Data & Studies

100 Most Expensive Keywords for Google Ads (July 2026)

Si Quan Ong
Content marketer @ Ahrefs. I've been in digital marketing for the past 6 years and have spoken at some of the industry’s largest conferences in Asia (TIECon and Digital Marketing Skill Share.) I also write about my curiosities on my Substack.
Article Performance
Data from Ahrefs
  • Organic traffic
  • Linking websites

The number of websites linking to this post.

This post's estimated monthly organic search traffic.

We analyzed our database of 28.7 billion keywords to identify the most expensive keywords people are bidding for on Google Ads.

These are the 100 most expensive keywords on Google Ads, along with their monthly search volume and cost per click (CPC).

#KeywordCPCSearch Volume
1chordee repair$105.00800
2mesothelioma attorney chicago$100.001,200
3lawsuit mesothelioma$100.00900
4apps live$100.00900
5how bad is monster zero sugar for you$100.001,000
6los angeles slip and fall attorney$100.00500
7los angeles slip and fall lawyer$100.00700
8adtheorent$100.001,500
9axon taser$100.001,000
10interstitial ads cpm$100.00600
11lingo meaning$100.006,800
12aaxn$100.001,500
13dallas mesothelioma lawyer$100.00500
14reddit fgo$100.00700
15nyc tax refund status$100.00500
16axon company$100.00800
17slip and fall attorney los angeles$100.00800
18disney cruise line incidents$100.00800
19leileiav$100.00500
20truck wreck lawyers$100.00500
21advertise feedbuzzard$100.005,600
22miami heat vs dallas mavericks timeline$100.006,200
23global eor$100.00900
24carnival cruise death$100.004,800
25advertising feedbuzzard$100.003,300
26syngap1$100.002,100
27atlanta accident lawyer$100.00700
28openreview$100.00800
29maritime law firm$100.00600
30cdkl5$100.001,400
31selva coffee house menu$100.001,400
32houston injury attorney$100.00600
33trochoid$100.00500
34og’s$100.00600
35mesothelioma lawsuit$100.001,300
36fieldnet login$100.00500
37belpre animal clinic$100.00600
38warn layoffs$100.00500
39energy software development$100.00600
40accident lawyer las vegas$100.00900
41illinois mesothelioma lawyer$100.00500
42mesothelioma lawsuits$100.00500
43ohio mesothelioma lawyer$95.001,000
44tn entity search$95.00700
45car accident lawyer macon ga$95.00900
46tallahassee car accident lawyer$95.00900
47work injury lawyer houston$95.00500
48pichichi liga española$95.00600
49marjam kat$95.00700
50venmo withdrawal limit$95.00600
51richmond truck accident lawyer$95.00500
52my usc portal$95.00500
53motorcycle accidents lawyer$95.001,000
54ua806$95.00700
55car accident lawyer macon$95.00900
56cloudysocial cshardware promo code$95.00500
57los angeles rams vs carolina panthers stats$95.008,000
58openai python sdk$95.00700
59columbia care marietta oh$95.00800
608kun website$95.00900
61wg pay scale 2025$95.00700
62hire dedicated php developer$95.00600
63raytown schools$95.00500
64macon car accident lawyer$95.002,200
65how to tag someone on linkedin$95.001,200
66tepezza and hearing loss$95.00600
67mule fuel$95.00900
68mainframe modernization services$95.00500
69application controls$95.00500
70houston work injury lawyer$95.00500
71legal age to vape$95.00700
7218 usc 371$95.00900
73law firm answering service$95.00700
74openai gpt-4.1 pricing$95.00900
75oil refinery explosion$95.001,300
76casino ie$90.00600
77defensores de accidentes$90.00600
78emsmart login$90.00700
79pqdi$90.001,100
80pnc hsa login$90.001,800
81car accident lawyer albany ga$90.00800
82houston car crash lawyer$90.00500
83flower bowl new buffalo$90.001,000
84what is dra$90.00800
85ethena price$90.00600
86motorcycle lawyers$90.001,000
87who is the best wrestler in the world$90.00500
88riverside personal injury lawyer$90.001,000
89csi humboldt$90.003,100
90car crash lawyer houston$90.001,600
91abogados de accidentes de carros$90.00600
92lo4 flight status$90.00500
93deel pricing$90.00500
94houston car wreck attorney$90.00600
95the ira$90.004,100
96accident attorney phoenix$90.00700
97car accident lawyer houston$90.008,300
98chicago truck accident lawyer$90.002,000
99personal injury lawyer seo services$90.00500
100openai codex github$90.00600

The main reason is due to Google’s ads mechanism:

  • Google Ads operates on a pay-per-click auction system.
  • There are only a few ads that appear for each keyword.

Companies have to outbid each other in order to secure their spot at the top of the search results. If demand for a keyword is high, it means more companies are bidding for it, therefore driving up the cost per click.

Example of a Google Ad

Demand for a keyword is high when companies believe it will generate a return on investment (ROI). Typically, you’ll see this when:

  • The industry offers high-value services or products (e.g., legal, finance) as each potential sale generates a lot of revenue.
  • The keyword signals strong purchase intent (e.g., personal injury lawyer near me) as they’re likely to lead to direct sales or high-quality leads.
  • The location is competitive and populous, e.g., “divorce lawyer in New York” will be more expensive than “divorce lawyer in Provincetown”.
  • There is a peak season (e.g. tax season, holidays)

I analyzed the top 10,000 most expensive keywords to see which niches they belong to:

  • Legal services (17.52%), with a focus on accident and injury law in specific locations (e.g., Baton Rouge)
  • Ecommerce (3.85%), with a focus on promotional codes, brand-specific queries, and product searches.
  • Education (2.58%), with a focus on university-related keywords, career and technical education centers, and student services and programs.
  • Financial services (1.52%), with a focus on trading platforms, banking services, and investment-related terms.
  • Technology (1.13%), with a focus on software development services, computer vision development, technical education and training, and international outsourcing (e.g, Romania)

Marketing consultant Dan Kennedy once said, “Whoever can spend the most money to acquire a customer wins.”

Your goal is not to avoid paying for expensive keywords, but to bid for keywords that make sense according to your goals and strategy. If a keyword generates a positive ROI for you, then you should continue bidding on that keyword, no matter how expensive it is. (Expensive is relative after all; a $10 cup of coffee is expensive to me, but could be of value to a snob.)

That said, there are ways to run your Google Ads more effectively, such as:

  • Targeting long-tail keywords (e.g., “affordable personal injury lawyer in New York”), rather than generic, broad keywords like “personal injury lawyer”
  • Using negative keywords to prevent your ads from appearing on irrelevant searches.
  • Improving your Quality Score by writing relevant ad copy and creating targeted landing pages.
  • Using retargeting to focus on people who’ve already interacted with your website or shown interest in your brand, product, or service.

If your competitors are paying for certain keywords, it may indicate that they’re profitable for them—and could be for you too.

Here’s how to find these keywords:

  1. Go to Ahrefs’ Site Explorer
  2. Enter your competitor’s domain
  3. Go to the Paid Keywords report
Paid keywords report

For example, if we analyze asana.com, we can see they’re bidding on 1,367 keywords in the U.S. We can also see the keywords they’re bidding on and how much they’re paying for each keyword (CPC).

If you hover over the magnifying glass, you can even see the ad they’re running for that keyword and the link they’re sending paid traffic to.

Want to do paid keyword research for your site? Sign up for Site Explorer.

Article Performance
Data from Ahrefs
  • Organic traffic
  • Linking websites

The number of websites linking to this post.

This post's estimated monthly organic search traffic.