CTR, CPC, CPA and Average Conversion in Google Ads

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We all want to create ads with the highest CTRs and best conversion rates, but what may be a good metric in one industry may not be a good metric for another.

WordStream set out to analyze campaigns and came up with these interesting data points broken down by category:

Average CTR in Google Ads by industry, for Search and Display Network.
Average CPC in Google Ads by industry, for Search and Display Network.
Average conversion rate in Google Ads by industry, for Search and Display Network.
Average cost per action in Google Ads by industry, for Search and Display Network.
These Google Ads metrics are targeted for the following industries: Consulting, Automotive, B2B, Consumer Services, Dating & Personal, Ecommerce, Education, Job Services, Finance & Insurance, Healthcare, Home Goods, Industrial Services, Legal, Real Estate, Technology, and Travel & Hospitality

Average CTR on Google Ads by industry

Dating sites and personal services really click with PPC, having the highest CTR of 6%. Other industries with high CTRs include Legal Services, Autos, and “Travel.”

When this data was originally collected and analyzed in 2015, legal services were far below average, working hard to attract attention in the SERPs (with a relatively low CTR of 1.35%), due in part to restrictions chile phone number from Google and some government organizations. Legal services advertisers have had to rethink their approach to doing PPC well.

Other industries that sometimes have low CTRs are eCommerce (2.69%) and technology (2.09%).

The average CTR on Google Ads across all industries is 3.17% for search and 0.46% for the display network.

Average Cost Per Click (CPC) on Google Ads by Industry


It’s no surprise that legal services have some of the highest CPCs on the search network. “Lawyer” is one of the top 10 most expensive keywords on Google and Bing. The average CPC in this industry is $6.75.

While most industries have fairly low CPCs on the Google Display Network, the dating and personal services industry is a notable exception, paying $1.49 per click on the Google Display Network. Certainly, some of their problems could be due to a low CTR on Display which hurts their Display Quality Score quite a bit, making them pay much more per click.

The average cost per click on Google Ads across all industries is $2.69 for search and $0.63 for the display network.

Average conversion rates in Google Ads by industry


A few years ago, the Finance and Insurance industries had fantastic conversions in both search (7.19%) and display (1.75%).

However, this new data shows that the dating industry is far ahead, with conversion rates of over 9%. Other industries that stand out are legal, consumer services and automobiles.

In many cases, the best converting advertisers aren't afraid to change their bid or conversion flow to increase their conversion rates.

E-commerce customers don’t have many options to change their offer and consequently suffer from one of the worst conversion rates. But on the bright side, they often have huge inventories, which allows them to not have to review the copy for each of their keywords as thoroughly. Although removing barriers to online shopping will always help CRO, Google Ads advertisers should focus on improving the performance of keywords with the highest purchase intent.

The average conversion rate on Google Ads across all industries is 3.75% for search and 0.77% for the display network.

Average cost per action on Google Ads by industry


CPAs have changed quite a bit over the past few years. The lowest cost per action across all industries is in the automotive industry, at just $33.52 per share. B2B, real estate, and technology companies, on the other hand, have costs per action over $100. But keep in mind that the lifetime value of a new customer in these industries is very high, making them worth the investment.