Paid Media Benchmarks 2026
CPC, CPM, CTR and CVR for every major channel — compiled from the largest published benchmark datasets, with the context that makes them usable. Plan media against these numbers, then beat them with your own account data.
From the Paid Growth & Performance Media toolset.
Benchmarks answer one question well: is this account in a normal range, or is something structurally broken? The medians below are compiled from the largest published datasets — WordStream/LocalIQ's annual studies across tens of thousands of accounts, platform-reported ranges, and the live trackers at Revealbot and Varos. They are planning inputs and sanity checks.
Two warnings before the tables. First, averages compress enormous spreads: the gap between a median account and a top-quartile account on the same channel is routinely 2–4x, and creative quality plus account structure explain most of it. Second, auction prices inflate — cross-industry CPCs have climbed roughly 10% a year on the major platforms — so trailing benchmarks flatter current costs slightly.
Use the numbers like an operator: benchmark to find the broken metric, then fix the input behind it. A CPC above range is a relevance and auction problem; a CVR below range is a landing-page and offer problem; a CPM spike is a creative-fatigue or audience-saturation problem.
Search: Google & Microsoft Ads
Search remains the highest-intent auction in marketing and prices accordingly. WordStream/LocalIQ's cross-industry study — the largest published dataset — puts median Google Search CPC at $4.66, CTR at 6.42% and conversion rate near 7%, with legal, medical and home services paying multiples of the median while ecommerce and travel sit below it.
Microsoft Ads consistently prices 20–35% below Google for comparable queries with older, higher-income demographics and lower volume — the classic efficient second channel once Google is saturated.
- Branded search CTRs run far above the 6.42% median (often 15–30%+) and drag blended numbers up — benchmark non-brand separately. — practitioner consensus
- Performance Max blends channels and inventory; compare it against your blended account CPA rather than search-only benchmarks. — Google Ads documentation
Google Search benchmarks (cross-industry medians)
| Metric | Median | Typical range by industry | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPC | $4.66 | $1.50 (ecom) – $9+ (legal/services) | WordStream/LocalIQ |
| CTR | 6.42% | 4–9% (search ads) | WordStream/LocalIQ |
| CVR | ~7% | 2–12% | WordStream/LocalIQ |
| CPL | $66.69 | $25 – $150+ | WordStream/LocalIQ |
| Microsoft Ads CPC | ~$1.50–3.50 | 20–35% below Google | Microsoft/agency data |
WordStream/LocalIQ Google Ads benchmarks (latest published cross-industry study, 2024). Lead-gen-weighted; pure ecommerce CVRs on Shopping/PMax run lower (2–4%).
Paid social: Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn
Meta is still the reference auction for paid social: blended CPMs in the mid-teens, CPCs under a dollar for most consumer verticals, and feed CTRs near 1%. TikTok undercuts Meta on CPM by roughly a third to a half with younger reach and faster creative burn. LinkedIn costs 3–6x more per click and earns it only when deal sizes justify B2B precision targeting.
Creative is the multiplier the tables can't show: platform and agency studies consistently attribute the majority of paid-social performance variance to creative rather than targeting — UGC-style and native-format ads regularly cut CPAs 20–50% versus polished static in head-to-head tests.
Typical CPM by channel (blended medians)
Bars plot range midpoints. CPM buys reach; judge channels on cost per outcome after conversion rates, never on CPM alone.
Paid social benchmarks (medians, consumer-weighted)
| Metric | Meta (FB+IG) | TikTok | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPM | $14–15 | $5–10 | $30–35 | Revealbot/Varos; LinkedIn agency data |
| CPC | $0.70–1.00 | $0.50–1.00 | $5–8 | Revealbot; TikTok/LinkedIn agency medians |
| CTR | ~0.9–1.6% | ~0.8–1.5% | ~0.4–0.6% | platform/agency benchmarks |
| CVR (site) | ~2–3% (ecom) | ~1–2% | ~2–3% (lead forms higher) | agency benchmark sets |
| CPL (B2B) | $20–60 | $15–50 | $75–150 | agency benchmark sets |
Medians from ad-manager trackers (Revealbot, Varos) and published agency datasets, 2024–25. Auction seasonality swings CPMs ±30%+ around Q4.
Video & retail media: YouTube and Amazon
YouTube skippable in-stream runs $0.10–0.30 per view with CPMs of $10–20 depending on targeting; Shorts inventory prices below long-form. Retail media is the fastest-growing budget line in the industry, and Amazon anchors it: Sponsored Products CPCs cluster near $0.90–1.00 with ACOS (ad cost of sales) norms of 25–35% depending on category maturity and margin structure.
Video & retail benchmarks
| Metric | Benchmark | Source |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube CPV (skippable) | $0.10–0.30 | Google/agency medians |
| YouTube CPM | $10–20 | agency medians |
| Amazon Sponsored Products CPC | ~$0.90–1.00 | Amazon agency trackers (e.g. Adbadger) |
| Amazon ACOS (median) | 25–35% | category-dependent; maturity matters |
| Retail media growth | fastest-growing major channel, ~20%+/yr | eMarketer/GroupM forecasts |
Retail media pricing varies more by category competition than any other channel — treat medians as loose priors.
ROAS & CAC norms by vertical
Blended ROAS expectations depend on margin structure more than on channel skill: a 4x target is comfortable for 60%-margin beauty and punishing for 25%-margin electronics. The honest sequence is to compute your break-even ROAS from real contribution margin first, then read these norms as competitive context rather than goals.
Directional ROAS / CAC context (ecommerce, blended paid)
| Vertical | Common blended ROAS range | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Beauty / personal care | 3–5x | high margin supports aggressive prospecting |
| Fashion / apparel | 2.5–4x | returns eat realized ROAS — track post-return |
| Food & beverage / CPG | 2–4x | subscription LTV justifies sub-break-even first orders |
| Electronics | 3–6x | thin margins demand higher multiples |
| Home & furniture | 3–5x | high AOV, long consideration windows |
| B2B SaaS (CAC payback) | 12–18 months | benchmark payback rather than ROAS |
Directional ranges synthesized from agency portfolio data and published ecommerce studies. Your break-even math outranks every row of this table.
Our free ROAS & Break-Even Calculator turns your real margins into the exact ROAS target that funds profitable growth, and the Media Mix Planner pressure-tests any budget split against editable channel benchmarks. Both live at /calculators.
How to use benchmarks without being used by them
Percentiles beat averages: a median mixes brilliant and broken accounts, so treat the tables as the 50th percentile and aim your program at the 75th. Compare like with like — non-brand search against non-brand medians, prospecting social against prospecting norms — because blending brand into either flatters everything. And prefer 90 days of your own account data over any industry table the moment you have it; benchmarks are for the cold-start and the sanity check.
The most expensive benchmark mistake is optimizing to the input metric. A cheap CPC that converts at half rate is expensive; a $35 LinkedIn CPM that fills pipeline with six-figure deals is cheap. Cost per profitable outcome is the only number that settles arguments.
- Rebenchmark quarterly: auction prices move with seasonality and competition, and last year's medians drift ~10% within a year. — WordStream YoY studies
- Hold 10–15% of budget for structured creative testing — the variable with the largest documented performance variance on social auctions. — Meta creative studies / agency data
Outlook: where auction prices go next
CPC/CPM inflation continues on the majors as AI bidding narrows the arbitrage.
Automated bidding pushes every advertiser toward the same auction equilibrium; differentiation migrates to creative, offer and first-party signal quality, which are the inputs the algorithms reward.
Retail media keeps taking share of performance budgets.
eMarketer and GroupM forecasts have retail media compounding near 20% annually — closed-loop attribution on purchase data is exactly what privacy took from the open web.
Creative volume and velocity become the visible moat.
AI-assisted production collapses the cost of variants; accounts feeding the auctions dozens of tested creatives systematically out-learn accounts shipping two per month.
AI search placements open a new high-intent auction.
Sponsored results inside AI assistants and Google's AI experiences are rolling out; early inventory in new auctions has historically priced below its intent quality — the recurring early-adopter edge.
Sources
- WordStream / LocalIQ — Google Ads Benchmarks (cross-industry study) (2024)
- WordStream / LocalIQ — Facebook Ads Benchmarks (2024)
- Revealbot — live Meta ads cost tracker (2025)
- Varos — real-time CPM/CAC benchmarks by vertical (2025)
- TikTok for Business / agency benchmark compilations (2024–25)
- LinkedIn Ads agency benchmark datasets (B2B CPC/CPM/CPL) (2024–25)
- Adbadger — Amazon PPC benchmark tracking (2024–25)
- eMarketer — retail media ad spend forecasts (2025)
- GroupM — This Year Next Year global ad forecast (2025)
- Meta — creative performance research (2024)
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