Industry report

We all want more traffic all the while spending less money on advertisement. This can only be achieved by optimizing our ads to have better ROI. But with that being said, you need to understand that not all ads will perform equally, and there is an awful lot of discrepancies when considering different industries.

Metrics like click through rates (CTR) and cost per click (CPC) vary greatly between different industries. Therefore, you should adjust your expectations accordingly before going ahead with your Google Ads campaigns. This is why we have put together a short read going over different Google Ads Benchmarks for different industries.

In fact, we will be taking a look at 16 different industries and analyze how Google Ads benchmarks vary between them. For this read, we will only be considering metrics like CTR, CPC, CVR (Conversion Rate), CPA (Cost Per Action) for both search ads and display ads.

Do Note: We will be considering the average values of these Google Ads metrics. It goes without saying that some ads will perform better or worse in that particular industry. However, the average value will give you a sense of where you should set your target.

Google Ads Benchmark for Average CTR in Your Industry

CTR or Click Through Rate refers to the measure of the total number of clicks your campaign received divided by its total reach. This gives you an idea on how effective your ads were in convincing people to make the “click”.

Let’s say your Google Ads campaign had 1000 impressions and only 100 times people clicked on the ads. This translates to a CTR of 10%.

 

Industry

Average CTR for Search Ads (%)

Average CTR for Display Ads (%)

Advocacy

4.41

0.59

Automobile

4.00

0.60

Business to Business 

2.41

0.46

Consumer Services

2.41

0.51

Dating & Personal

6.05

0.72

E-Commerce

2.69

0.51

Education

3.78

0.53

Employment Services

2.42

0.59

Finance & Insurance

2.91

0.52

Health & Medical

3.27

0.59

Home Based Goods

2.44

0.49

Industrial Services

2.61

0.50

Legal Services

2.93

0.59

Real Estate

3.71

1.08

Tech

2.09

0.39

Travel & Hotels

4.68

0.47

Data Source: WordStream

Now, if you are looking for the average CTR across all industries, then it equates to around 3.30% for search ads and 0.46% for display ads.

 

CPC or Cost Per Click is the measure of the total campaign cost divided by the total number of ads clicked. This gives you an idea on how much money you have spent to acquire a single click from the users.

So let’s say your campaign cost was $1000 and you managed to gather around 1000 ad clicks. Then your campaign CPC is $1, as your spent $1 translated into 1 ad click.

 

Industry

Average CPC for Search Ads ($)

Average CPC for Display Ads ($)

Advocacy

1.43

0.62

Automobile

2.46

0.58

Business to Business 

3.33

0.79

Consumer Services

6.40

0.81

Dating & Personal

2.78

1.49

E-Commerce

1.16

0.45

Education

2.40

0.47

Employment Services

2.04

0.78

Finance & Insurance

3.44

0.86

Health & Medical

2.62

0.63

Home Based Goods

2.94

0.60

Industrial Services

2.56

0.54

Legal Services

6.75

0.72

Real Estate

2.37

0.75

Tech

3.80

0.51

Travel & Hotels

1.53

0.44

Data Source: WordStream

From the above figures, you can see that the average CPC across all industries is around $2.69 for search ads and $0.63 for display ads.

CVR stands for Conversion Rates. Just because someone clicked on one of your ads, doesn’t mean your campaign was a super success. You need to make sure that people clicking on your ads are also converting and not simply leaving after seeing what you have to offer. This is why, you need to measure the conversion rates of a campaign.

It is a simple metric calculated by dividing the total number of conversions by the total number of clicks received. So say, your campaign reached 1000 people, and you received 100 clicks and only 10 conversions. Then your conversion rate is 10%. 

Remember, we are dividing the total number of clicks and not the total reach, otherwise the metric would have been 1%.

 

Industry

Average CVR for Search Ads (%)

Average CVR for Display Ads (%)

Advocacy

1.96

1.00

Automobile

6.03

1.19

Business to Business 

3.04

0.80

Consumer Services

6.64

0.98

Dating & Personal

9.64

3.34

E-Commerce

2.81

0.59

Education

3.39

0.50

Employment Services

5.13

1.57

Finance & Insurance

5.10

1.19

Health & Medical

3.36

0.82

Home Based Goods

2.70

0.43

Industrial Services

3.37

0.94

Legal Services

6.98

1.84

Real Estate

2.47

0.80

Tech

2.92

0.86

Travel & Hotels

3.55

0.51

Data Source: WordStream

As you can see, the average conversion rates across all above mentioned industries is 3.75% for search ads and 0.77% for display ads, in respect to Google Ads

And finally we have the CPA or Cost Per Action. This is a measure of the total cost of the campaign dividing by the total number of conversions. As such, the metric tells you about how much money you had to spend in order to generate a conversion.

So let’s say your entire campaign cost was $1000 and you managed to generate around 10 conversions. This means your CPA is $100, which means you had to spend $100 on Google Ads for every conversion.

Industry

Average CPA for Search Ads ($)

Average CPA for Display Ads ($)

Advocacy

96.55

70.69

Automobile

33.52

23.68

Business to Business 

116.13

130.36

Consumer Services

90.70

60.48

Dating & Personal

76.76

60.23

E-Commerce

45.27

65.80

Education

72.70

143.36

Employment Services

48.04

59.47

Finance & Insurance

81.93

56.76

Health & Medical

78.09

72.58

Home Based Goods

87.13

116.17

Industrial Services

79.28

51.58

Legal Services

86.02

39.52

Real Estate

116.61

74.79

Tech

133.52

103.60

Travel & Hotels

44.73

99.13

Data Source: WordStream

The average Cost Per Action while using Google Ads across all these different industries results to around $48.96 for search ads and $75.51 for display ads.

More To Explore

Researched by Brian and SaaS Scout team
Researched by Brian and SaaS Scout team

This website uses cookies to deliver a relevant and personalized service. By continuing to browse or clicking “Okay, I agree” or "Close", you approve the site's T.O.S and Privacy Policy These cookies are completely safe and secure, and will never contain any sensitive information.