The figures on this page are not ours: they come from WordStream's 2025 Google Ads benchmarks, built on 16,446 US search campaigns between April 2024 and March 2025, published as medians so that a handful of outliers cannot move the number. We reproduce them here, with the source stated, because a benchmark you cannot trace is worth nothing. When our own dataset is large enough to say something honest, we will publish that separately and say so.

A few important methodology notes:

• Search campaigns only. Display, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns are excluded from CTR and CVR calculations, as their benchmarks are not meaningfully comparable to Search.
• Accounts with at least 1,000 impressions per month were included to ensure statistical validity.
• Accounts with clear category mismatches (e.g., a "Legal" account that primarily sold legal software rather than legal services) were reclassified or excluded.
• CPC figures are in EUR, averaged across European and global accounts. Regional CPC variation can be significant, these represent an international average.

Click-through rate in Search campaigns reflects the relevance of your ad copy to the searcher's intent. Local services and travel consistently outperform B2B and finance verticals.

CPC varies dramatically by industry, driven primarily by competition and the lifetime value of a converted customer. Legal and finance verticals consistently command the highest CPCs across all markets.

Conversion rate (CVR) is influenced by your landing page quality, offer strength, and how well-defined your conversion action is, not just your ads. Local services and legal sectors show the highest CVRs, driven by high-intent searches.

Benchmarks are a starting point for diagnosis, not a final verdict on your account's health. Here's how to use them effectively:

• Compare yourself to your industry, not global averages. A 2.5% CTR for a B2B SaaS company is above average; for a local plumber it would signal a serious problem.
• Use top-25% figures as targets, not averages. If you're currently at average, the top-25% number tells you what's achievable, not some theoretical ceiling.
• Segment your analysis. Your account-level CTR might look healthy, but a single campaign dragging down the average could be hiding a problem. Always drill down.
• Don't fixate on CTR alone. A high CTR with a low CVR usually means your ads attract broad traffic that doesn't match your landing page intent. CTR and CVR must be analyzed together.
• Benchmark quarterly, not annually. Google Ads performance shifts throughout the year (Q4 typically shows higher CPCs and lower CVRs due to competition). Compare like-for-like periods.