| Review collection | £0 | £0-50/mo | Do first |
| Simple website | £150-300/yr | £1,000-2,500 build | Do first |
| Google Ads on emergency terms | £200-400/mo | plus £200-500/mo management | Build phase |
| Local SEO | £0 | £400-1,500/mo | Build phase |
| Checkatrade membership | n/a | £600-1,200/yr | Build phase |
| Lead platforms | n/a | £5-20 per lead | Build phase |
| Van signage | n/a | £300-1,500 one-off | Build phase |
| Agency website build | n/a | £2,500-4,000 | Scale phase |
| Specialist ads agency | n/a | £500-1,000/mo | Scale phase |
Notice how much of the Do first column is free. That is not an accident. The cheapest work is also the work that compounds.
What a job actually costs to win
Cost per click tells you what the auction charges. It does not tell you what a customer costs. Those are different numbers and most electricians only ever look at the first one.
| Search term | Cost per click |
|---|---|
| Emergency electrician [city] | £8-18 |
| EV charger installer [city] | £5-12 |
| Electrician near me | £4-9 |
| Electrical rewire [city] | £3-7 |
| EICR [city] | £3-6 |
A £15 click that turns into a £250 callout is a 16x return. That is a good trade and you should make it all day.
Lead platforms work differently. You are not buying a customer, you are buying a chance at one. Buy 20 Bark leads at £10 each and win three of them, and your real cost per customer is £67, not £10. Our research found most electricians waste 60 percent or more of their Bark credits on leads that never convert.
£67 to win a £400 consumer unit job is fine. £67 to win a £45 fault-find is not. The platform does not care which one you are chasing. You have to.
One more number worth knowing. EV charger searches grew 45 percent year on year. If you are qualified and not bidding on that, you are leaving the cheapest growth on the table.
Where to start if you have nothing to spend
Plenty of electricians read a cost guide, see the numbers, and decide marketing is for other people. Start here instead. All of it is free and all of it works.
The £0 starting plan
- Claim and fully complete your Google Business Profile. Every service, every area, real photos of real work.
- Ask every satisfied customer for a Google review on the day, while they are still pleased with you.
- Add photos to your profile weekly. Boards, consumer units, EV points, finished jobs.
- List on the free directories. Bing Places, Apple Maps, Yell, FreeIndex.
- Answer every review, good and bad, in your own words.
This takes a few hours in total. It costs nothing. It puts you ahead of most of your local competition, because most of them have never done it properly.
What to stop paying for
- Lead platforms you have never audited. If you cannot say what your cost per won job is, you are not buying leads, you are donating.
- SEO retainers with no local focus. A £900 retainer that reports impressions and rankings is not the same as one that reports calls.
- A £4,000 website before you have 30 reviews. A basic site with strong social proof beats a beautiful site with none.
- Broad Google Ads with no negative keywords. Bidding on electrician without excluding jobs, courses and training burns budget on people who will never call.
- Social media management for a trade business. Your customers are searching, not scrolling. Spend it on search first.
The bottom line
Get your free channels working before you buy anything. Then put paid budget behind emergency and high value work, where the job is worth many times the click.
Track cost per won job, not cost per lead. The platforms will never show you that number, because it is the one that would make you cancel.
Not sure where your money is going?
Run a free check on your business and get specific budget recommendations.
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