This document provides a summary of search, display, and social media advertising benchmarks for various industries in Q1 2018. It includes the following key metrics:
- Average click-through rates, cost-per-clicks, conversion rates, and cost-per-acquisitions for search and display advertising across different industries.
- Average click-through rates, cost-per-clicks, conversion rates, and cost-per-actions for Facebook ads across all industries.
- Engagement rates, post frequencies, and relationships between posts and engagement for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter organic posts for several industries from 2017 data.
The document analyzes advertising and social media metrics by industry to help companies benchmark their
2. This report gives you the data you need to
truly benchmark your search and social
performance against your industry.
After all, we know from experience that
with great data comes great growth
strategy (and bigger marketing budgets!).
SHALYN DEVER
Co-Founder & Senior Growth Consultant
4. Report Methodology & Source
• Study:
• Top 20 US based industries performance data up to April 208.
• Advocacy, Auto, B2B, Consumer Services, Dating & Personals, E-Commerce, Education, Employment Services, Finance &
Insurance, Health & Medical, Home Goods, Industrial Services, Legal, Real Estate, Technology, and Travel & Hospitality.
• Keywords:
• The figures omit advertisers who were exclusively bidding on branded terms. Averages presented were median values to
prevent a large advertiser with particularly good or bad performance from skewing the average.
• Conversions
• These conversions are defined as the useful measure of success for each account. For retailers, that may be a sale - for
others such as real estate that may be a form fill or a phone call.
Data Source: Wordstream
5. Average Click-Through Rate by Industry
• The average CTR across all industries is 3.71% on search network and 0.46% on display network.
6. Average Cost Per Click by Industry
• The average CPC across all industries is $2.69 on search network and $0.63 on display network.
7. Average Conversion Rates by Industry
• The average CR across all industries is 3.75% on search network and 0.77% on display network.
8. Average Cost per Acquisition by Industry
• The average CPA (action or acquisition) across all industries is $49.86 on search network and $75.51 on display network.
15. Report Methodology & Source
• Study:
• 10 top industries from January-December 2017: Fashion, Food & Beverages, Health & Beauty, Higher Ed, Home Decor,
Hotels & Resorts, Influencers, Media, Nonprofits, and Sports Teams.
• Engagement:
• A measurable interaction on social media posts, including likes, comments, favorites, retweets, shares, and reactions
• Data Sample:
• Representative sample of national and international companies in each industry by selecting 150 companies at random
from each industry from our database of over 150,000 companies. Companies selected had active presences on Facebook,
Instagram, and Twitter as of January 2017, and had Facebook fan counts between 25,000 and 1 million as of the same
date.
Data Source: Rival IQ
16. All Industry Facebook Engagement
• Less than two tenths of one
percent separate the lowest
engagement from the highest
engagement rates.
17. Facebook Posts per Day
• Without media (a big outlier),
the average of about one
Facebook post a day may
reflect a brand’s reliance on
Facebook algorithms.
18. Facebook Posts vs. Engagement
• Food & Beverages and
Influencers lead, but only by
one-hundredth of a percent.
19. Instagram Engagement
• Higher Ed outperforms every
industry by a wide margin,
with highly regarded
industries like Fashion and
Health & Beauty performing
the worst.
20. Instagram Posts per Day
• Industries in this study post
as frequently as once a day to
every three days. With such
wildly different frequencies,
dialing into your audience is
key.
21. Instagram Posts vs. Engagement
• Engagement doesn’t
correlate with posting more.
Higher Ed’s higher
engagement rate may reflect
a hyper-targeted and
engaged audience.
22. All Industry: Twitter Engagement
• Compared with last year’s
Twitter engagement rates,
this year’s data is less
consistent across industries.
23. Twitter Posts per Day
• Industries from last year’s
study decreased or remained
flat in their frequency with
the exception of Media.
Given today’s media
landscape, this doesn’t
surprise us…
24. Twitter Posts vs. Engagement
• Engagement doesn’t
correlate with posting
frequency. And the adage
that more is better doesn’t
prove true on Twitter.