High competition Last updated July 1, 2026

Education Advertising Benchmarks 2026

Schools, online courses, and training programs

Avg. CPC
$4.81
Cost per click
Avg. CPM
$12.50
Cost per 1,000 impressions
Avg. CPA
$77.48
Cost per acquisition
Conversion Rate
13.14%
Visitors → conversions
How to read this page: These are cross-platform averages for Education 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 Education

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

#1 for Education Low cost

Meta Ads

Facebook and Instagram advertising - highly targetable social ads

CPC $1.10 CPM $7.80
Social engagement Mobile users
#2 for Education 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 Education Low cost

YouTube Ads

Video advertising on YouTube - skippable and non-skippable

CPM $7.00
Video tutorials Product demos

All Platforms — Education View

The current benchmark dataset tracks Education 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 Education

Education campaigns are highly seasonal — semester-start peaks and mid-summer application windows dominate conversion volume, so a rolling 12-month view is more useful than any single quarter. YouTube and Meta perform disproportionately well because the buying decision is emotional as often as it is rational (family, career, self-improvement). Watch out for elevated CPCs on branded competitor terms; university trademarks are heavily bid.

About the Data

Update Schedule

Education 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 Education campaigns.