Free toolVertical Benchmarks
Are your numbers good — or just familiar?
Indicative benchmark ranges for eight verticals, search vs social. Enter your own metrics and see where you stand — with an honest disclaimer instead of fake precision.
Free. No sign-up. Runs in your browser.
Click-through rate (CTR)
Higher is better
Cost per click (CPC)
Lower is better
Conversion rate (CVR)
Higher is better
Return on ad spend (ROAS)
Higher is better
Honest methodology
These ranges are indicative medians compiled from public industry benchmark reports (2024–2025) — WordStream/LocaliQ, Varos and similar sources. They are not live data, not a forecast and not a promise: geography, seasonality, account maturity and tracking quality move real numbers by more than the width of any range. Use them to spot orders-of-magnitude problems, not to grade campaigns.
01
What these benchmarks are — and what they are not
Benchmarks answer one question well: 'is my number in a sane range?' A CTR ten times below the vertical median is a signal to investigate creative and targeting; a CTR 20% below the median is mostly noise. They are directional guardrails, not grading scales — a 'below range' CPC in a high-margin vertical can still be excellent economics.
The ranges here are compiled from public 2024–2025 industry reports and rounded to what the sources roughly agree on. We deliberately show ranges instead of fake-precise averages, because a single 'average CPC' number hides the spread that actually matters.
02
How to compare yourself honestly
Compare like with like: paid search against search ranges, social against social, and your last 30–90 days — not your best week. Check your tracking first: a ROAS measured with broken pixels or missing offline conversions says more about your setup than about your campaigns.
And always close the loop with your own unit economics. Benchmarks tell you whether the market could do better; break-even ROAS and margin tell you whether you must. The second question is the one that decides budgets.
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FAQ
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