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Today, even small businesses that spend $5,000 a month on advertising are spreading their ad spend across five to six channels. Managing multichannel campaigns can make it difficult to track and measure performance.
How do you know if your ads are performing well for Google Ads or TikTok? Which are the important metrics you should pay attention to? And what is the average benchmark in your industry?
We compiled a list of benchmarks for five of the most important PPC ad channels: Google, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, and Bing and listed them in this definitive guide to advertising metrics. If you are currently running PPC campaigns for your brand or clients, this PPC dashboard template can save you 45hrs/week on reporting.
Find out how your ad campaigns are performing in relation to benchmarks for YOUR industry, whether you are B2B or B2C.
Advertising metrics are quantifiable measurements that track and monitor the performance of your marketing investments over a specific period of time. They give insights into how your advertisements contribute to the overall business goals, how much you’re spending on ad campaigns, and what kind of return you’re getting from them.
But, metrics are not to be confused with key performance indicators. While metrics are the granular numbers and percentages that you see on your reporting platform, KPIs are macro-level objectives that your marketing team predetermined as being closely related to your business goals.
For instance, there are hundreds of metrics related to different ad channels, CTR, CPC, link clicks, etc, but not all of them are going to qualify as KPIs. The best KPIs are those that connect the dots between metrics and sales or profit. Here are some examples:
However, to stay on top of your ad campaigns, you’ll need to know all the metrics like the back of your hand. Only then, you'll be able to take advantage of any opportunities (lower CPCs, higher link clicks, etc.) and adjust your budget as necessary.
So, without further ado, let’s look at industry benchmarks for PPC metrics below.
Google Ads is a tried-and-true marketing strategy to acquire more leads via your website. With over 40,000 searches made every second on Google, the opportunities for leads are boundless—if you follow our Google Ads optimization tips.
At the end of Q3 2023, Google Ads CPCs are back on the rise, even though click growth slowed down from 11% to 8% YOY. Ad spend on Google search and shopping ad in the US also jumped by 13% YOY.
One important thing to note going forward into 2024 is that phones drove the highest click growth for Google Search Ads, although companies seem to be investing more into desktop.
According to WordStream's 2023 Google Ads Benchmark report, these are the average metrics across all industries.
However, to effectively gauge ad performance and make better budgeting decisions, you'll need to look at industry-specific benchmarks. Below are some of them:
Click-through rate or CTR measures how often people who see your display or search ad end up clicking on it. This is a good metric to gauge how well your ad creative (e.g. videos, images) and your ad message (e.g. copy, title, jingles) are effective in arousing the interest of your target audience.
More importantly, it tells you whether you’re targeting the right people in the first place. A high CTR indicates that you’ve got your targeting down and your ads are helpful and relevant for the right users. If your CTR is suffering, it’s time to dissect your targeting strategy as well as your ad creatives and copy.
The average CTR for Google Ads across all industries in 2023 is 6.11%.
Here’s a detailed breakdown by industry (updated Nov 2023):
Source: WordStream
Here are some tips to improve CTR, according to WordStream:
1. Refine your keyword lists
2. Use emotional words
3. Refine your targeting
4. Use negative keywords
5. Put a special offer in the headline
6. Keep your copy simple
Cost per click or CPC refers to the amount of money you pay each time a person clicks on your ad. It’s directly related to the cost of your PPC campaign and the return on investment when compared against click-through rate. The lower the CPC and the higher the CTR, the better your ROI.
Average CPC across all industries in 2023 is $4.22.
See what the average CPC looks like in for your industry below (updated in Nov 2023):
Source: WordStream
Conversion rate is the average number of conversions per ad interaction shown as a percentage. Conversions occur when someone clicks or views your ad and then takes the action that you’ve defined as valuable to your business, e.g. sign up for a product demo or make a purchase. On Google Analytics, this is known as “Goal Completions”.
Conversion rates are a good yardstick of how well your ads provoke your leads and customers to act. But, note that they don’t always equal sales or revenue. It’s important to dive deeper into the value behind the action that you chose as the desired action and how it connects back to the bigger business goals.
The average conversion rate across all industries is 7.04% in 2023. Here’s a breakdown for each industry (updated in Nov 2023):
Source: WordStream
Facebook was voted as the social media platform with the largest return on investment and the lowest cost in 2021, compared to others like LinkedIn and YouTube, according to this Statista study.
Whether you’re thinking of launching a Facebook Ad campaign or you’re a seasoned pro, you’ll want to know how much others in your industry are spending on their campaigns.
Facebook offers four pricing options: you can either pay per click, per 1000 ad impressions, per action, or per engagement. Cost per impression and action are typically more expensive than cost per click or engagement.
In the final quarter of 2022, Meta Ads cost-per-mile (CPM) fell 22%, after a dramatic increase in 2021, as weaker demand for ads thins out ad auctions. On the flip side, impressions grew by 19% year over year, the strongest growth since the pandemic-induced surge in social media use in 2020.
Your total campaign cost will depend on the ultimate goal that you want to achieve from your marketing campaign and how big of a budget you have to work with.
Here are the averages across all industries (updated in 2023):
Source: BusinessofApps
See below for a detailed breakdown of key metrics for Facebook Ads:
Average cost-per-click varies depending on the objective of your marketing campaign. Studies have found that those that aim at app installs and lead generation are the most expensive, while those going for engagement and video views are one of the cheapest.
And here’s a complete breakdown by industry (last updated September 2022):
In the cost-per-mile bidding model, Facebook charges you per 1000 people who saw your ad. This metric is often used to gauge the cost-effectiveness of an ad campaign, as well as to compare the performance of different ad publishers and campaigns.
The CPM varies according to the target country of your ad campaigns (last updated September 2022):
Source: Statista
If you’re running an ad campaign based on the cost-per-action bidding model, you’ll only need to pay for actions that people take because of your ads. For instance, you can use CPA to monitor how much you pay on average for link clicks (an action) instead of impressions (non-action).
The CPA for each industry depends on the level of competition, the level of Facebook users' engagement with ads, and even on the price of the product or service that is advertised. Find out below (last updated September 2022).
Source: BusinessofApps
Similar to Google Ads, CTR measures how many of those who see your ads click on them. This is not a measure of cost, but of ad effectiveness. Here’s a breakdown across different industries (last updated September 2022):
Source: WordStream
While most marketers are already familiar with Google Ads and Facebook Ads, TikTok Advertising is a whole new arena that’s just starting to gain traction. Only 12% of B2C marketers deployed paid ads on TikTok in 2021, compared to 55% on Facebook, and the platform only accounted for 1% of total digital ad spend.
But, marketers are starting to catch on. 76% say they will devote a larger chunk of their ad spend on TikTok in 2022 due to the diverse creative opportunities, targeting capabilities, and measurement tools the platform offers.
Your decision to launch a TikTok ad campaign will largely depend on who you want to target. Undoubtedly, it’s the best platform to reach younger audiences (particularly Gen Zs) as 70% of TikTok’s users are aged 10 to 35. But we’re also starting to see older generations from 35 to 44 flocking to the platform.
TikTok is also a great source to target users in emerging economies in South East Asia and South America. As of January 2023, the top 10 countries with the highest TikTok users included Indonesia, Brazil, Vietnam, Philippines, and Mexico.
So, let’s get onto the question that we’re all thinking about.
There are a ton of different sources reporting different cost figures on Google, but Tiktok itself isn’t very transparent about their pricing policy.
But what we do know—from our experience working with hundreds of eCommerce clients—is that TikTok is a relatively inexpensive platform to advertise on. Many of our clients start seeing results for as little as $15 to $20 per day.
If you’re looking to sponsor an influencer, the cost varies according to the number of followers. Here’s a breakdown:
Source: Statista
Your actual advertising cost will vary depending on the ad format and the type of campaign you decide to launch.
Is it worth it? Let’s find out.
If you’re looking for engagement and brand awareness, TikTok is the place to be.
TikTok had the highest engagement rate per post compared to other types of social media like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, according to Statista.
Source: Statista
Certain ad formats result in higher engagement rates than others:
Source: BusinessofApps
If you’re sponsoring an influencer instead of creating ads, the engagement rates differ according to the number of followers an influencer has.
Source: Statista
If your goal is to get as many people to see your ads (instead of engaging with them), it’s a good idea to sponsor macro and mega influencers.
Source: Statista
But how do you measure what kind of return you’re getting out of influencer marketing campaigns? Here are some KPIs that luxury e-commerce brands use to measure campaign performance:
Source: Statista
Snapchat might seem like a sign of the times for Millennials at first glance, but data shows that over 60% of users are actually Gen Zs (13-24 year olds).
What might surprise you too is that in the second quarter of 2022, SnapChat reigned as the social media app with the highest daily open rate, according to Statista. Approximately 34% of all active Snapchat users in the US engaged with the mobile app daily, compared to 31% for Facebook and 23% for TikTok.
In early 2023, Snapchat reports that their advertising reach has grown exponentially over the three months leading up to the new year, reaching as high as 634.8 million users around the world. To put this in perspective, advertisers can now reach 78 million more audiences on Snapchat than the same time last year.
Source: Datareportal
Snapchat is also a great marketing strategy to reach Asian audiences. Most Snapchatters live in Asia with a concentrated majority in Southern Asia.
Since Snapchat fully shifted to an automated programmatic ad platform in 2018, it had sold 95% of its ads programmatically, at a 65% lower cost. The platform also introduced Ads Manager which you can use to monitor and optimize your ad performance.
How much you spend on your Snapchat ad campaigns and what your ROAS is will depend on your marketing goals. Here are some metrics to measure the success of your campaigns:
There isn’t a lot of data out there on benchmarks for Snapchat metrics, but below is a sample e-commerce campaign of a client of a UK social media agency back in 2021. The campaign targets the middle of the funnel (MOFU) with retargeting and the top of the funnel (TOFU) for prospecting.
Source: The Social Shepherd
Bing is like the middle-child of search engines—overshadowed and undervalued. While it’s true that Google rules a majority of the market share, Bing’s presence is steadily growing, especially in the US market. According to StatCounter, it grew from 11% to 15% in the first quarter of 2022.
The platform is also the preferred search engine for voice searchers and console users in the US, with a market share of 39%. Nearly half of the US population uses Bing every month and it scored a 71/100 on customer satisfaction.
Not to mention that Bing is the default search engine of Microsoft 10, used by 1 billion people around the world. Microsoft directs a lot of traffic to Bing through Cortana and the search bar at the bottom of the computer screen. That’s a lot of opportunity for organic traffic!
As the cherry on top, Bing ads score a higher click-through rate than Google ads in all industries—and a lower cost per click!
Bing might just be the crucial missing piece in your online advertising mix, depending on where your target audiences are and which industry you’re in. Let’s explore further:
The average CPC on Bing is over 44% less expensive than Google Ads at $1.54. Here’s a breakdown per industry:
Source: Wordstream
Ads related to careers and employment perform very well on Bing, while they perform the worst on Facebook. The B2B industry is another that enjoys above-average CTRs on Bing.
The career and development industry also enjoys the highest conversion rates on Bing:
We’ve presented a comprehensive list of metric benchmarks for five PPC channels. Can you imagine how painful it’d be to track all of them manually in spreadsheets? Fear not, that’s what Adriel is for.
Adriel’s marketing dashboard aggregates all your advertising data from hundreds of disparate channels in real-time and displays key metrics on a single interface. The software then tracks all data automatically to notify you for changes in performance. You can also set custom alarms that tell you if your campaigns are exceeding or falling behind certain goals. Get started today with our dashboard templates.
Adriel automates monotonous tasks to make marketing work more meaningful, reduces the time it takes to get valuable insights, and gives you more time out of your day to do things that matter.
Talk to our product specialist for custom integrations and dashboards!
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