LinkedIn Ads vs Google Ads is the budget fight in most B2B marketing plans, and the click price won't settle it. Across 153 B2B advertisers and $57.6M of 2025 spend, Metadata's benchmark puts a LinkedIn click at $9.39 and a Google Ads click at $9.76, almost the same. The cost per lead isn't: $202 on LinkedIn against $524 on Google Ads.
This comparison lines the two channels up on cost per click, click-to-lead rate, cost per lead, sourced pipeline, targeting and budget floors. Every figure links to its primary page, and each was re-checked by B2Bcentr on November 12, 2026.
Key Takeaways
- B2B clicks cost about the same: $9.39 on LinkedIn, $9.76 on Google.
- LinkedIn turns 5.9% of clicks into leads, Google 1.9%.
- That makes a LinkedIn lead $202 and a Google lead $524.
- LinkedIn's floor is a $10 daily budget per campaign.
- Use Google for search intent and LinkedIn for account targeting.
LinkedIn Ads vs Google Ads at a glance
The table compares the two channels on the same B2B-only dataset, so the numbers measure the same kind of advertiser and the same definition of a lead. Metadata counts a lead as a CRM record created from an ad click, not a platform conversion, and publishes a cut only when it has at least 5 advertisers and $50,000 of spend.
| Metric (B2B, 2025) | LinkedIn Ads | Google Ads |
|---|---|---|
| Advertisers in the cut | 138 | 56 |
| Cost per click | $9.39 | $9.76 |
| Click-through rate | 0.67% | 6.33% |
| Click-to-lead rate | 5.9% | 1.9% |
| Cost per lead, spend-weighted | $202 | $524 |
| Cost per lead, typical advertiser | $376 (median of 88) | $920 (middle of 34) |
| Sourced pipeline per lead-gen dollar | $10.20 (94 advertisers) | $3.95 weighted, $1.42 middle (47 advertisers) |
| What you're buying | Who the person is | What the person typed |
Source: Metadata B2B advertising benchmarks, Metadata LinkedIn cut and Metadata Google Ads cut, 2025 data, checked by B2Bcentr on November 12, 2026. Sourced pipeline is opportunity value credited to ad leads, open, won or lost; it isn't revenue.
Read the CTR row with care. A search result and a feed post aren't the same unit, so Google's 6.33% CTR isn't "ten times better" than LinkedIn's 0.67%. The Metadata benchmark makes the same point and tells advertisers to compare channels on cost per lead, not CTR.
Cost per click: nearly a tie for B2B
For B2B advertisers, the click price barely separates the two channels. Metadata puts Google Ads at $9.76 and LinkedIn at $9.39, a gap of 37 cents (B2Bcentr arithmetic).
The published averages most teams quote look very different, because they measure different advertisers. WordStream's 2026 benchmarks put the average Google Ads CPC at $5.42, but that comes from 13,474 mostly local and consumer search campaigns run from April 2025 to March 2026. On LinkedIn, DemandSense reports a $5.59 average CPC across B2B SaaS, IT and professional services, while noting that 75% of advertisers pay more than $6.
So don't pick a channel because one blog quotes cheap Google clicks and another quotes pricey LinkedIn ones. On a like-for-like B2B sample the clicks cost the same, and the Google Ads CPC 2026 report and LinkedIn Ads CPC breakdown show how wide each channel's own range runs.
Cost per lead: LinkedIn wins on conversion, not on price
LinkedIn's lead is cheaper because more of its clicks convert. On Metadata's Google Ads page, 1.9% of Google clicks became CRM leads against 5.9% on LinkedIn, so at nearly the same click price a Google lead costs $524 and a LinkedIn lead $202.
Put another way, it takes about 53 Google clicks to produce one lead and about 17 LinkedIn clicks (B2Bcentr arithmetic from the Metadata click-to-lead rates). One likely reason is the form: LinkedIn's native Lead Gen Form pre-fills from the member's profile, per DemandSense, while most Google clicks land on a page your team has to convert. If that's where your Google leads leak, the landing page conversion rate benchmark shows what a realistic B2B page converts at.
The typical advertiser pays more than either weighted figure. Metadata's LinkedIn cut puts the median LinkedIn advertiser at $376 per lead, with the top quarter under $196 and the bottom quarter above $658. On Google Ads, the advertiser in the middle of the 34 with lead-gen leads paid $920. Budget to the typical figure and report against the weighted one.
Ignore consumer averages here too. WordStream puts the 2026 Google Ads cost per lead at $66.69, but it counts any platform conversion across mostly local campaigns, so it sits close to eight times below the B2B CRM figure (B2Bcentr arithmetic).
Lead quality and pipeline: where Google earns its price
Cost per lead is only half the comparison. Metadata found that every lead-gen dollar on Google Ads sourced $3.95 of CRM opportunity value across 47 B2B advertisers, weighted by spend, while the advertiser in the middle sourced $1.42.
LinkedIn looks stronger on the same measure. Across 94 advertisers with pipeline traced to their LinkedIn ads, a lead-gen dollar sourced $10.20 of pipeline, and 19.5% of the closed ad-sourced opportunities were won, at $58,572 per customer, per Metadata's LinkedIn cut. For companies under 200 employees, a LinkedIn customer cost $30,739 at a 20.7% close rate.
The downside of reading too much into this: the two pipeline figures come from different advertiser sets (94 and 47), and sourced pipeline includes open and lost deals. Metadata also notes that brand and non-brand search aren't split, so part of Google's cost per lead is branded traffic. Treat the pipeline gap as direction, not proof, and check it in your own CRM before moving budget.
Targeting and intent: who they are vs what they typed
This is the real difference between the channels, and it decides which one fits your motion.
- Google Ads buys intent. The click follows a query, which is why B2B search runs a 6.33% CTR. It works when buyers already know the category and search for it.
- LinkedIn Ads buys identity. You target job titles, companies and other profile facets, and LinkedIn requires a minimum audience of 300 members, suggesting at least 50,000 and 300,000 for Sponsored Content and Messaging.
- Google can't see the buying committee. A search for your category comes from whoever types it, so qualifying happens after the click.
- LinkedIn can't see the need. A CFO at a target account may have no project this quarter, which is why LinkedIn retargeting at $234 per lead costs more than prospecting at $194.
If your category has search volume, Google catches demand that already exists. If it's new, or your buyers don't search for it yet, LinkedIn creates the first touch. The ChatGPT Ads vs LinkedIn Ads comparison covers a third option for teams testing AI answer placements.
Budget floors and spend control
LinkedIn sets a hard floor. Its budget page lists a $10 minimum daily budget for any ad format and a $100 minimum lifetime budget for new campaigns. At a $9.39 click, $10 a day buys about one click, or roughly 32 clicks and 2 leads a month at LinkedIn's 5.9% click-to-lead rate (B2Bcentr arithmetic from Metadata rates).
Google Ads works on an average daily budget instead. Its help page says a campaign can spend up to 2 times its average daily budget on a given day, but never more than 30.4 times the daily budget in a month. That flexibility helps when search demand spikes, and it means a single day's spend can surprise a finance team that isn't expecting it.
| Monthly goal: 10 B2B leads | LinkedIn Ads | Google Ads |
|---|---|---|
| At the spend-weighted cost per lead | $2,020 ($202 per lead) | $5,240 ($524 per lead) |
| At the typical advertiser's cost per lead | $3,760 ($376 per lead) | $9,200 ($920 per lead) |
| Annual budget at typical cost per lead | $45,120 | $110,400 |
| Minimum to start | $10 a day, $100 lifetime per new campaign | Average daily budget you set; up to 2x on a single day |
B2Bcentr arithmetic from Metadata and Metadata LinkedIn cost per lead figures, plus LinkedIn budget minimums and Google Ads average daily budgets, checked November 12, 2026.
The table assumes your account lands near the 2025 benchmarks. Account size moves cost per lead as much as channel does: Metadata puts 51 to 200 employee targets at $241 per lead against $204 for 1,001 to 5,000 employees, across all channels.
Ad formats: what makes each channel cheaper
Within LinkedIn, format matters more than most teams expect. Metadata's LinkedIn cut shows document ads produced leads at $142, roughly 30% below image ads (B2Bcentr arithmetic), and converted at 11.9%.
| LinkedIn format or path | Cost per lead (2025) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Document ads | $142 | Metadata |
| Image ads | $200 | Metadata |
| Video ads | $265 | Metadata |
| Conversation ads | $362 | Metadata |
| Lead gen form | $193 (Metadata) vs $810.83 (DemandSense) | Metadata, DemandSense |
| External landing page | $346 (Metadata) vs $221.14 (DemandSense) | Metadata, DemandSense |
Sources linked per row, checked by B2Bcentr on November 12, 2026. The two datasets disagree on forms vs landing pages, so test both.
The lead form result splits the datasets. Metadata found forms cheaper; DemandSense found the opposite and blamed lead quality. LinkedIn forms allow up to 12 profile fields, including up to 3 custom questions, per the Lead Gen Form specs, so a qualifying question can cut junk before it reaches sales.
On Google, 55 of 56 B2B advertisers ran search text ads, and the text-only cost per lead was $500, per Metadata. Your Google levers are keywords, match types and bids, which the 9-step guide to lowering Google Ads CPC covers.
When to choose LinkedIn Ads, Google Ads or both
| Situation | Better channel | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Buyers search for your category by name | Google Ads | Search clicks carry stated intent; 3.95x sourced pipeline per dollar weighted |
| New category with little search volume | LinkedIn Ads | You can reach the buyer before they search |
| ABM list of named target accounts | LinkedIn Ads | Company and job title targeting, 300-member minimum audience |
| Competitor-name and high-intent searches | Google Ads | Catches buyers comparing vendors right now |
| Small test budget | Either | $10 daily LinkedIn floor per campaign; Google uses an average daily budget you choose |
| Cost per lead is the KPI | LinkedIn Ads | $202 vs $524 spend-weighted |
| Pipeline per dollar is the KPI | Test both in your CRM | Pipeline cuts come from different advertiser sets |
B2Bcentr analysis based on the sources linked in each row, checked November 12, 2026.
Industry also shifts the math on the search side. The Google Ads cost by industry breakdown shows how far B2B verticals sit from the consumer averages, so check your own vertical before you split the budget.
B2Bcentr's take: fund intent first, then buy the committee
The downside of this split is measurement. LinkedIn's view-through influence is hard to see in a last-click CRM report, and Metadata found that 42 of 132 advertisers running lead-gen spend had no CRM opportunity signal at all. If you can't trace leads to opportunities yet, fix that before you argue about which channel won.
FAQ
Is LinkedIn Ads better than Google Ads for B2B?
For cost per lead, usually yes. Metadata put a B2B LinkedIn lead at $202 against $524 on Google Ads in 2025, though Google wins where buyers already search for the category.
Which is cheaper, LinkedIn Ads or Google Ads?
Per click they're close; per lead LinkedIn is cheaper. B2B clicks cost $9.39 on LinkedIn and $9.76 on Google, per Metadata, but LinkedIn converts 5.9% of clicks into leads against 1.9%.
Why is the Google Ads cost per lead so high for B2B?
Because few B2B search clicks become CRM leads. Metadata found a 1.9% click-to-lead rate at $9.76 a click, which works out to $524 per lead.
What is the minimum budget for LinkedIn Ads?
$10 a day for any ad format. LinkedIn also sets a $100 minimum lifetime budget for new campaigns.
Should a B2B startup run LinkedIn Ads or Google Ads first?
Google Ads first if buyers search for your category, LinkedIn first if they don't. LinkedIn's $10 daily minimum per campaign is low enough for a small first test.
Do LinkedIn lead gen forms beat landing pages?
The data disagrees, so test both. Metadata found forms at $193 per lead vs $346 for landing pages, while DemandSense found $810.83 vs $221.14.
Is Google Ads worth it for B2B?
Yes, where buyers already search for the category. Metadata found $3.95 of sourced pipeline per lead-gen dollar across 47 B2B advertisers, weighted by spend.
Next read: if Google stays in the mix, cut what each click costs before you raise the budget.
What to do this week
Pull last quarter's spend, leads and opportunities for each channel from your CRM, not the ad platforms. Divide spend by CRM leads and by sourced pipeline, then compare both against the $202 and $524 lines from Metadata. The channel that beats its benchmark on pipeline gets the next dollar, and the Google Ads CPC 2026 report is the place to start if Google is the one falling short.