Google Ads benchmarks by industry
Search advertising benchmarks by industry: average CTR, cost per click, conversion rate and cost per lead, from named reports with their samples and data periods.
Two reports are shown here because search advertising has two very different populations. The first is an agency sample of 13,474 US campaigns, weighted towards small businesses buying leads — the median click-through rate there is 6.64% and the median click costs $5.42. The second is 21,000 direct-to-consumer ecommerce brands, where the median click-through rate is closer to 1.6%.
Neither is wrong. Local and branded search earns clicks at rates broad ecommerce keyword coverage never will, and lead-gen campaigns record a lead as a conversion where a store records a purchase. Compare your account with the sample that resembles it, and ignore the other one.
One caveat the publisher states and most reposts drop: the larger sample covers Google Ads and Microsoft Ads search campaigns together, and its figures are medians rather than averages.
Search ads — US small & mid-market advertisers
Who is in this sample: 13,474 US search campaigns (Google Ads and Microsoft Ads), lead-generation heavy
| Industry | CTR | CPC | CVR | CPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animals & Pets | 7.49% | $4.06 | 16.22% | $31.50 |
| Apparel / Fashion & Jewelry | 6.64% | $4.44 | 4.5% | $97.51 |
| Arts & Entertainment | 12.75% | $1.63 | 5.91% | $26.84 |
| Attorneys & Legal Services | 5.87% | $9.87 | 5.55% | $131.63 |
| Automotive — For Sale | 8.28% | $2.27 | 6.01% | $44.26 |
| Automotive — Repair, Service & Parts | 5.56% | $4.35 | 15.51% | $29.96 |
| Beauty & Personal Care | 6.75% | $4.62 | 10.35% | $39.25 |
| Business Services | 6.1% | $5.87 | 4.85% | $93.69 |
| Career & Employment | 5.88% | $5.81 | 3.05% | $67.36 |
| Dentists & Dental Services | 5.66% | $8.00 | 10.67% | $72.97 |
| Education & Instruction | 7.56% | $4.81 | 13.14% | $77.48 |
| Finance & Insurance | 9.83% | $3.39 | 2.64% | $74.44 |
| Furniture | 6.57% | $3.97 | 2.99% | $106.70 |
| Health & Fitness | 5.81% | $6.17 | 6.94% | $67.36 |
| Home & Home Improvement | 6.47% | $8.33 | 8.05% | $90.92 |
| Industrial & Commercial | 6.57% | $5.87 | 8.2% | $75.19 |
| Personal Services | 7.16% | $7.17 | 12.34% | $54.60 |
| Physicians & Surgeons | 6.61% | $4.76 | 12.43% | $40.04 |
| Real Estate | 7.61% | $3.22 | 3.7% | $102.51 |
| Restaurants & Food | 6.83% | $2.05 | 8.05% | $30.57 |
| Shopping, Collectibles & Gifts | 8.28% | $4.14 | 4.01% | $49.40 |
| Sports & Recreation | 8.75% | $2.77 | 7.69% | $44.26 |
| Travel | 9.32% | $2.14 | 5.83% | $44.70 |
| All industries · publisher's own figure | 6.64% | $5.42 | 8.18% | $66.69 |
Industry names are reproduced in the publisher's own wording.
Source
- Publisher
- LocaliQ / WordStream
- Data period
- 1 Apr 2025 – 31 Mar 2026
- Sample
- 13,474 search campaigns, minimum 52 active campaigns per subcategory
- Geography
- United States
- Statistic
- Figures are medians
Notes on this table
- Despite the 'Google Ads' title, the publisher describes the sample as search campaigns across Google Ads and Microsoft Ads.
- Figures are medians, not means — the publisher notes this is to limit the effect of outliers.
- Weighted to the agency's own customer base, which is SMB and lead-generation heavy.
- The all-industry row is the publisher's own figure. It is not the mean of the rows above, and the two should not be presented as the same number.
- Cost per acquisition is cost per lead in this report: Career & Employment and Health & Fitness both print $67.36, and Automotive — For Sale and Sports & Recreation both print $44.26. Verified as printed on the publisher's page.
Search ads — direct-to-consumer ecommerce
Who is in this sample: 21,000+ DTC ecommerce brands; campaign types not stated
| Industry | CTR | CVR | CPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apparel & Accessories | 1.67% | 2.78% | $25.40 |
| Beauty | 1.61% | 4.33% | $25.39 |
| Home & Garden | 1.54% | 2.3% | $38.94 |
| Food & Beverage | 1.63% | 4.26% | $23.65 |
| Sports & Outdoors | 1.67% | 2.63% | $30.42 |
| Health & Wellness | 1.73% | 3.41% | $34.76 |
| Electronics | 1.59% | 2.08% | $39.72 |
| Toys, Art, & Collectibles | 1.62% | 3.01% | $25.12 |
| Pets & Animals | 1.78% | 4.4% | $25.05 |
| Automotive | 1.89% | 1.9% | $38.14 |
| Baby | 1.63% | 3.12% | $24.14 |
| Lifestyle & Boutique | 1.58% | 3.28% | $24.07 |
| Travel Accessories | 1.73% | 2.39% | $31.78 |
| Books & Music | 1.72% | 4.3% | $20.97 |
| Business Supplies & Equipment | 1.53% | 2.58% | $38.39 |
Industry names are reproduced in the publisher's own wording.
Source
- Publisher
- Triple Whale
- Data period
- 1 Aug 2025 – 31 Jul 2026
- Sample
- Over 21,000 brands on the Triple Whale platform
- Geography
- Not stated
- Statistic
- Figures are medians
Notes on this table
- Direct-to-consumer ecommerce brands only — a different advertiser population from the LocaliQ sample.
- The publisher does not state which campaign types are included (Search, Shopping, Performance Max).
- No cost-per-click column is published in this report.
- CTR here runs around 1.6% against roughly 6.6% in the LocaliQ table. That is the advertiser mix, not a contradiction: broad ecommerce keyword coverage against SMB campaigns weighted to branded and high-intent local search.
How to use these numbers
A benchmark is a description of someone else's sample, not a target. The number worth hitting is your own break-even: the cost per acquisition your margin allows, or the return on ad spend that leaves a profit after the product is paid for. Use the calculators to work that out first, then use the benchmark to ask whether the market is even priced for it.
When your number sits far from the table, check the sample before checking your account. A store compared with a lead-generation sample, or a brand-heavy account compared with broad prospecting, will look broken while being perfectly healthy. The universe line above each table is there for exactly that check.
Calculators for these metrics
Frequently asked questions
- What is a good click-through rate in Google Ads?
- It depends on what share of your traffic is branded. In the US agency sample the median sits at 6.64% across industries, with Arts & Entertainment at 12.75% and Automotive repair at 5.56%. A DTC store running broad non-brand keywords will sit far lower and still be healthy.
- Why is my cost per click higher than the benchmark?
- Competition and intent, mostly. Legal services median out at $9.87 a click and home improvement at $8.33, while travel sits at $2.14. Within an industry, non-brand and high-intent bottom-of-funnel terms cost several times what brand terms do.
- Is cost per lead the same as cost per acquisition here?
- In the agency report, yes — its conversions are leads, so the CPL column is what an ecommerce advertiser would call CPA on a lead event, not the cost of a purchase.
How this data is handled
- Every figure is transcribed from a public report and carries its publisher, sample, data period and a link. Nothing is estimated or rounded to “about”.
- Publishers are never blended. A click-through rate from one report and a CPM from another never appear in the same row.
- Each table states who is in its sample, because advertiser mix — not disagreement — explains most of the spread between reports.
- Publisher errors and dated datasets are footnoted rather than quietly corrected or refreshed from another source.