Last updated: September 13, 2026
Google Ads Benchmarks for Ecommerce Brands (2026): Real CPC, CTR, ROAS, CPA & CPM Data
Real Google Ads performance benchmarks from 25 ecommerce accounts across the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, covering January 2025 through Q3 2026: average CPC, CTR, conversion rate, ROAS, CPA, and CPM, broken down by Performance Max, Shopping, Search, Demand Gen, Display, and YouTube, by country and by quarter. First-party data, not a scraped roundup.
Most "Google Ads benchmarks" articles online cite the same handful of secondhand numbers, traced back to survey panels or self-reported data nobody independently verified. This one doesn't.
Every number below comes from real Google Ads accounts Shopiator manages for ecommerce clients: January 2025 through Q3 2026 (partial), six campaign types, four countries. No client names are disclosed anywhere in this data.
Key Takeaways
- ▶Performance Max was the largest channel measured, averaging a 4.37x ROAS across 25 accounts
- ▶Search delivered the highest well-powered ROAS at 5.96x, on an 8.36% conversion rate, more than double Shopping or PMax
- ▶Every major channel's ROAS peaked in Q4 2025: Search hit 8.03x (up from 3.91x in Q1), Shopping hit 3.57x, Demand Gen hit 6.29x, and Display hit 7.58x
- ▶UK Search ran a 14.01x ROAS on a $0.57 average CPC, the strongest single country-channel combination in the dataset
- ▶Performance Max ROAS climbed to 5.91x by Q3 2026, its strongest quarter measured
- ▶Demand Gen had the lowest average CPC of any channel measured, at $0.71
Methodology
This data was pulled directly from the Google Ads API across 25 ecommerce Google Ads accounts actively managed by Shopiator, all with real ad spend and campaigns targeting the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, or Australia at some point in the period covered.
It covers January 1, 2025 through September 13, 2026 (Q3 2026 is in progress and shown as a partial quarter). The number of active accounts in the dataset grew over that window, from 16 in 2025 to 25 by mid-2026, as Shopiator's client base scaled; quarter-over-quarter changes reflect a mix of real performance shifts and that growing account base, not performance alone.
Campaign type is classified directly from each campaign's advertising channel type in the API (Search, Shopping, Performance Max, Demand Gen, Display, or Video), not from campaign naming, which we found too inconsistent across accounts and years to trust for public data.
We deliberately did not split Search or Shopping into branded vs. non-branded, or Performance Max into feed-only vs. full-build, for this release: naming conventions vary too much across accounts of different ages to classify that split reliably from the API alone. We're building a cleaner signal for that (asset-group-level data for the PMax split, keyword-level brand matching for Search and Shopping) and will publish it as an update once it's verified.
Every metric below is a rate (CPC, CTR, conversion rate, CPA, CPM, ROAS), never a sum or a total. No click counts, conversion counts, impression counts, or spend figures are published anywhere on this page, to keep client-level account data confidential. Cells with too little underlying volume to be statistically meaningful are left out of the tables entirely rather than shown with a low-confidence caveat.
Q4 Is Where the Gap Shows Up
Every channel with a full year of history peaked in Q4 2025, and not by a little: Search ROAS more than doubled from Q1 (3.91x) to Q4 (8.03x), Display jumped from 5.24x to 7.58x, and Demand Gen went from its lowest quarter to its best. That's holiday demand lifting conversion rate across the board, and it rewards accounts that are already structured correctly before Q4 starts, not ones scrambling to fix tracking or feed issues in November. If your account isn't set up to capture that lift yet, Q4 2026 is closer than it looks.
Performance Max
The largest channel in the dataset, across 25 accounts, averaging a $1.53 CPC, 1.17% CTR, 3.32% conversion rate, $46.10 CPA, and 4.37x ROAS.
| Country | Avg CPC | CTR | Conv. Rate | CPA | CPM | ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | $1.70 | 1.15% | 3.17% | $53.58 | $19.58 | 4.57x |
| UK | $0.79 | 1.23% | 4.46% | $17.67 | $9.70 | 3.42x |
| CA | $1.01 | 1.41% | 2.53% | $39.74 | $14.18 | 2.51x |
| AU | $1.16 | 0.93% | 4.56% | $25.39 | $10.75 | 2.64x |
January 2025 through Q3 2026, by country.
| Quarter | Avg CPC | CTR | Conv. Rate | CPA | ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | $1.39 | 1.06% | 2.07% | $66.91 | 2.77x |
| Q2 2025 | $1.69 | 1.22% | 2.51% | $67.24 | 2.44x |
| Q3 2025 | $1.31 | 1.03% | 2.16% | $60.69 | 3.73x |
| Q4 2025 | $1.37 | 1.69% | 2.28% | $59.95 | 3.36x |
| Q1 2026 | $1.81 | 1.07% | 2.66% | $67.98 | 3.72x |
| Q2 2026 | $1.54 | 1.23% | 4.00% | $38.58 | 3.86x |
| Q3 2026* | $1.50 | 1.09% | 3.89% | $38.59 | 5.91x |
All countries combined. *Q3 2026 is a partial quarter (through September 13). CPA held steady even as conversion rate rose through the period.
Google Shopping
Across 23 accounts, averaging a $1.32 CPC, 1.00% CTR, 2.24% conversion rate, $59.09 CPA, and 2.81x ROAS.
| Country | Avg CPC | CTR | Conv. Rate | CPA | CPM | ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | $1.34 | 1.00% | 2.04% | $65.60 | $13.33 | 2.82x |
| UK | $0.81 | 0.82% | 3.85% | $21.03 | $6.61 | 3.77x |
| AU | $1.91 | 1.57% | 5.54% | $34.44 | $29.90 | 2.06x |
| CA | $0.86 | 1.28% | 1.57% | $55.00 | $11.05 | 1.97x |
January 2025 through Q3 2026, by country.
| Quarter | Avg CPC | CTR | Conv. Rate | CPA | ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | $1.47 | 0.87% | 1.97% | $74.67 | 2.60x |
| Q2 2025 | $1.00 | 1.00% | 1.11% | $90.45 | 2.25x |
| Q3 2025 | $1.32 | 0.91% | 2.07% | $63.65 | 2.80x |
| Q4 2025 | $1.97 | 0.90% | 3.31% | $59.51 | 3.57x |
| Q1 2026 | $1.88 | 0.81% | 2.76% | $67.97 | 2.73x |
| Q2 2026 | $1.14 | 1.08% | 1.90% | $60.29 | 2.81x |
| Q3 2026* | $1.04 | 1.21% | 2.54% | $41.05 | 2.60x |
All countries combined. *Q3 2026 is a partial quarter. CPA fell from $90.45 in Q2 2025 to $41.05 by Q3 2026.
Google Search
Across 24 accounts, averaging a $1.92 CPC, 10.23% CTR, 8.36% conversion rate, $22.92 CPA, and 5.96x ROAS, the highest well-powered ROAS of any channel measured.
| Country | Avg CPC | CTR | Conv. Rate | CPA | CPM | ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | $2.35 | 9.80% | 7.67% | $30.59 | $230.10 | 5.51x |
| UK | $0.57 | 12.45% | 10.84% | $5.29 | $71.45 | 14.01x |
| CA | $1.15 | 13.05% | 7.16% | $16.07 | $150.11 | 5.76x |
| AU | $1.98 | 6.93% | 9.97% | $19.90 | $137.39 | 3.44x |
January 2025 through Q3 2026, by country. UK Search is the standout combination in the entire dataset: the lowest CPC, the highest CTR and conversion rate, and by far the highest ROAS.
| Quarter | Avg CPC | CTR | Conv. Rate | CPA | ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | $2.66 | 8.28% | 4.36% | $60.92 | 3.91x |
| Q2 2025 | $2.44 | 9.56% | 5.59% | $43.60 | 5.62x |
| Q3 2025 | $1.74 | 9.43% | 5.60% | $31.09 | 6.35x |
| Q4 2025 | $1.67 | 11.05% | 8.14% | $20.52 | 8.03x |
| Q1 2026 | $1.70 | 10.88% | 7.18% | $23.67 | 6.00x |
| Q2 2026 | $1.83 | 11.01% | 9.51% | $19.27 | 6.70x |
| Q3 2026* | $1.98 | 9.96% | 10.90% | $18.14 | 5.26x |
All countries combined. *Q3 2026 is a partial quarter. Conversion rate has climbed almost every quarter since Q1 2025, from 4.36% to 10.90%.
Demand Gen
Across 20 accounts, averaging a $0.71 CPC, the lowest of any channel measured, a 0.94% CTR, 1.82% conversion rate, $39.01 CPA, and 3.11x ROAS.
| Country | Avg CPC | CTR | Conv. Rate | CPA | CPM | ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | $0.77 | 0.86% | 1.99% | $38.63 | $6.64 | 3.23x |
| UK | $0.32 | 1.57% | 0.98% | $32.33 | $5.01 | 2.16x |
| CA | $0.33 | 3.33% | 0.38% | $87.45 | $10.98 | 1.42x |
| AU | $0.66 | 1.05% | 1.77% | $37.20 | $6.92 | 1.85x |
January 2025 through Q3 2026, by country.
| Quarter | Avg CPC | CTR | Conv. Rate | CPA | ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q2 2025 | $0.44 | 0.93% | 1.23% | $35.78 | 1.67x |
| Q3 2025 | $0.57 | 0.95% | 2.20% | $25.93 | 6.16x |
| Q4 2025 | $1.00 | 0.62% | 4.66% | $21.38 | 6.29x |
| Q1 2026 | $0.88 | 0.61% | 2.17% | $40.48 | 4.06x |
| Q2 2026 | $0.60 | 1.02% | 1.15% | $51.74 | 2.74x |
| Q3 2026* | $0.74 | 1.08% | 1.78% | $41.50 | 2.19x |
All countries combined. *Q3 2026 is a partial quarter.
YouTube (Video)
Entirely from US-targeting accounts, averaging a $1.48 CPC, 0.58% CTR, 9.12% conversion rate, $16.29 CPA, and 12.34x ROAS, the highest raw ROAS in the dataset. Volume in this dataset was only meaningful through Q3 2025; the accounts running Video here scaled it down afterward, so treat this as a historical snapshot, not a current benchmark.
| Quarter | Avg CPC | CTR | Conv. Rate | CPA | ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | $1.14 | 0.68% | 2.98% | $38.28 | 4.44x |
| Q2 2025 | $2.32 | 0.66% | 12.44% | $18.61 | 10.15x |
| Q3 2025 | $1.33 | 0.46% | 17.56% | $7.59 | 28.49x |
Display Remarketing
Almost entirely US, averaging a $1.51 CPC, 0.42% CTR, 3.96% conversion rate, $38.17 CPA, and 5.06x ROAS.
| Quarter | Avg CPC | CTR | Conv. Rate | CPA | ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | $1.85 | 0.37% | 5.95% | $31.15 | 5.24x |
| Q2 2025 | $1.63 | 0.27% | 5.35% | $30.54 | 5.96x |
| Q3 2025 | $2.94 | 0.30% | 8.60% | $34.22 | 5.80x |
| Q4 2025 | $1.44 | 0.54% | 5.82% | $24.73 | 7.58x |
| Q1 2026 | $1.22 | 0.50% | 2.08% | $58.46 | 3.60x |
| Q2 2026 | $1.99 | 0.31% | 3.53% | $56.49 | 3.86x |
| Q3 2026* | $0.98 | 0.60% | 2.44% | $40.35 | 5.09x |
All countries combined. *Q3 2026 is a partial quarter.
Data Source
This data is aggregated and anonymized from real Google Ads accounts managed by Shopiator. No client names, brand names, or account-level figures are disclosed. We'll refresh this page each quarter as new data becomes available.
Every channel above peaked in Q4 2025. If your account isn't structured to capture that same lift in Q4 2026, book a 30-minute call and we'll pull your actual numbers side by side with these benchmarks before the quarter starts.
Book a CallFrequently Asked Questions
What is the average CPC for Google Ads ecommerce campaigns?
It varies significantly by campaign type. Across 25 ecommerce accounts from January 2025 through Q3 2026, average CPC was $1.53 for Performance Max, $1.32 for Google Shopping, $1.92 for Search, $0.71 for Demand Gen, and $1.51 for Display remarketing. Search runs among the highest CPCs because it's the most bottom-funnel, highest-intent channel of the group.
What is a good ROAS for Performance Max campaigns?
Across the accounts measured, Performance Max averaged a 4.37x ROAS, with meaningful variation by country: 4.57x in the US, 3.42x in the UK, 2.64x in Australia, and 2.51x in Canada. Below 3x is worth investigating on PMax specifically, since feed quality and asset group setup drive most of the variance.
What is the average CTR for Google Shopping ads?
1.00% across the dataset, with the US at 1.00%, Australia at 1.57%, Canada at 1.28%, and the UK at 0.82%. Shopping CTR runs structurally lower than Search because product listing ads compete visually for attention rather than matching an explicit search query as directly.
What is the average conversion rate for Google Search ads on ecommerce accounts?
8.36% across the full dataset. By country, the UK converts highest at 10.84%, followed by Australia at 9.97%, the US at 7.67%, and Canada at 7.16%. Search converts at roughly 2.5x the rate of Shopping or Performance Max because it captures higher-intent, often branded, queries.
What is the average CPA for Performance Max campaigns?
$46.10 across the full dataset, ranging from $17.67 in the UK and $25.39 in Australia up to $39.74 in Canada and $53.58 in the US. CPA by country tracks closely with each market's competitive density and average order value, not just bid strategy.
Did Google Ads performance for ecommerce brands improve from 2025 into 2026?
Yes, most clearly on Search and Performance Max. Search ROAS rose from 3.91x in Q1 2025 to 8.03x in Q4 2025, and Performance Max ROAS climbed to 5.91x by Q3 2026, its strongest quarter measured, while conversion rate nearly doubled over the same stretch.
Why does every channel's ROAS peak in Q4?
Q4 2025 was the strongest quarter of the year across every channel measured: Search hit 8.03x ROAS (up from 3.91x in Q1), Shopping hit 3.57x, Demand Gen hit 6.29x, and Display hit 7.58x. Holiday-quarter demand lifts conversion rate across the board, which is exactly why accounts that aren't structurally ready before Q4 starts leave the most money on the table.
Why is average CPM so much higher for Google Search than for Display or YouTube?
Because Search ads generate far fewer impressions per dollar spent than networks built around impression volume. A Search ad only shows when someone types a matching query, so the dataset shows Search CPM averaging $195.97, compared to $17.84 for Performance Max and $6.66 for Demand Gen. Compare CPM only within the same channel type, never across channels.
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