Marketing · 11 Oct 2026
UTM tags: a simple guide to tracking every link you share
Add a few small tags to your links and your analytics will show exactly which post, email or ad sent each visitor.
Key takeaways
- WordStream by LocaliQ reports all-industry averages of 6.66% CTR, $5.26 CPC, 7.52% conversion rate and $70.11 cost per lead for search ads.
- Costs keep rising: Search Engine Land's coverage of the data reports average CPC climbing from $4.66 to $5.42.
- Benchmarks show what is typical. Your break-even ROAS shows what is profitable.
Every advertiser wants to know whether their Google Ads results are good. Industry benchmarks are a useful starting point, as long as you know where the numbers come from and what they leave out.
The 2025 benchmarks
WordStream by LocaliQ's benchmark data covers search campaigns that ran between April 2024 and March 2025. Across all industries it reports:
- Click-through rate (CTR): 6.66%
- Cost per click (CPC): $5.26
- Conversion rate: 7.52%
- Cost per lead: $70.11
Search Engine Land reports slightly different figures from WordStream's data: an average CPC of $5.42, up from $4.66 a year earlier, and a conversion rate of 8.18%. Report editions and data cuts differ, so treat any single number as a guide rather than a target.
Big differences by industry
Averages hide wide gaps. High-value services such as legal pay some of the highest prices per click, while click-through rates swing widely between sectors. Search Engine Journal's summary of the data is a good place to compare industries. Always compare yourself with your own industry first.
Check your own campaign numbers
Copy spend, impressions, clicks, conversions and revenue from your dashboard for the same date range, and the calculator below works out every metric at once.
Benchmarks vs profit
An average campaign is not automatically a profitable one. At a $5.26 CPC and a 7.52% conversion rate, each conversion costs about $70. If your profit per sale is lower than that, the campaign loses money however close you are to the benchmark. Work out your limit with the break-even ROAS calculator, and tag links from other channels with the UTM link builder so you can compare channels fairly.
Key terms
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Clicks divided by impressions. It shows how compelling your ad is.
- Cost per click (CPC)
- Ad spend divided by clicks.
- Conversion rate
- Conversions divided by clicks.
- Return on ad spend (ROAS)
- Revenue from ads divided by ad spend.