Medium competition Last updated July 1, 2026

B2B Advertising Benchmarks 2026

Business-to-business services - higher CPA due to longer sales cycles

Avg. CPC
$5.87
Cost per click
Avg. CPM
$16.00
Cost per 1,000 impressions
Avg. CPA
$93.69
Cost per acquisition
Conversion Rate
4.85%
Visitors → conversions
How to read this page: These are cross-platform averages for B2B as a category. Your actual costs will vary by platform, geography, audience size, ad quality, and seasonality. Below you'll find the platforms that historically perform best for this vertical, plus a link back to /benchmarks for the full platform-by-platform reference table.

Top Platforms for B2B

The three platforms with the strongest historical performance for B2B campaigns. Click a card to see the full platform benchmark hub.

#1 for B2B High cost

LinkedIn Ads

B2B professional network advertising - premium pricing

CPC $6.50 CPM $36.00
B2B marketing Professional services
#2 for B2B High cost

Google Ads PPC

Search advertising on Google - pay per click on search results

CPC $5.42
High intent searches Local businesses
#3 for B2B Low cost

Programmatic Display

Automated display ad buying across multiple exchanges

CPC $0.55 CPM $2.75
Scale Retargeting

All Platforms — B2B View

The current benchmark dataset tracks B2B at the industry-aggregate level (the KPIs above) rather than platform-by-platform within this vertical. For platform-level CPC and CPM comparisons across the full list of 11 platforms, head to the main benchmarks reference.

View the full platform-by-platform table

Considerations for B2B

B2B sales cycles routinely run 30–180 days, which distorts direct-attribution CPA and makes CPC / CPM the more honest short-term signal. LinkedIn dominates the top-of-funnel by intent quality but is 3–6× more expensive than Meta or Google on a CPC basis — plan spend accordingly. Retargeting and lead-nurture email sequences almost always outperform pure prospecting for close rates.

About the Data

Update Schedule

B2B benchmark data is refreshed quarterly. The current dataset was last updated July 1, 2026.

Next scheduled update: October 1, 2026.

Sources

  • WordStream/LocaliQ 2026 Google Ads Benchmarks (May 2026, n=13,000 campaigns)
  • LocaliQ 2026 Search Advertising Benchmarks
  • WordStream Comprehensive Guide to Online Advertising Costs 2026
  • WordStream Facebook Ads Benchmarks 2025
  • WordStream 2026 TikTok Ads Cost Guide

Put These Benchmarks to Work

Free calculators to plan, measure, and optimize B2B campaigns.