What is a good pay per click rate?

To provide useful guidance, our benchmark shows average results for a group of approximately fifty advertisers on the Google AdWords ad network. AdWords text and image ads are displayed along side and above the main Google search results, and also on Google’s content network sites. Our advertisers include companies in a variety of industries with a mix of local, national and international campaigns. Our data set is not necessarily representative of the entire market, but neither is the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It is still very interesting to look at the data trends over time.

Average PPC Costs 2017-2020

Metric2020201920182017Cost per click (CPC)$1.03$0.99$1.18Click through rate (CTR)1.8%2.1%2.5%Cost per mille (CPM)$18.71$20.90$29.46Conversion rate5.2%3.1%2.7%Cost per conversion$19.64$31.79$43.52Invalid click rate5.7%6.6%7.5%

Average PPC Costs 2013-2016

Metric2016201520142013Cost per click (CPC)$2.14$1.58$1.02$0.92Click through rate (CTR)1.16%0.8%0.9%0.5%Average Ad Position1.61.81.92.1Cost per mille (CPM)$24.74$12.07$8.81$4.70Conversion rate6.5%3.6%4.7%8.8%Cost per conversion$33.00$44.50$30.25$10.50Invalid click rate10.7%9.8%7.8%8.3%

Average PPC Costs 2009-2012

Metric2012201120102009Cost per click (CPC)$0.84$1.04$1.24$1.03Click through rate (CTR)0.5%0.4%0.7%0.3%Average Ad Position2.63.03.73.6Cost per mille (CPM)$4.03$3.97$8.55$3.34Conversion rate3.4%5.3%6.8%6.0%Cost per conversion$24.40$19.74$13.14$12.60Invalid click rate8.0%10.9%6.7%5.5%

Average PPC Costs 2005-2008

Metric2008200720062005Cost per click (CPC)$0.71$0.62$0.32$0.38Click through rate (CTR) 0.3% 0.3% 0.7%1.5%Average Ad Position 4.0 3.9 4.0 4.0Cost per mille (CPM) $2.16 $1.95 $2.38 $5.56Conversion rate 7.5%7.0% 4.0% 3.8%Cost per conversion $7.02 $6.41 $7.63 $10.18Invalid click rate 4.9%6.5%3.5% n/a

Within the group, each advertiser may have a different definition of what constitutes a conversion. The conversion action could be a sales transaction, a sales lead, a sign up, or a visitor who navigates to a key page on the site.

The decrease in click through rate (CTR) from 2005 onward is attributable to the growth of Google’s content network. Content network sites usually have lower CTR’s and low cost per click. In our experience, the content network produces acceptable results if the advertiser avoids over-bidding.

2016 Notes

Like last year, we continued to increase re-marketing, including display re-marketing, search re-marketing, and dynamic re-marketing. Through better targeting of ads I see improvements for both the advertiser, in terms of lower cost per conversion, and the advertising network, in terms of increasing cost per thousand impressions (CPM).

2015 Notes

This year we saw an increase in unit costs because there was a greater focus on search network, and re-marketing. These are higher value clicks than those obtained via the display network. Cost per conversion rose because of the increased use of call tracking, and spreadsheet uploads of conversion data, to measure “hard” conversions, rather than “soft” conversions.  When the conversion criteria is tightened, there are few conversions counted, but those tend to be more valuable.

2014 Notes

The sample size this year is 52 advertisers. I excluded a few very large advertisers who would have skewed the data to reflect their metrics. The idea here is to generate a survey reflecting a semi-representative sample of the whole market. When calculating conversion stats I eliminated about a dozen advertisers who didn’t have conversion tracking deployed.

2013 Notes

The sample size this year is 51 advertisers. Increasing ad position may reflect the increasing amount of mobile impressions. On a mobile screen there is less room for ads. Therefore, position may need to be higher to achieve an impression.

2012 Notes

In 2012 Google provided more opportunities to target their display network with options such as topic and interest targeting. As a result, we broadened the reach of many campaigns and bought more clicks at a lower cost per click. The market seems to be very competitive and costs per conversion have been moving up.

2011 Notes

Most remarkable is the rise in invalid clicks. Either there are more people trying to defraud advertisers by running scam sites, or perhaps Google has gotten better at detecting inimical activity.

The rise in cost per conversion may be the result of a change in business mix, improved ad positions, or a rise in competition. As more and more businesses discover the benefits of PPC advertising, it has become necessary for advertisers to wring every drop of value from each click. That can be done by raising conversion rates or raising the value per conversion.

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