$1,212 of ad spend, 43 leads, 90 days of data across 3 NSW electrician accounts. Here's what worked, what didn't, and what it means for your trade.
Most articles about Facebook ads for electricians are written by people who have never run one. This isn't that. Over the last 90 days we've been running Meta ad campaigns for three licensed electricians in different parts of New South Wales. Same trade, three different markets, three different campaign goals.
We pulled the numbers straight out of Meta Ads Manager and put them in one table so you can see exactly what an electrician's Facebook ads actually look like in 2026.
Quick summary: $1,212.50 in ad spend across the three accounts, 43 form-fill leads, average cost per lead of $28.20, plus 12 Messenger conversations on top.
To respect client privacy, we've labelled the three accounts as A, B and C. Each is a different licensed electrician in a different NSW market. The numbers are unedited.
| Account | Region | Spend | Leads | CPL | Link clicks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Account A | Northern Beaches Sydney | $478.96 | 16 | $29.94 | 164 |
| Account B | Sydney | $526.50 | 12 | $43.88 | 95 |
| Account C | Hunter region (Newcastle) | $207.04 | 15 | $13.80 | 185 |
| Combined | $1,212.50 | 43 | $28.20 avg | 444 | |
That's the headline. Now let's break down each campaign and pull the lessons out of the data.
Account A is a licensed electrician on Sydney's Northern Beaches. The spend was split across two campaign types: lead-form ads (the kind where the prospect fills out their details inside Facebook without leaving the app) and traffic ads sending people to a website page.
The lead-form ads worked. The best campaign generated 7 leads on $191 of spend (CPL of $27.30). A second lead-form campaign brought in 4 more leads at $26.21 each.
The traffic ads underperformed. One ad targeting solar owners spent $85.42 over the period and produced zero form-fill leads. It got 22 link clicks, but those clicks didn't convert. Important lesson there: ad clicks are not leads.
You can read the full Account A story, including the original $69.90 / 4 leads / 11 days launch campaign, in our Connery Electrical case study. Same account, earlier window.
Account B is another Sydney electrician running two campaign types in April: an EV charger lead-form campaign and a switchboard upgrade lead-form campaign.
The EV charger campaign was the standout. It generated 7 leads on $165 of spend at a CPL of $23.59, while the switchboard upgrade campaign brought in 5 leads at a higher $72.27 each.
What stands out about Account B is the cost of impressions. CPM was $33.41, which is 60% higher than Account C up in Newcastle. Sydney is the most competitive ad market in Australia. Every electrician, every renovator, every solar installer is bidding for the same audiences. That bidding war pushes up your cost per impression and your cost per lead.
If you're a Sydney electrician, $40-ish per lead from Facebook is realistic. If anyone tells you they can get you Sydney leads at $10 a pop, they're either lying or running ads to people who don't actually need an electrician.
Account C is the eye-opener. A licensed electrician in the Hunter region around Newcastle launched a single lead-form campaign and pulled 15 leads in 9 days at a cost per lead of $13.80. That's roughly one third of the Sydney CPL.
Why so cheap? Three reasons:
If you're an electrician outside the major capitals, your Facebook ad budget will go a lot further than your Sydney peers'. That's not a competitive disadvantage, it's a structural advantage. Use it.
Same trade, same platform, same year. Newcastle CPL was $13.80. Sydney CPL was $43.88. That's a 218% difference, and the only thing that changed was the postcode of the electrician.
This is worth knowing because most "Facebook ads for tradies" advice online lumps the whole country together with a single number. The reality is that costs vary a lot by city, and even by suburb cluster. If your agency quotes you a generic CPL benchmark without asking where you operate, ask better questions.
Across all three accounts the top spending demographic was men aged 45 to 64. On Account A men 45-54 spent $94, men 55-64 spent $77, and men 65+ spent $73. On Account C men 65+ were the top converting bucket. Women generated some leads but were a much smaller share.
This matches what most tradies see in real life. The person who picks up the phone to book the electrician is often the older male homeowner, the one with the older house and the bigger jobs. Creative for trade ads should reflect that audience: real photos, plain language, large text, no jargon, and definitely no influencer aesthetics.
Across all three accounts, Facebook Feed received 60 to 70% of total ad spend and produced the majority of leads. Instagram Feed and Stories combined came in under 15% of spend. Reels delivered cheap impressions but very few converted leads.
If you're an electrician, don't kill Instagram entirely. Run there for brand awareness and creative testing. But don't expect it to carry the campaign. For trade services targeting older homeowners, Facebook Feed is the workhorse. That's where the budget should go.
Account A's biggest single waste was an $85.42 traffic ad that produced zero leads. Lead form ads on the same account at the same time generated 11 leads between them.
Lead forms work because they remove friction. The customer doesn't need to wait for a page to load on a dodgy 4G connection, find a phone number, or type their full address into a contact form. They tap the ad, confirm their pre-filled name, email and phone number, and submit. From scroll to enquiry in 8 seconds.
Traffic ads still have a place. They're useful for awareness, retargeting, and pushing people to a specific landing page. But for an electrician trying to generate enquiries on a small budget, start with lead forms. Every single time.
If you want a single number for what an electrician should expect to pay per Facebook lead in NSW in 2026, it's roughly $20 to $45 depending on your market. Newcastle and the regions sit at the lower end. Sydney sits at the higher end. The Northern Beaches sit in between.
What about all those agencies promising $5 leads? Two possibilities. Either they're counting "leads" that aren't really leads (Page Likes, video views, low-intent clicks), or they're showing you a one-week snapshot that won't hold up over a real campaign.
One job pays for it all. Even at the most expensive CPL of $43.88, an electrician winning 1 in 5 of those leads turns 5 leads ($219 spend) into 1 paying job. Most electrical jobs in Sydney are worth $300 to $5,000+. The maths is not even close to break-even, it's strongly profitable.
If you're an electrician (or any tradie) thinking about Facebook ads, here's the short version of what these three campaigns suggest:
For more on what Facebook ads actually cost across different trades, see our breakdown of how much Facebook ads cost for tradies in Sydney.
We run Facebook and Instagram ads for licensed electricians and other trades across Sydney, the Northern Beaches, Newcastle, and beyond. Every campaign starts with a free quote and a plain English plan, no lock-in contract, no jargon.
If you want everything handled in one bundle (ads, Google Business Profile, SEO, monthly reporting, and review management) our Monthly Growth Retainer is the best value option. We work directly with the founder, not an account manager, and you can see exactly what we're spending and what's working at any time.
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