Google Ads Benchmarks 2026: CPC, CTR, CVR by Industry

Headline Google Ads Benchmarks for 2026

Google does not publish an average cost per click, and there is no single figure that fits every account. WordStream and LocaliQ have published an annual benchmark report on US search campaigns since 2016. Its 2026 edition, covering April 2025 to March 2026, puts the median cost per click at $5.42, the median click-through rate at 6.64%, the median conversion rate at 8.18% and the median cost per lead at $66.69.

Two details matter when you quote these figures. WordStream's "averages" are medians, and its sample combines Google Ads and Microsoft Ads campaigns run by its own clients. They describe that sample, not the whole market.

Cost per Click and CTR by Industry

Median cost per click ranges from $1.63 in Arts and Entertainment to $9.87 for attorneys and legal services, with home improvement ($8.33) and dentists ($8.00) next. Click-through rates run from 5.56% for automotive repair to 12.75% for Arts and Entertainment.

Conversion Rate and Cost per Lead by Industry

Conversion rates vary about as widely as click costs, from 2.64% in Finance and Insurance to 16.22% in Animals and Pets. Median cost per lead runs from $26.84 in Arts and Entertainment to $131.63 for attorneys and legal services, with Furniture ($106.70) and Real Estate ($102.51) next. A high cost per lead is not necessarily a problem: what matters is what a lead is worth to the business.

What Changed Since Last Year

WordStream describes 2026 as a stable year after two years of sharp rises. Its all-industry median cost per click rose 12.88% between the 2024 and 2025 editions, then only from $5.26 to $5.42 in 2026. Industry changes were larger in both directions, as the rows below show. The two editions use different samples (16,446 campaigns in 2025, 13,474 in 2026), so treat single-industry changes as indicative.

What Google Reports

Alphabet does not publish benchmarks, but its SEC filings report how paid clicks and cost per click change across Google Search & other properties. Cost per click rose 7% in 2025, 5% in Q1 2026 and 3% in Q2 2026, while paid clicks grew 13% in both quarters of 2026. These are blended figures across all advertisers, devices and countries, and Alphabet notes they are affected by device, geographic, product and property mix and by exchange rates.

Google Search & other revenue also includes ads on properties such as Gmail, Maps and Google Play, so it is not the same as advertisers' total spend on search ads.

Cost Trends From Ad Platforms

Two ad-technology companies publish quarterly trends from their own clients' accounts. Skai's figures cover paid search across the engines it manages for its clients, and Tinuiti's cover the US advertisers it manages. Both show search spend growing in 2026, and Skai measured paid search CPC up 14% year on year in Q2. Skai's $1.10 average CPC comes from a different set of advertisers and is not comparable with WordStream's medians.

Neither company's public pages give Performance Max's share of spend. For how the campaign type works, see our Performance Max campaign guide.

Ecommerce Benchmarks

For online shops, Triple Whale publishes Google Ads medians from more than 21,000 ecommerce brands. Its figures are not split by campaign type, so its 1.65% click-through rate is not comparable with the search-only benchmarks above. Median cost per acquisition rose about 10% on a year earlier, to $28.14.

Ecommerce Cost per Acquisition by Category

By product category, Triple Whale's median cost per acquisition ranges from $20.97 for Books and Music to $39.72 for Electronics, and median return on ad spend from 2.06 for Health and Wellness to 4.35 for Sports and Outdoors.

How to Use These Benchmarks

Match the benchmark to the campaign. Compare a lead-generation search account with WordStream and LocaliQ's industry medians, an online shop with Triple Whale's category medians, and neither with a single all-industry average. A result inside the published range is normal; one far outside it is worth investigating.

Judge accounts on cost per lead or return on ad spend rather than cost per click alone. Automated campaign types are changing how search campaigns run; our comparison of Google's and Microsoft's AI Max covers the current options. For Meta, see our Facebook ads benchmarks.

Widely Quoted Figures, Checked

Several Google Ads statistics circulate without a source or with a source that says something different. Each one below is checked against the publisher's own page.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from one of the sources below.