What's a Good Cost Per Lead for Physical Therapy Clinics on Google Ads?

Physical therapy clinics pay an average of $32.79 per lead on Google Ads, based on 2025 benchmark data drawn from 3,542 U.S. healthcare campaigns. That makes physical therapy one of the cheapest specialties to advertise in all of healthcare — beaten only by dermatology at $18.54 and ophthalmology at $30.88. More recent 2026 data on non-branded campaigns puts the figure slightly higher, around $36 per lead.

Why physical therapy is cheap to advertise relative to other healthcare categories

Two performance metrics explain most of the gap. Physical therapy campaigns see an average click-through rate of 6.61%, the third-highest in healthcare behind only emergency medicine and hospitals & clinics, and an average conversion rate of 15.35% — nearly double the 7.52% average across all industries. When more of your clicks turn into contacts, and a higher share of your impressions turn into clicks in the first place, the blended cost to generate one lead drops even if the cost per click itself is unremarkable.

The two numbers, and why they differ

• $32.79 per lead: the 2025 benchmark across 3,542 healthcare campaigns, likely blending branded and non-branded traffic
• $36 per lead: more recent 2026 data isolating non-branded campaigns specifically, which typically cost more than branded search because you're competing for generic intent ("physical therapy near me") rather than searches for your clinic by name

Either number is a reasonable planning figure; if you're building a Google Ads budget from scratch, use $36 as the more conservative, non-branded-only estimate.

What a reasonable click actually costs

A reasonable cost per click for physical therapy search campaigns is roughly $2-$5. Combined with the 15.35% average conversion rate, that click cost is what produces the low-$30s-to-mid-$30s cost per lead — the math works out because a meaningful share of visitors who click actually convert, not because clicks themselves are unusually cheap.

Starting budget

A starting budget of $500-$1,500 per month is enough to generate meaningful data and a steady flow of leads for most single-location physical therapy clinics. Below that threshold, campaigns often don't accumulate enough impressions and clicks to optimize properly, regardless of how well the account is structured.

How physical therapy compares within healthcare overall

Physical therapy's position — third-lowest cost per lead in healthcare, behind only dermatology and ophthalmology — is notable given how expensive healthcare advertising generally runs on Google Ads. Categories like orthodontics, addiction treatment, and elective surgery routinely see costs per lead many multiples higher, driven by lower conversion rates and higher-value keyword competition. Physical therapy's combination of a high click-through rate and an unusually strong conversion rate is what keeps it near the affordable end of that spectrum, even though healthcare as a category is generally one of the more expensive verticals to advertise in.

Bottom Line

Treat $32.79-$36 per lead as your target range for physical therapy Google Ads campaigns, and don't assume you have a targeting problem if your numbers land somewhere in between — the spread between the two published figures reflects branded-versus-non-branded traffic mix, not a wide margin of error. If your actual cost per lead is running well above $36, check your market first; geography moves this number more than any other single factor.