High competition Last updated July 1, 2026

Retail Advertising Benchmarks 2026

Physical retail stores - often combines online and offline tracking

Avg. CPC
$2.27
Cost per click
Avg. CPM
$7.50
Cost per 1,000 impressions
Avg. CPA
$44.26
Cost per acquisition
Conversion Rate
6.01%
Visitors → conversions
How to read this page: These are cross-platform averages for Retail 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 Retail

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

#1 for Retail Low cost

Meta Ads

Facebook and Instagram advertising - highly targetable social ads

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

Google Display Network

Display advertising across Google's network of partner sites

CPC $0.75 CPM $3.50
Brand awareness Remarketing
#3 for Retail Low cost

Programmatic Display

Automated display ad buying across multiple exchanges

CPC $0.55 CPM $2.75
Scale Retargeting

All Platforms — Retail View

The current benchmark dataset tracks Retail 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 Retail

Retail benchmarks blur the online / offline line — most in-store revenue never makes it back to the ad platform, so pure ROAS metrics underestimate performance. Local Inventory Ads (Google) and Advantage+ Local Awareness (Meta) close some of that gap, and store-visit conversions from Google are worth turning on. Peak seasons (Q4, back-to-school) can double CPMs — budget flexibly around them.

About the Data

Update Schedule

Retail 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 Retail campaigns.