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Accountant ads in Columbus: US$21.64 a click

A Google Ads click for an accountant in Columbus costs US$21.64 at the search-weighted average (512 searches a month, Google Ads via DataForSEO, pulled October 2026). Searches over the last 12 months are down 35.2% on the 12 months before.

The 10-second read
Click price, weighted avg
US$21.64
Searches a month
512
Year on year
down 35.2%
Click cost per booked return
put in your rates

There is a sourced lead rate for accountant (2.64% of clicks call or fill a form; US benchmark, LocaliQ 2026, Finance & Insurance) but no sourced booking rate, so this page prints no cost per booked return. Put in your own booking rate in the planner below to see it.

In Columbus, the lowest click price on this page is near me at US$2.74. The highest click price on this page in Columbus is general searches at US$32.42.

Cost per booked return

What a booked return costs in clicks

There is a sourced lead rate for accountant (2.64% of clicks call or fill a form; US benchmark, LocaliQ 2026, Finance & Insurance) but no sourced booking rate, so this page prints no cost per booked return. Put in your own booking rate in the planner below to see it.

Cost per booked return in Columbus is the click price divided by the lead rate times the booking rate. The rates are national benchmarks, not Columbus figures; the planner below starts from them and you can change both.

Intent groupClick pricePer booked return
General searchesUS$32.42put in your rates
Near meUS$2.74put in your rates
Specific jobsUS$10.71put in your rates

Each row uses the same two rates as the sentence above, so the order follows click price.

By intent

Where the accountant searches are in Columbus

Searches split by what the searcher typed. The two tags rank the groups on this page by click price; they are rankings, not verdicts.

General searches are the largest share of counted search volume in Columbus, at 54.3%.

In Columbus, general searches has the highest click price among the counted intent groups, at US$32.42 a click.

General searches

Highest click price on this page
“accountant”
Searches a month278, 54.3% of counted searches
Click price, weighted avgUS$32.42
In Columbus, 3rd of 3 niches on this page by click price, the highest.

Near me

Lowest click price on this page
“accountant near me”
Searches a month102, 19.9% of counted searches
Click price, weighted avgUS$2.74
In Columbus, 1st of 3 niches on this page by click price, the lowest.

Specific jobs

“tax accountant”, “tax agent”, “tax return accountant”, “small business accountant”, “business accountant”
Searches a month132, 25.8% of counted searches
Click price, weighted avgUS$10.71

Related keywords

Not counted
“bookkeeper”, “bookkeeping services”
Searches a month333
Click price, weighted avgUS$12.06
Related keywords sit next to this service but are not counted in the searches or the search-weighted average click price above.
Plan

Plan a month of accountant ads in Columbus

Put in your own value per return and margin. The call and booking rates start at the benchmarks named under each box; change them to your own.

What the budget buys (worked example)

Clicks a month
46.2
Calls or forms
1.2
Booked returns
put in yours
Click cost per booked return
put in yours

US$1,000 at US$21.64 a click buys about 46.2 clicks a month.

Put in your call and booking rates to see how many booked returns this buys.

Put in your value per return and your margin to see whether this pays back.

Keywords

Every accountant keyword tracked in Columbus

Monthly searches are the average of the last 12 months. Related keywords are shown for context and are not counted in any total on this page.

The most-searched accountant keywords in Columbus are “accountant” (278 searches a month at US$32.42 a click), “accountant near me” (102 searches a month at US$2.74 a click), and “tax accountant” (71 searches a month at US$1.60 a click).

In Columbus, “tax accountant” is the keyword furthest from the country median: US$1.60 a click, 91.9% below the US$19.83 median click price for accountant across this country's tracked cities.

In Columbus, “tax return accountant” is the least-searched of the counted keywords tracked here, at 5 searches a month.

In Columbus, 4 of the 7 counted accountant keywords tracked here have a recorded Google click price.

KeywordIntentSearchesClick
accountantGeneral searches278US$32.42
accountant near meNear me102US$2.74
tax accountantSpecific jobs71US$1.60
small business accountantSpecific jobs27US$34.68
business accountantSpecific jobs19no price
tax agentSpecific jobs10no price
tax return accountantSpecific jobs5no price
bookkeeper
Related, not counted
Related keywords254US$12.47
bookkeeping services
Related, not counted
Related keywords79US$10.75
Ranks and trend

How Columbus compares in the United States

Over the 48 months tracked, accountants searches in Columbus peaked in January 2025 at 970 and were lowest in June 2026 at 350. Columbus's single latest tracked month is down 17.6% on the same month a year ago and level with the same month two years ago (a one-month comparison, not the rolling 12-month year-on-year figure above). In Columbus, the keyword changing fastest year on year is "business accountant", down 61.7%.

  • Columbus is 31st of 49 United States cities by click price, mid-table.
  • Columbus is 25th of 50 United States cities by monthly searches, mid-table.
  • Columbus is 3rd of 3 Ohio cities by click price, the highest.
  • Columbus is 2nd of 3 Ohio cities by monthly searches, among the three highest.
  • For this service, Columbus sits in Ohio, which is 10th of 31 states by businesses per 10,000 people, mid-table (an average of 1.5 businesses per 10,000 people across Ohio).
  • Columbus's 22.8 searches a month per 100,000 people is above the country-wide rate of 22.2 for this service.
  • Columbus's median accountant click price of US$21.64 is 9.1% above the country median of US$19.83.
  • Counted searches over the last 12 months are down 35.2% on the 12 months before.
  • In Columbus, searches peak in January, about 27.3% above the monthly average, and are lowest in July.
Businesses

Accountant businesses in Columbus

The US Census Bureau counts 290 businesses in this industry in Columbus, OH (2023), about 1.3 for every 10,000 people.

What is counted: employer establishments.

Counts cover businesses with employees; most sole traders are not included.

Population: 2,242,028 (Columbus, OH). Source: US Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP), MSA/micropolitan estimates, vintage 2023.

Business counts are never compared across countries on this site: each country's statistics agency counts a different set of businesses.

6 countries

Accountant click prices in 6 countries

United States is 6th of 6 countries by median accountant click price (lowest first), all in US$ at the Federal Reserve H.10 September 2026 average.

CountryMedian click (US$)Searches per 100,000 peopleCities
IrelandUS$5.00150.15
CanadaUS$6.1257.513
AustraliaUS$7.75176.625
New ZealandUS$8.46107.86
United KingdomUS$13.8475.825
United States
this page's country
US$19.8322.250

Medians across each country's tracked cities, same pull month. Each country uses its own keyword set and its own name for the service. Only click prices and searches are compared across borders; business counts are not.

Rules

Rules for accountants in the United States

Licensing is set by each state. CPA licensure specifically is a state board matter; there is no federal CPA license.

FAQ

Questions people ask about accountant ads in Columbus

How much does a Google Ads click cost for an accountant in Columbus?

US$21.64 a click at the search-weighted average across the counted accountant search terms in Columbus (Google Ads via DataForSEO, pulled October 13, 2026). Columbus is 31st of 49 United States cities by click price, mid-table.

How many people search for an accountant in Columbus each month?

512 searches a month on average over the last 12 months, down 35.2% on the 12 months before (Google Ads via DataForSEO, pulled October 13, 2026).

What does a booked return cost in clicks for accountants in Columbus?

There is a sourced lead rate for accountant (2.64% of clicks call or fill a form; US benchmark, LocaliQ 2026, Finance & Insurance) but no sourced booking rate, so this page prints no cost per booked return. Put in your own booking rate in the planner below to see it.

Where do the numbers on this page come from?

Searches and click prices: Google Ads via DataForSEO, pulled October 13, 2026. Lead rate: LocaliQ 2026 (US benchmark). Population and business counts: US Census Bureau County Business Patterns (CBP) 2022, bulk file cbp22msa.zip (NAICS x MSA) (Offices of Certified Public Accountants). Every source is listed at the bottom of this page.

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Method

Search terms: a fixed keyword set per service for United States, tagged by intent (general, near me, urgent and specific jobs), targeted to Columbus with Google Ads location codes, not a text match.

Monthly searches is the average of the last 12 months, summed across the counted keywords. Related keywords are listed but never counted.

Click price is the search-weighted average click price across the counted keywords (sum of each keyword's click price times its monthly searches, divided by total searches), as Google Ads reports the per-keyword prices via DataForSEO.

Year on year compares the last 12 months of counted searches with the 12 months before.

Cost per booked return is the click price divided by the lead rate times the booking rate. The lead rate is LocaliQ's US share of clicks that become calls or forms for the closest industry (US benchmark); the booking rate is ServiceTitan's share of calls that book, for trades (US/Canada benchmark). Where either rate has no source, the page prints no number.

Google Ads reports click prices in US$, so no currency conversion applies.

The tags “Lowest click price on this page” and “Highest click price on this page” rank the intent groups on this page by click price. They are rankings, not verdicts.

Sources

Data and sources

Search data pulled October 13, 2026. Google Keyword Planner estimates via DataForSEO, not what you will pay at auction; your own Google Ads account shows your real price.

DatasetLicense
DataForSEO, retrieved October 13, 2026
DataForSEO Terms of Service (paid API)
US benchmark lead rate (calls and forms), Finance & Insurance
Published benchmark, cited
Business counts, 2023
US government work / public domain
Population

Related: Accountant in Cincinnati, Accountant in Cleveland, Accountant in New York, Accountant across United States, All services in Columbus.

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