That’s a promising start for any new marketing channel.

But advertising on ChatGPT, and AI search in general, has nuances that make it better suited to certain businesses and industries.

In this guide, I’ll break down the basics of the new ad options, explore their pros and cons, and share insights from experienced marketers to help you decide if ChatGPT ads are worth your investment now.

Contents

• Are ChatGPT ads worth it?
• What are ChatGPT ads?
• How ChatGPT ads work
• What are the pros and cons of investing in ChatGPT ads?
• How much do ChatGPT ads cost?
• Who should consider ChatGPT ads?
• ChatGPT ads FAQs

Are your Google Ads delivering the best possible results? Find out with the Free Google Ads Grader

Are ChatGPT ads worth it?

ChatGPT ads can be worth it for businesses willing and able to experiment. To narrow it down further, ask these questions to see if they’re a smart play for your business now:

• Are my customers using AI search to research the problems my products or services solve?
• Can ads there reach and convert customers cost-effectively for my business?
• Do I have the time or budget to experiment with another marketing channel?

“There is an advantage to getting in early because advertisers can start learning what messaging works in this environment,” said Katia Hausman, VP of Product for LocaliQ. “But I wouldn’t test it just to say you are there. It makes the most sense when your customers are already using AI as part of how they research, compare options, and make decisions.”

As you’ll see, some businesses and industries are a natural fit for ChatGPT ads, while others are better off spending elsewhere. Let’s dig into the details to see which group you’re in.

What are ChatGPT ads?

ChatGPT ads are paid placements that appear during conversations in the app. They’re based on the context of the current conversation and—when a user has personalization enabled—previous ChatGPT experiences.

For example, when you ask ChatGPT to give you a project list for a new fence, it may show an ad for ready-made fence sections.

Source

How ChatGPT ads work

ChatGPT ads work on a bidding system like other paid digital placements, but their ability to understand conversational context makes them unique.

Here’s how these ads work from both the users’ and advertisers’ perspective to help you decide if they fit your marketing goals.

Placement

ChatGPT ads show up below the conversation you’re having on the platform. As you’ll see, there are a few versions, but they’re all clearly separated from the organic answer and labeled as an ad.

ChatGPT ads appear below and are separated from organic answers. 

Visibility

ChatGPT ads only appear for users on the Free and ChatGPT Go tiers. People paying for Plus, Pro, Business, or Enterprise subscriptions do not see ads on the platform.

Users also have some control. They can dismiss individual ads, turn off personalization, and clear their data history to change which ads they see.

Ad formats

There have been as many as six variations of ChatGPT ads documented.

The standard format includes a headline with a favicon (logo), a brief description, and a visual creative.

OpenAI is already expanding the ad types available. They’ve recently added a scrollable carousel allowing you to display several products side-by-side.

Source

Expect the options and variations to change quickly in the early stages of ChatGPT ads as both OpenAI and users learn what works best.

Targeting

ChatGPT ads use something called context hints instead of keywords to target ads. Context hints are one- or two-sentence descriptions you give OpenAI’s Ads Manager to tell it when and where your ad will be relevant.

This is one of the biggest differences between ChatGPT ads and traditional search ads. Search ad platforms rely on literal keyword overlap. ChatGPT uses semantic embeddings to understand the underlying meaning of your context hint.

For example, you might bid on the term “emergency plumber” in Google Ads. In ChatGPT ads, you’d give it a context hint like, “Homeowner dealing with a burst pipe, flooding, or water leak who needs a plumber fast, often outside business hours.”

OpenAI then matches ads with the context hints you gave it to the user’s current conversation, past chats, and past interactions with ads. Advertisers never see those details, though.

Safeguards and privacy

There are a few safety nets built into ChatGPT ads. For example, ads do not show for users known to be under the age of 18. Ads are also automatically suppressed in conversations involving sensitive topics like health and politics.

OpenAI also says it keeps users’ chats private. They won’t share chat history, names, precise locations, etc., with advertisers.

Bidding and budgeting

ChatGPT ads run on an auction. You choose a goal like views (CPM or reach) or clicks (CPC) and set a maximum bid at the ad-group level.

There is a “conversion” option, too, but it’s based on optimized cost per click (oCPC). That means you pay for clicks from users likely to take an action (subscribe, buy, etc.) instead of paying for actual conversions.

The highest bid doesn’t automatically win. OpenAI uses a relevance-weighted, second-price auction. A more relevant ad can beat a bigger bid, and the winner usually pays just enough to beat the next ad (learn about paid search strategies here for comparison).

OpenAI considers an ad’s relevance to the conversation as well as the bid amount when placing ads.

OpenAI recently added automated bidding options and view-through conversions to see when a buyer converts within a day of seeing an eligible ad.

Buying ChatGPT ads won’t boost your organic visibility there. This will: The Complete AI Search Toolkit: Practical Strategies to Get Found by AI

What are the pros and cons of investing in ChatGPT ads now?

ChatGPT ads are still new and evolving quickly. There can be benefits to being an early adopter. But early volatility and a still somewhat niche shopper base mean not every business can take advantage. Here is the good and the bad of trying ChatGPT ads now.

Pros

Here’s what you get for jumping into ChatGPT ads now.

High-intent engagements

ChatGPT ads show up right when people are actively looking for a solution. Your product or service fits organically into the conversation, maybe even before the buyer knew they needed it.

“What makes [ChatGPT ads] interesting is that you are reaching people while they are working through a problem or decision,” Katia said. “Sometimes that’s before they’ve even turned that need into a traditional search.”

ChatGPT ads fit into the context of the conversation to help improve conversions.

Simplified research

Keyword research sits at the center of a successful search ads campaign. It’s a pain to do. You can spend hours digging through tools, figuring out search intent, and building lists that are out of date as soon as customer behavior changes.

ChatGPT ads semantic matching cuts out a lot of that work.

“ChatGPT Ads aren’t based on exact-match keywords like Google,” said David Meerman Scott, author, speaker, and expert in fandom marketing. “Instead, advertisers tell the system context hints that describe the conversations, topics, or keywords where their products or services may be relevant. That means there isn’t as much research required to get going.”

Instead of a spreadsheet full of potential keywords, you can think about what you would ask if you were your customer. And it may even be easier than that. “You can just point to a landing page and let the ChatGPT Ads AI take it from there,” David added.

Early-mover advantage (less competition)

Depending on which source you trust, the businesses advertising on ChatGPT number in the 10 to 10s of thousands. It’s closer to 7 million on Google.

Lower competition means you’ll have a fighting chance at surfacing for your ideal customer. That’s not likely to be true forever.

“As marketers gain experience with ChatGPT ads and OpenAI figures out ways to show a positive ROI, I expect advertising costs to increase significantly,” David said. “Now is the time to experiment.”

Cons

There are downsides to getting into a new marketing channel early. Especially one that’s used for deeper research instead of a quick search.

ChatGPT ads are still in beta

OpenAI’s help docs refer to the platform as Ads Manager Beta. Meaning, you’ll be advertising on a platform that’s still being built.

OpenAI continues to add new features to ChatGPT ads, like conversion-optimized bidding.

The result is a frequently changing platform. There have already been several updates to rules, features, and ad types. What works right now may not in a few weeks as these updates roll out.

Results are not stable

Google Ads has years of experiments and campaigns to back up best practices there. ChatGPT has a few months of early data, and it seems to vary greatly by advertiser.

On Reddit, advertisers talk about a mixed bag of results. Some say they’re getting cheaper clicks for local services, while others complain about low-quality leads and platform glitches. One advertiser said visitors from ChatGPT ads were only sticking around for 5 seconds on average.

Even with good initial results, it’s difficult to budget for long-term impact as the platform matures. There’s also not a reliable playbook yet from other marketers to test and prove what works.

They have a relatively narrow audience reach

You can’t reach all ChatGPT users with ads. And many people won’t use an AI tool like ChatGPT for high-value, fast-conversion searches.

Unlike Google, which has a pretty universal reach (most users see ads), only some people who frequent ChatGPT do.

“A significant drawback to the ChatGPT ad program is that the ads are only shown to the free tier of ChatGPT users,” David said. “That means that many business users who pay for the premium plans won’t see ads. That’s a problem for B2B marketers.”

Also, many people will prefer Google Maps and Apple Maps for a quick search of “Coffee shops near me” or “Home improvement stores open now.” AI search platforms like ChatGPT are great for deeper research, but they can’t compete with the convenience of quickly searching a map app for immediate needs.

How much do ChatGPT ads cost?

There’s a wide range of costs in advertising, even for established channels like search ads (we see search ad CPCs from under $2 to nearly $10 depending on the industry in our benchmarks reports).

Digiday reported CPMs of around $25 in April.

They seem to be falling and, depending on your industry, competitive with other platforms.

“I’m seeing about 0.5% click-through rates and about $10 CPMs via ChatGPT ads,” David said. “I remember way back in the early days of Google Ads when these sorts of costs were the norm. Now many high-value keywords on Google are fabulously expensive!”

There’s not enough historical data to have a high level of confidence in ChatGPT ads costs. The best bet is to run a controlled test.

Who should consider ChatGPT ads?

There’s a lot up in the air about what will work on ChatGPT ads. If you have the budget, you may find a lucrative new source of leads.

“Any business that is already prioritizing paid advertising on social networks, or Google, or other online channels should experiment right now,” David said.

That’s particularly true if you sell something people need to research before buying.

“I think the businesses that should be testing ChatGPT Ads now are the ones where customers naturally come to ChatGPT to make a decision,” Katia said. “Travel and hospitality, retail and ecommerce, and home services are good examples because people are already using ChatGPT to plan trips, compare products, research repairs, and figure out what to do next.”

Travel ads work well in ChatGPT because people use AI to research their next trip.

You should consider trialing ChatGPT ads if you:

• Sell into an approved category: Check OpenAI’s ad policies to see if your industry and topics are approved.
• Already track your leads and sales: If you can measure calls, forms, and purchases on other channels, you’ll be able to tell whether ChatGPT is delivering results.
• Have budget you can afford to lose: There’s no minimum spend, but benchmarks are thin, so treat your first campaign as a learning cost.
• Sell something people research before buying: Ads show up below relevant conversations, so they fit best when someone is comparing options.
• Can run a small, focused test: Pick one service, one location, one budget cap, and a clear “keep going or stop” number before you launch.

ChatGPT ads FAQs

There’s a lot of new information to learn about ChatGPT ads. This quick list of FAQs will help you get a handle on it all.

When did ChatGPT launch ads?

OpenAI announced its ad plans on January 16, 2026, and began testing ads with US users on the Free and Go plans on February 9, 2026. The self-serve Ads Manager opened to all US businesses on May 5, 2026.

What are ChatGPT ads like?

ChatGPT ads appear at the bottom of an answer when there’s a relevant sponsored product or service. They’re clearly labeled as an ad and visually separated from the regular response. OpenAI picks which ad to show by matching advertisers’ ads to the topic of the conversation, the user’s past chats, and their past interactions with ads.

Do ChatGPT ads affect organic mentions?

No. OpenAI’s “answer independence” principle means ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives users. You can’t buy your way into ChatGPT’s recommendations, so your listings, reviews, and website content still determine whether you get mentioned.

Should you invest in ChatGPT ads?

ChatGPT ads are new. But with so many users engaging with a high buying intent, they’re also very tempting.

If your customers tend to ask more than one question about a product in AI search, you sell something OpenAI has approved for advertising, and you can spare the budget if the return isn’t great, then ChatGPT ads could be worth experimenting with.

The post Are ChatGPT Ads Worth It? Pros, Cons, Costs, & Who Should Try Them appeared first on WordStream.

• Setting bids
• Deciding when a user is ready to convert
• Choosing the exact right placements
• Finding the right time to show up

But the thing Google can’t do? Know what is going to meaningfully impact your business.

To Google, you’re just another account number. It doesn’t know how your sales process works or what your margins are. It’s simply a machine going after a number, and it’s damn good at it.

As marketers, our job is now very different than it used to be, but just as important: we have to tell Google what we want.

In this article, I’ll walk you through how to create a winning Google Ads conversion strategy so you can track and impact the most important results for your business.

Contents

• Determine what’s valuable
• Figure out how to track it
  • Types of conversion tracking in Google Ads
• Match the valuable action to the tracking functionality
• Configure settings to maximize outputs
  • Understanding goals vs. conversion actions
  • Campaign-specific goals
  • Conversion action settings

How to create a winning Google Ads conversion strategy (in the age of AI)

Let’s get started.

Determine what’s valuable

The first step to having a winning Google Ads conversion strategy is to outline exactly what is valuable to your business. This will be different for every company based on your sales processes, margins, conversion rates, customer retention strategies, and so on, which is why Google isn’t able to make these decisions for you. It needs these inputs for success.

But this stage shouldn’t outline only the final sales on your site. With some exceptions, very few businesses have only a purchase action to consider a positive engagement with a company. Depending on your business model, there may be a slew of them that we want to outline.

Start by writing down all of the ways someone can meaningfully engage with your company. No, page views don’t count, unless it’s a very important page.

We’re looking for actions like:

• Signing up for a newsletter
• Entering to win a drawing
• Requesting a demo
• Clicking to call
• Making a purchase
• App installs
• Completing a sales call
• Downloading a report
• Joining a loyalty program
• Starting a free trial
• Upgrading to a paid account
• Registering for a webinar

Any action that could be part of a customer journey should be a part of this list. For this portion, we really just need to know what’s valuable. In a little bit, we’ll get to outlining just how valuable something is.

Worried you’re wasting spend in Google Ads? Find out with a free, instant audit >> Google Ads Performance Grader

Figure out how to track it

All of these actions hold some level of value to your marketing campaigns, whether they’re the end goal of every campaign or just a quality indicator along the way. In my experience, it’s best to have as many of these actions as possible tracked in your Google Ads accounts for two reasons.

First, you’re able to optimize to that goal in your campaign settings. We’ll talk about this more later, but if you want to have more newsletter signups, Google is going to be best able to do that if you have confirmed that newsletter signups are tracked so it can model past behavior and know when it sees success.

Second, these actions can be good indicators of performance in other campaigns. While each of these actions might not fit into a perfectly linear funnel, it’s logical that someone who regularly downloads your content is more likely to engage with your brand on a revenue-generating basis than someone who doesn’t know who you are. These actions can be used simply as observations in your account to help you better understand how your campaigns are performing throughout the funnel.

Types of conversion tracking in Google Ads

While the idea of tracking many different types of conversion actions might be a novel idea to some, it’s not to Google. They’ve been developing loads of ways to track meaningful interactions with companies over the years. Here’s a rundown of the high-level options:

Website conversions: This strategy leverages the Google Tag on your website and can help track actions like purchases, newsletter signups, form submissions, and more based on how the user engages with your website.

App conversions: This is similar to website tracking, but for your App instead. This can track when someone installs your app or takes specific in-app actions like completing a level of a game or making a purchase.

Phone call conversions: Google’s options allow advertisers to track calls from three different sources: calls from call assets or the ad itself, calls made from a forwarding number on the website, or calls generated on a mobile device by clicking on the phone number (click to call).

Offline conversions: This measures actions that are valuable to your company, but take place in the physical world and not the digital one. This can include in-store purchases, CRM lead progression, and other actions either provided to Google through a CRM integration, importing a file, or through the Google Ads API.

What conversion rate can you expect from your Google Ads? Download our latest Google Ads Benchmarks to find out >>

Match the valuable action to the tracking functionality

Now we need to determine which tracking methodology makes the most sense for our goals and get it set up. I’m not going to walk through how to implement tracking for each type of these goals here (you can do that by reading this article), but I do want to give some examples of how you can use each.

Looking at our list of valuable actions above, each has multiple different ways to track it depending on your setup:

It’s up to you to determine which makes the most sense and which is going to be the most accurate, but odds are there’s some option for you to track your valuable events.

Some of these options are certainly more involved than others. You may be able to set these up yourself, or you might need to get help from a developer or someone a bit more technically minded. Either way, at this point, your challenge is simply to get the conversions set up so you can see them in the Google Ads interface.

Configure settings to maximize outputs

Now comes the fun part, or at least what I consider the fun part: configuring conversion settings in Google Ads to make the most of your valuable actions.

Understanding goals vs. conversion actions

In Google Ads, there are two levels of organization when it comes to conversion tracking. A conversion action is a single event that someone can convert on. Think about a purchase or filling out a lead form.

Goals are a group of conversion actions that are similar (or at least are intended to be similar) and are named by their intended outcome.

In the image above, you can see there are five Goals: Submit lead form, Phone call lead, Contact, Download, and Engagement. You can see how many campaigns those goals are applied to, how many Primary conversions they have, and their status.

Understanding the settings of Goals and how they impact your account is very important. For three of the Goals above, you’ll see “Account-default” over their name. That means every new campaign that’s created will use that Goal as part of its target conversion setup.

This is important to know, because Google uses these Goals as the actions they’re going to optimize for. If you’re regularly creating new campaigns that have all different sorts of conversion targets, you want to make sure you’re leveraging the right optimization goals, or else Google can go off the rails driving actions for a campaign that you’re not trying to get.

If you click Edit goal in blue on the right, you’ll be given these settings:

From here, you can decide if this group should be an Account Default, you can select certain campaigns that should use this goal, and you can get a quick view of the conversion actions in each Goal.

Ready to quickly increase your conversions and win more customers? Download our guide: Super-Fast Ways to Boost Conversions >>

Campaign-specific goals

If your account has multiple campaigns that are aiming for different outcomes, think Demo Request vs. Content Download vs. Online Purchase, you’re a good candidate for Campaign-specific goals.

Rather than using the Account-default goals, you can select custom Goal settings by campaign. You can do that from the Goal settings as we show in the picture above, or you can do it in the campaign-level settings.

In the campaign settings, navigate to the Conversion goals section. There you’ll find a dropdown that says Account-default or Campaign-specific.

Once you’ve selected Campaign-specific, you can select which Goals you want this campaign to consider conversions.

Just remember, whatever Conversion actions you have in those Goals will then count for that campaign, and that’s what Google’s machine learning will optimize for. It’s important for you to keep track of which actions are in which goals so it’s easy to know which should be applied to the account and which should be applied to your respective campaigns.

Is your Google Ads account set up for success? Download now >> The Last Guide to Google Ads Account Structure You’ll Ever Need >>

Conversion action settings

Now that you understand the organization and how it impacts Google’s optimization strategies, let’s focus on the settings for each conversion action and talk about why they’re important.

Each conversion action you create will have a screen that looks like this for the settings:

Let’s go through them in order.

Conversion name is important simply for ease of understanding what the conversion action is tracking. For this account, we have a single conversion action that tracks every Demo Request across all sites and microsites, so a simple name is all we need. If your actions are more involved than this, I implore you to create a naming convention that’s clear and straightforward.

Try to name things so that anyone who looks at your list of conversions has an idea of what they’re tracking, even if they know nothing about the account. Conversion type ID and Date created aren’t important for the purposes of this article.

Action optimization

Action optimization is simple, but very important.

Each conversion action can be deemed a Primary or Secondary action.

Primary actions are used for bidding optimizations, meaning Google will leverage this data to find more users likely to take this action and will be counted in the Conversions column.

Secondary actions will not be used in bidding, but will still be tracked and can be seen in the All Conversions column in the interface.

It’s simple: if you want Google to use an action and optimize for it in bidding, then that action is Primary. If you simply want to see how many of these actions are taken, but you’re not interested in optimizing for it, choose Secondary.

Note: We already talked about Google optimizing only for the Goals applied to a campaign, whether with account settings or at the campaign level. If a Goal isn’t applied to a campaign but a conversion action in that Goal is set to Primary, that action will be counted in the All Conversions column since that Goal isn’t assigned to that campaign. 

Conversion values

Adding the value of a conversion is always recommended, even if it’s an approximation.

Ecommerce companies will likely use the “different values for each conversion” setting so they can track the actual revenue generated from each sale.

For this setting, you’ll use either the Google Tag or an Event snippet to pull in the value of these sales. This tracking requires some additional coding to dynamically include revenue numbers, but is definitely worth it.

For many lead generation companies, we end up using stable values for conversion actions and employ the “same value for every conversion” setting. Here, we’ll assign a monetary value to that conversion action that can be applied to our Conversion Value column.

Some of you lead gen folks might be saying, “but I don’t know the value of a lead” or “all my deal sizes are different, so one value doesn’t make sense.” I hear you. Here are a few questions for you that could help you plan out your next steps:

• Can you calculate your sales pipeline conversion rates for each step and determine an average value per lead to add here?
• Are you able to use a different conversion tracking type (Offline conversion or CRM Import) to pull in closed deals and their associated revenue?
• Do you know how valuable a lead is to you in relation to another goal? I.e., 10% of people who fill out a newsletter form end up making a purchase. You can take the average purchase price, multiply it by 10%, then determine an estimated average value per newsletter signup.

Tracking values for your conversions is important for Google’s machine learning because that tells Google how valuable something is to your business. It can then use that information to distinguish the value of one action vs. another and leverage that information in automated bidding.

Maximize Conversion Value and Target ROAS bidding lean heavily on these values for direction and feedback into the bidding algorithm to tell Google it’s delivering on your goals.

Conversion count

Google’s bidding algorithms also need to know if you want multiple conversions from the same person (purchases are a good example) or if you only want one (think lead generation where you don’t want to pay for the same user’s information twice).

Conversion attribution

The next four settings are all about conversion action attribution and effectively tell Google’s AI how far to look back for each type of action and how to model out reporting for it.

The Attribution windows for Click-through, Engaged-view, and View-through conversions all have different time frames you’re able to use, but it’s up to you to decide how far you want Google to look back and claim success.

The cascade of time frames here is pretty standard, with Click-through being the longest, then Engaged view, then View-through being the shortest, but the date ranges shown above are simply the ones that made sense for this client. I have others with a 90-day Click-through window and some with only one week.

Determine the settings that make sense for your business based on these conversion types and get those set up as needed.

Lastly, the Attribution Model tells Google how to attribute success across the account. Data Driven is the recommended model and is likely the right choice for just about every account.

In a scenario where a user views a video ad through a Demand Gen campaign, then later converts on a Search campaign, Google can give a small amount of the conversion (and conversion value) credit to the Demand Gen campaign based on the Engaged-view attribution settings since it likely played a role in the final conversion. This helps Google’s AI be more efficient over time, because it can see the whole picture and measure the impact of all campaigns together rather than just one.

Last click is still an option (you’ll notice none of the others listed are available anymore), but there are very few instances where I think this model makes sense.

Enhanced conversions

If you have a Google rep, you’ve likely been hounded about informed about Enhanced Conversions. This is an additional layer of tracking that helps Google match conversion actions to specific users in your account by using your first-party data to fill in tracking gaps for more accurate reporting.

This also requires some additional setup in Google and potentially on your website or CRM, so it’s a little involved, but the main goal is to have accurate tracking. With these holes filled in, Google’s AI can better know if it’s generating conversions or not and then in turn have better performance on the other side.

Get your conversion tracking right to see how Google’s AI is impacting your campaigns

Google’s AI is great at doing many of the tedious, technical tasks that we advertisers used to do on a regular basis. It’s our job now to provide guidance for those algorithms to get the best results from our accounts.

Accurate conversion tracking is the foundation for success because it’s what directs Google as to what our business needs to thrive. It all starts with finding a way to track the actions your business views as valuable, then feeding those into the Google platform. From there, Goal organization and individual conversion action settings will direct Google on what to optimize for, how valuable those actions are, and give the algorithm the data it needs to succeed.

The post How to Track Google Ads Conversions in the Age of AI appeared first on WordStream.

This is a common request I hear from business owners, whether they’ve been running Google Ads for years or they’re setting up their first campaign. How can you “crush the competition” with your Google Ads strategy?

Sometimes, this request is rooted in a good old-fashioned competitive spirit. Sometimes, it’s because the competitor is already advertising on your brand name, so you want to retaliate. Whatever the reason, we’re going to explore what “traditional” competitive conquesting is in Google Search. Then, I’ll share three different competitive conquesting strategies that you can try today–without breaking the bank.

Contents

• What is competitive conquesting in Google Ads?
• Why is competitor conquesting so expensive?
• 3 ways to do competitive conquesting without breaking the bank

What is competitive conquesting in Google Ads?

The dictionary definition of “conquesting” is “the act of taking control of a place or people by using force.” Sounds a bit extreme for a digital marketing strategy, right? In Google Ads, competitive conquesting refers to the tactic of placing ads on searches for your competitors.

For example, let’s say you are Anthropic (makers of the popular Claude LLM). If you were to use [claude] as a keyword in your Search campaign, that would be a branded search strategy. If you were to use [chatgpt] as a keyword in your Search campaign, that would be competitor conquesting.

Here’s an example in the wild. A search for The Farmer’s Dog yields results for other businesses clearly targeting their brand keyword.

Before you try to overtake the competition–get a real read on how your Google Ads are performing right now. Find out with a free, instant audit: Google Ads Performance Grader >>

Why is competitive conquesting so expensive?

Competitive conquesting typically comes with a double whammy of high CPCs and low conversion rates, which means poor ROI. Why?

First, when a user is searching for a competitor, that means they already know exactly what they’re looking for. So even if they do click on your ad, many will bounce once they realize that you are Claude, not ChatGPT. That leads to poor conversion rates.

Second, while you can use your competitor’s name as a keyword, you can’t always put their name in your ad copy. While most practitioners focus on the potential trademark issues involved with putting another brand’s name in your ad copy, the more pressing Google Ads policy is actually “Unacceptable business practices.”

Other Farm Fresh Box? I see what you did there.

To quote Google’s Advertising policies about Misrepresentation, one of the unacceptable business practices (that can lead to account suspension, if not remedied) is “Impersonating other brands or businesses in your ads or on your website to hide your identity or imply connections or qualifications.”

In plain English, you can’t pretend to be another brand. For example, Marcus Bawden, Managing Director at T-mex Express, recently posted a screenshot on LinkedIn of a competitor using the ad headline “T-mex”

See Marcus’s full post here.

Regardless of trademark usage, and regardless of consumer protection laws in the UK (where Marcus is based), this other company was violating Google Ads policy because the headline implies that they are T-mex, when they are not. Don’t do this!

And because you aren’t doing this, you will usually have a low CTR if you advertise on your competitor’s name, which means poor ad quality, and therefore high CPCs. This is the other reason that search conquesting is usually prohibitively expensive.

Want to know what CPCs your competitors are seeing in Google Ads? Download our latest Google Ads Benchmarks to find out!

3 types of competitive conquesting strategies for Google Ads (+how to do them)

So what’s a savvy Google Ads advertisers do instead of true competitive conquesting? Here are three options that I developed for you to help you see better results than a conquesting campaign would net you.

1. Audience-based custom segments

Instead of paying a premium to show an ad at the exact moment a user searches for a competitor, you can show ads to people who have recently searched for your competitor–as they’re doing other things online. This strategy is cost effective (since you don’t have the poor ad quality/high CPC issue), and allows you to proactively get in front of people searching for the competition.

How to do it

• In Google Ads, go to Tools > Shared Library > Audience Manager > Custom segments and create a new custom segment.
• Be sure to select “people who searched for any of these terms on Google,” then type in your competitors’ names.
• Add this audience to a Demand Gen campaign or a Video campaign to reach people who’ve been searching for your competitors.
  • Because this type of custom segment is only compatible with Google-owned properties, ensure that you have the Display network and/or Video partners turned off
  • Also ensure that you have optimized targeting (in Demand Gen) and/or audience expansion (in Video) turned off, so that you are only showing ads to your custom segment.

2. Comparison search ads

While you can’t pretend to be your competitor, you can absolutely draw fair comparisons between your offerings and theirs. To clarify, it is acceptable within Google’s policies to use a headline like “Claude vs. ChatGPT” because you are not pretending to be ChatGPT, so you are not misrepresenting your business.

While laws vary by region, it is also acceptable by many consumer protection agencies to compare yourself to the competition. As always, this is not legal advice; consult with a lawyer before launching any type of competitive strategy.

Assuming that your legal department gives you the “okay,” you’re going to start running comparison search ads rather than competitor conquesting ads. What’s the difference?

Competitor conquesting is advertising on searches for “chatgpt” with ad copy that says “Try Claude today” or “Top AI Chatbot Claude.” Competitor keyword with no competitor name in the ad copy.

Comparison search ads are when you advertise on searches for “chatgpt vs. claude” with ad copy that says “ChatGPT vs. Claude: Which one?” or “Choose Claude vs. ChatGPT.” Comparison keywords with matching comparison ad copy. See the difference? You’re positioning yourself in front of users who are actively comparing you to your competitor.

This is an organic result, but Microsoft could run it as a comparison ad and be in the clear.

Rather than serving a regular branded ad, or a regular competitor ad, create a hybrid ad group (or campaign) to specifically serve these comparison searches.

I tested this strategy with one of my coaching clients, who runs a subscription software business. After reviewing the search terms together, I advised them to add comparison keywords and comparison ad copy to their existing competitor conquesting campaign. The results? 8% higher ROAS (and 7% lower CPA) from comparison keywords vs. competitor keywords.

Here is how the key metrics landed over the last year for comparison keywords (for example, [chatgpt or claude]) vs. competitor keywords (for example, [claude]):

• Comparison keywords saw 2.7x higher CTR than competitor keywords (8.2% vs. 3.1% CTR)
• Comparison keywords saw 2.1x higher CPCs than competitor keywords ($8.81 vs. $4.10 CPC). Remember, high CPCs are not the enemy, low quality traffic is!
• Comparison keywords saw 2.3x higher conversion rate than competitor keywords (5.6% vs. 2.4% CVR)
• Comparison keywords saw 7% lower CPA than competitor keywords ($159 vs. $171 CPA)
• Comparison keywords saw 8% higher ROAS than competitor keywords (0.93 vs. 0.86)

How to do it

• First, make sure you have a landing page that is ready to convert this traffic. My client created a comparison page that directly compares their software to a competitor’s. Without a customized landing page, you’ll be hard pressed to drive such a high conversion rate.
• Next, build your keyword list. Your existing search terms report from your branded search and/or search conquesting campaigns may already have some inspiration for you. We started with six exact match keywords; continuing with Claude and ChatGPT as our illustrative example, they are:
  • [chatgpt claude]
  • [claude chatgpt]
  • [claude or chatgpt]
  • [chatgpt or claude]
  • [claude vs chatgpt]
  • [chatgpt vs claude]
    • While there is some redundancy amongst these exact match keywords (only three of these six keywords received impressions in the last year), we wanted to ensure our bases were covered.
• Then, craft your comparison ad copy. I will reiterate that you should consult with a lawyer to clarify the law in your jurisdiction around comparison advertising. In the country where this client operates, “fair” comparisons with objective information were deemed acceptable by the client’s legal team.
• Finally, be sure you’re using a conversion-based Smart Bidding strategy (preferably Target CPA or Target ROAS) with properly implemented conversion tracking. This will ensure that your campaign focuses on driving business value from these comparison queries.

3. Non-brand search conquesting

Instead of fighting over your competitor’s brand name, why not steal the non-brand searches that are driving traffic to their website?

I coined the name “non-brand conquesting” for this strategy, because you are specifically conquesting your competitor’s non-brand traffic, rather than their brand traffic. In doing so, you don’t have the low CVR/high CPC issues that plague standard competitor conquesting–and you’re not risking any policy or legal violations.

How to do it

• In Google Ads, go to Tools > Planning > Keyword Planner > Discover new keywords > Start with a website.
• Instead of entering your own URL, as usual, enter your competitor’s website URL. You can do their entire site, or start with a specific page.
• Keyword Planner will show you all of the non-brand search terms that Google associates with your competitor’s site. Take the most relevant non-brand keywords from this list and add them to your Search campaigns as exact match keywords.
  • Now, you’ll be showing ads above your competitors’ organic results, and alongside their search ads (assuming they are advertising on Google Search)–stealing a share of the non-brand traffic that’s currently bringing them business!

You can also use the WordStream Free Keyword Tool for this!

Conquer your competitors in Google Ads

These competitive conquesting alternatives allow you to spend less while still targeting your competitors’ customers. Try these out and see which works best to steal your competitors’ traffic.

For more help conquering Google Ads, reach out to see how we can help.

The post How to Do Competitive Conquesting in Google Ads Without Breaking the Bank appeared first on WordStream.

Of all the metrics you can view, conversion rate and cost per lead are two of the most compelling. When they’re up, it’s a clear signal that everything from targeting to copy is in alignment.

A great step in setting goals and monitoring your conversion results is defining what those results should look like. What’s a high Google Ads conversion rate? What’s a good Meta Ads cost per lead? And how does conversion rate optimization change depending on your industry?

These are the questions we’re here to answer. With this guide, our goal is to provide the essential conversion rate benchmarks you need to get your conversion rate optimization (CRO) efforts off to the right start.

Contents

• Average Google Ads conversion rates by industry
• Average Google Ads cost per lead by industry
• Average Facebook Ads conversion rates by industry
• Average Facebook Ads cost per lead by industry
• Average display and video ads cost per lead by industry

Conversion rate benchmarks for Google Ads

The average conversion rate across Google Ads is 8.18%.

Note: We update this data regularly! Download the PDF of our latest Google Ads Benchmarks report here.

Conversion rates in Google Ads keep moving in the right direction. In our 2025 benchmarks, the average conversion rate was 7.52%. This year, it’s 8.18%. That’s an 8.8% year-over-year increase, and the second year in a row that average CVR has gone up.

Google Ads conversion rates tend to vary from vertical to vertical, so here is a more granular breakdown of Google Ads CVR by industry:

Are there opportunities to optimize your Google Ads for higher conversions? Find out instantly with the Free Google Ads Grader.

How much does a Google Ads conversion cost?

The average cost per lead across Google Ads is $66.69.

Taking a look at the industries with the highest average costs per lead (Attorneys & Legal Services at $131.63, Furniture at $106.70, and Real Estate at $102.51), we see a common theme: high-ticket purchases. Legal fees, a new dining set, and a home all come with big price tags, and people don’t commit to them on a whim.

At the other end of the spectrum, the industries with the lowest costs per lead are Arts & Entertainment ($26.84), Automotive Repair, Service, & Parts ($29.96), and Restaurants & Food ($30.57). What they share is timing. People searching in these industries usually need an answer now. You don’t spend weeks picking a restaurant for tonight or a show for this weekend, and when your car breaks down, you want it fixed as fast as possible. Shorter decisions mean fewer clicks before someone takes action, which keeps each lead cost down.

Conversion rate benchmarks for Facebook Ads

The average conversion rate across Facebook Ad leads campaigns is 8.54%. 

Facebook is one of the most cost-effective places to find new leads, especially for local businesses. People aren’t searching for you on Facebook, which is actually an advantage. Your ad reaches them before they’ve started comparing options, so you own early discovery. And with Facebook lead ads, the form automatically fills in their contact info. Saying “yes” takes a couple of taps.

Education & Instruction (15.87%) and Arts & Entertainment (15.31%) top the conversion rate list. Both convert at nearly double the overall average. That’s roughly one lead for every six or seven clicks. Real Estate rounds out the top three at 9.95%. What these industries share is that they’re fun to browse. People scroll class schedules, event lineups, and home listings in their downtime anyway, so a Facebook ad doesn’t really feel like a disruption.

On the other end, Automotive For Sale (4.15%), Industrial & Commercial (4.50%), and Home & Home Improvement (5.32%) convert at about half the average rate. These are big, need-driven purchases, so fewer people click here. If you’re in one of these industries, Facebook still has a job to do. Use it to stay top of mind. Try making your first ask smaller, like a free estimate or a buying guide, to get more early shoppers in your lead pipeline.

How much does a Facebook Ads conversion cost?

The average cost per lead across Facebook Ads is $27.39.

Here’s some good news for your budget. In 13 of the 14 industries we track for Facebook leads campaigns, the average cost per lead is lower on Facebook than on Google Ads. Sometimes the gap is dramatic. The average Real Estate advertiser pays $102.51 per lead on Google, but just $13.74 on Facebook. That’s about one-seventh the cost.

Search leads often come with stronger buying intent, so a Google lead may be worth more to you than one from your Facebook ads. Still, if you’re in Career & Employment ($12.30), Real Estate ($13.74), or Arts & Entertainment ($14.59), the three industries with the lowest Facebook CPLs, Facebook is an affordable way to reach people who are interested before they jump into a search engine.

At the other end, Dentists & Dental Services ($61.56), Beauty & Personal Care ($50.91), and Home & Home Improvement ($42.95) pay the most per Facebook lead. Dental and home services buyers aren’t usually just window shopping (unless you sell windows). When they crack a tooth or spring a roof leak, they’re more likely to act when they see an ad, so competition is higher.

How much do display and video ads cost?

The average cost per lead for a display and video ad is $114.44.

Display and video ads run across hundreds of websites, apps, and networks, reaching people while they read the news, watch videos, or scroll. Their main job is to put your business in front of people before they’re ready to buy, a strategy called pre-marketing. That’s why cost per lead runs higher here than on search or social. Still, display campaigns do drive leads, so CPL is worth checking in on regularly.

Home & Home Improvement has the lowest display CPL at $65.37, followed by Personal Services ($67.36), and Finance & Insurance ($85.63). Home projects are usually planned weeks or months out, so a display ad for a kitchen remodel or a new roof can reach someone at the beginning of their research, long before they hire a professional.

At the high end, Arts & Entertainment ($230.44), Apparel/Fasion & Jewelry ($198.34), and Business Services ($149.90) pay the most per display lead. For the first two, that number tells only part of the story. People buy concert tickets and clothing through a checkout page, not a lead form, so many valuable sales won’t show up as leads. If you’re in one of these industries, judge your display ads by sales and site visits as well as CPL.

Use industry conversion rate benchmarks to grow!

These conversion rate and cost per conversion benchmarks help contextualize your own results. While every business is unique, seeing where your industry lands can help you strategize future campaigns.

Use these insights to drive better results on your advertising spend. For more ways to make the most of this data and maximize your CVRs across platforms, reach out and we’ll show you how our solutions can help!

The post Conversion Rate Benchmarks for YOUR Industry (Exclusive Data!) appeared first on WordStream.

But when a Cleveland homeowner searches “organic lawn care near me,” the first thing they see is not Good Nature’s website. It’s a Map Pack with review stars and a one-tap call button. The homeowner who hires Good Nature probably never clicked a single link.

That is a win. But also a warning.

A business owner tracking only keyword rankings and organic sessions would look at that exact scenario and see problems:

• Traffic is flat
• The blog barely got a click
• The SEO report looks underwhelming

The ranking did its job, the customer found them, but the measurement system missed it entirely.

This is what SEO looks like right now for a lot of small businesses. Rankings still matter, but they are no longer the finish line. They are the entry fee.

This article breaks down why traffic has decoupled from rankings for many businesses and what the metrics that actually predict business outcomes look like now.

Contents

• Why rankings no longer drive traffic the way they used to
• What rankings still tell you (and what they don’t)
• The new measures of SEO success
• What to actually optimize for now
• A quick self-audit for SEO in the zero-click era

Why rankings no longer drive traffic the way they used to

Let’s get this out of the way: Google hasn’t stopped rewarding good rankings. It’s just built a lot more things between the ranking and the click.

Four things are responsible for most of the damage:

1. AI Overviews are answering before users scroll

For informational queries like “how often should you replace a furnace filter” or “what causes low water pressure,” Google now synthesizes an answer at the top of the page.

A company like Black Hills Inc., an HVAC and plumbing company serving Western Washington, might rank organically for “how often to service an HVAC system,” while an AI Overview above them answers the question word-for-word.

These were the top-of-funnel informational queries that once built authority and drove first visits. 

Now, many of them resolve at the SERP level. The zero-click movement has basically eradicated the value behind optimizing content for informational queries.

Get everything you need to know about showing up in AI search in our free guide: The AI Search Toolkit >>

2. Local Services Ads and the Map Pack occupy the real estate customers act on

For local intent queries like “HVAC repair near me” or “emergency plumber Chehalis WA,” the page a user sees on mobile is almost entirely occupied before organic results appear.

Local Services Ads sit at the very top, regular Google Ads appear under that, and the three-pack sits below them.

By the time organic position one shows up, a significant portion of users have already found what they need or tapped a call button.

This matters because local intent queries are the ones with the highest commercial value. Someone searching “organic lawn care near me” is not doing research. They want to hire someone. The business that captures that moment is usually the one in the Map Pack, not the one ranking first organically.

Rock Creek Plumbing LLC, a family-owned operation in Chehalis, WA, may see their best lead volume not from organic rank but from their Map Pack presence and the Google Business Profile (GBP) call button.

The organic ranking still plays a supporting role in overall authority. But the leads flow through the pack.

3. People Also Ask, rich results, and video carousels take up the rest

Even on the queries where users do scroll, the page is crowded.

Good Nature Organic Lawn Care ranks for organic lawn care questions, but their content shares the page with People Also Ask (PAA) boxes, video carousels, image results, and local ads.

Each of those features is competing for the same limited attention.

The practical effect is that ranking position one no longer means what it used to. 

• In a traditional 10-blue-links SERP, position one got a disproportionate share of clicks.
• On a modern SERP loaded with features, position one is just one of many things a user might interact with.

Your organic result can be technically first and still get passed over entirely.

4. User behavior is fragmenting beyond Google entirely

This one is slower-moving but worth paying attention to.

Younger homeowners increasingly start their search for local services on YouTube (“how to know if my AC needs replacing”), Nextdoor (“does anyone know a good dentist near me”), or with a direct query to ChatGPT or Perplexity.

These platforms don’t send referral traffic that shows up in Google Search Console. They don’t register as organic sessions. And they are becoming a real part of how people find local businesses.

The Google organic result is still the dominant channel for most SMBs, but it’s no longer the only door. A business that is only measuring Google organic performance is already missing part of the picture.

What rankings still tell you (and what they don’t)

Rankings still signal three things worth paying attention to:

1. Relevance (Google thinks your content answers the query)
2. Authority (your site has enough trust to compete)
3. Potential visibility (if you’re in the game at all)

What rankings no longer tell you on their own:

• Whether anyone saw your result
• Whether your brand is registered with the user who did
• Whether the traffic you do receive is converting

The above-mentioned Rock Creek Plumbing LLC holds a Local 3-Pack presence for plumbing queries in their area.

The organic ranking of their website pages matters far less to their lead volume than their GBP profile, their photo uploads, and how consistently they respond to reviews.

Simply put: the ranking got them in the room, but the GBP is what closes the deal.

Ranking is a prerequisite, not an outcome. The outcome is what happens to a user once your name appears somewhere on that page.

Need help understanding the modern rules for SEO? Download our free guide >> How to Do SEO Right—Right Now!

The new measures of SEO success

Here’s what to start watching.

1. Impressions, not just clicks

Google Search Console shows how many times your result appeared, regardless of whether anyone clicked.

For a business like Good Nature Organic Lawn Care, flat clicks alongside rising impressions year-over-year mean the brand is showing up more, even when users are resolving their query without visiting the site.

Impressions trending up while clicks stay flat means brand exposure that compounds.

If your SEO report shows declining clicks but your impressions are climbing, your content is surfacing in a search environment where fewer people are clicking through to anyone.

You are still winning the visibility game. The measurement tool just wasn’t built to show it.

2. Share of SERP features

A dental practice doesn’t need the organic click to benefit from a search if their name, review stars, and five-star average appear in the Map Pack every time someone searches “dentist near me [city].”

Tools like Google Search Console, Semrush, and Ahrefs let you track whether you are appearing in featured snippets, PAA boxes, the Map Pack, and AI Overviews.

Ask not just “where do I rank” but “how many places on this page does my name show up.”

Rock Creek has a Map result, a result for their website, and a result for their Facebook page.

A business appearing in the Map Pack, a PAA answer, and an organic result for the same query has three separate chances to register with a user. A business sitting at organic position one and nowhere else has one. SERP footprint is a real competitive advantage, and most businesses aren’t tracking it.

Try our Local SEO & Map-Pack ROI Calculator to estimate what your current SERP footprint is worth.

3. Branded search volume

When people search your business name directly, that is a downstream signal that your entire search presence is working. Content, GBP, reviews, visibility across platforms—all of it feeds into whether people go looking for you by name.

In Google Search Console, filter by branded queries and watch the trend over six months. A dental practice in a competitive market whose branded search is climbing is building SEO value that doesn’t show up in a rank tracker. It shows up in their schedule.

Rising branded search is one of the most reliable indicators that your total search presence is doing what it’s supposed to do. It means your name is sticking.

4. Conversion rate on the traffic you do get

With less top-of-funnel traffic coming in from informational queries, every visit carries more weight. The question shifts from “how do we get more traffic” to “are we converting the traffic we have.”

Black Hills Inc. has built a content and GBP presence strong enough that when a user does click through, they are already primed to call, not browse.

The informational content did its job earlier in the process, in the SERP, in the AI Overview. By the time someone visits the site, the trust is largely already there.

If your organic sessions dropped 20% but leads held steady, your SEO is working harder per visit than it was before. That is a different way to read the same data. A worse traffic number can mean better SEO, if conversion rate is the lens.

5. Google Business Profile actions

For local businesses, GBP Insights often tell a more complete performance story than website analytics. Calls, direction requests, website clicks, and message threads from a GBP all track the path from SERP to customer without a website visit ever occurring.

Rock Creek Plumbing LLC’s GBP is the primary channel through which emergency plumbing leads find them. Not their blog content. Not their organic page rankings. The homeowner with a burst pipe at 10 p.m. on a Tuesday is not reading a 1,500-word article about common plumbing failures in older homes. They are tapping the call button on the GBP listing that appeared when they searched “emergency plumber near me.”

GBP actions are real business signals. Treat them like it.

Looking for ways to get more leads for your business (for free)? We’ve got you covered >> 14 Fast & Easy Ways to Get Free Leads (+Examples You Can Copy)

What to actually optimize for now

Stop treating position one as the only prize worth chasing. A few shifts in how you think about SEO will do more for your business than obsessing over moving from spot three to spot one.

Focus on your presence across the full SERP, not just position

Schema markup, FAQ and HowTo schema in particular, helps pull content into PAA and rich result placements. Good Nature Organic Lawn Care’s structured blog content on topics like “core vs. liquid aeration” has the right format to earn SERP features, even when the organic position is not number one.

You do not need to rank first. You need to show up in enough places that your name becomes familiar before a user ever clicks anything.

Treat your Google Business Profile as a primary SEO asset

For most local businesses, the GBP is the result a customer actually acts on. Consistent posts, photo uploads, review responses, and service descriptions all influence GBP visibility and local pack ranking. Rock Creek Plumbing LLC’s GBP consistently surfaces in the Local 3-Pack for Chehalis plumbing queries, driven in part by active review management and job documentation through photo pins.

A neglected GBP is not a neutral thing. It is a competitive disadvantage. Every HVAC company, dental practice, or lawn care business that is actively managing theirs is pulling ahead of the ones that set it up once in 2019 and never touched it again.

Build content for trust, not just traffic

The content that earns citations in AI Overviews tends to be authoritative, specific, and original. For an HVAC company like Black Hills Inc., a detailed guide on “cost of hvac repairs vs. replacement” is far more likely to surface in AI-generated answers than a thin keyword page with the same title.

Original perspective, clear answers, and demonstrated expertise are what AI search rewards. That has always been good content advice. It is now also an AI visibility strategy.

Make informational content work for brand, not just clicks

If a user sees your name in an AI Overview for “how often should I have my AC serviced” and doesn’t click, they still saw your name. The accumulation of those impressions is brand-building through SEO. It has real downstream value even when it looks like zero-click dead weight in analytics.

Every time someone reads an AI answer that cites your content or sees your name in a PAA result they didn’t click, you are getting free brand exposure inside one of the highest-traffic channels on the internet. That exposure does not show up in sessions. It shows up in calls.

A quick self-audit for SEO in the zero-click era

Most SEO audits focus on what’s broken technically: crawl errors, missing meta descriptions, slow page speed. Those things matter. But for a business trying to understand whether their search presence is actually generating business, a different kind of audit is more useful. This one takes about 30 minutes and requires no paid tools.

1. Start with Google Search Console impressions

Open Search Console, go to the Performance report, and switch the primary metric from clicks to impressions.

Look at your top 15-20 queries over the past six months. For each one, note whether impressions are trending up, flat, or down. If impressions are rising while clicks are flat or declining, you’re in a zero-click environment doing what it does, and your visibility within it is growing. The business that understands this distinction doesn’t cut their SEO budget based on a misleading traffic report.

2. Do a live SERP audit for your three most valuable queries

Open an incognito browser window, which removes your personalized search history from the results, and search each of your three highest-value queries as a customer would.

Look at every element on the page:

• Local Services Ads
• The Map Pack
• Featured snippets
• PAA boxes
• Video results
• Organic listings
• GBP panels

Write down every place your business name or content appears. This full-page footprint is your real SEO score, not your rank tracker position.

A business appearing three times on the same page has a fundamentally different presence than one appearing once, regardless of what the positions are.

3. Pull your GBP Insights and treat them like revenue data

Inside your Google Business Profile dashboard, the Performance section tracks calls placed directly from the listing, requests for directions, website clicks, and messages.

Pull this data for the past 90 days and compare it to the same period last year. For many local businesses, this report contains more evidence of SEO working than their entire website analytics dashboard.

Rock Creek Plumbing LLC’s GBP actions outpace their website visits by a wide margin. If yours do too, your customer is telling you how they prefer to find and contact you.

4. Filter Search Console for branded queries

In the Performance report, add a query filter and search for your business name and common variations of it. Look at the trend over six months and then 12 months:

• Is the number of branded searches growing?
• Is the click-through rate on branded queries high, which it should be since someone searching your name is almost certainly looking for you specifically?

Rising branded search volume means your total search presence, content, GBP activity, reviews, and visibility across features, is doing its job. People are seeing your name enough that they’re coming back for you by name.

5. Calculate your organic conversion rate

Take the number of leads or contacts you received from organic search over the past three months and divide it by the number of organic sessions in the same period.

This gives you a conversion rate. Now compare that rate to the same period last year. If organic sessions dropped but your conversion rate improved, you’re getting more efficient.

The visitors arriving now are higher intent, and your content is converting them at a better rate. That is a stronger business outcome than more traffic converting poorly, even if the session count looks worse on a dashboard.

6. Check how your GBP looks to a first-time visitor

Search your business name in an incognito browser and look at your GBP knowledge panel as a potential customer would:

• Are your photos recent and representative of actual work?
• Are your service descriptions specific enough to help someone understand what you do and who you serve?
• Are you responding to reviews, including the negative ones, in a way that builds confidence rather than eroding it?

A GBP that looks abandoned or generic loses customers at the moment of highest intent, right when they’ve already found you and are deciding whether to call.

How to maintain and measure SEO when rankings are less important

Rankings haven’t become irrelevant. They’ve become one signal among many.

The businesses winning at SEO right now are not necessarily the ones sitting at number one for every keyword. They are the ones whose names appear in the Map Pack with 400 reviews, whose content surfaces in AI Overviews, whose GBP generates calls before a would-be customer ever visits a website.

The question has shifted from “where do I rank?” to “when someone in my city needs what I do, does my name come up somewhere they trust and act on?”

That’s the new measure of success.

The post Why Rankings Matter Less in SEO (+What to Track Instead) appeared first on WordStream.

Vibe coding changed all that. Now, a services business can spin up a professional project calculator. A yoga studio can create a one-off webpage to promote their latest new-client special. And an automobile service shop can build a maintenance tracker app that reminds users when their next oil change is due.

In this guide, we’ll share the eight vibe coding best practices pros use to get the best outcomes, and give you a few vibe coding project ideas for marketing to get started.

Contents

• What is vibe coding?
• 8 vibe coding best practices
• Vibe coding projects to get started with

What is vibe coding?

Vibe coding means building software and apps by describing what you want in plain language to an AI tool so it can write the code for you. The idea is to build through conversation, where you are the director and tester and the AI tool acts as the coder.

For marketers, it might help to think of how you’d use AI to write copy or create an image. You prompt the AI tool to write something, review the copy, and ask it to iterate until you’re happy with the output. Vibe coding is the same, but the output is an app or program instead of ad creative or a blog post.

For example, you might tell Claude or ChatGPT to “Build me a simple ROI calculator for a local business running online ads.”

Then you can follow up with prompts like “add a field for my monthly software costs” or “make it look more professional.” No actual coding needed.

Get better output with better prompt inputs. Download 200+ Best AI Prompts Any Business Can Use

8 vibe coding best practices for marketing and beyond

Vibe coding is super simple to start. You can build your basic tool with a single-sentence prompt. But to create apps and tools capable of complex work, and that you’d be proud to show in public, there are a few more steps to take.

These best practices will help you become a pro vibe coder. They come from three professionals who have collectively vibe coded dozens of marketing assets.

1. Give AI room to brainstorm

I like the word “vibe” in vibe coding. It gives you a sense of a freewheeling thought exercise instead of a rigid programming process.

It’s that, um, vibe that Josh Hobson, Website Developer for LocaliQ, said you should keep intact.

“Start with stating your end goal in a broad way that allows AI to come up with multiple varied solutions,” he explained. “Try to avoid tying yourself to a specific action or tool here; only state your intended outcome for the project.”

One way to do this is to explain the problem you’re facing instead of asking for a specific app.

Let’s say you work for a landscaping company. You could ask for “a quote calculator for my landscaping company’s website.” The AI will build exactly that. It might be great, or it might be the wrong tool for the problem.

Here’s an outcome-first prompt that lets AI spread its wings:

I own a landscaping company, and my office manager spends hours every week answering calls from people who just want a rough price. I want to cut down on those calls and get more serious leads coming through my website. What are a few different things we could build to help with that? 

With that, you might get:

• A quote calculator that gives a price range based on yard size and services.
• A short quiz that recommends a service package and collects contact info at the end.
• A photo upload form where customers send pictures of their yard for a faster, more accurate estimate.
• A pricing FAQ page that answers the most common cost questions before anyone picks up the phone.

Since vibe coding is so fun, you may just build all of them.

3. Start with your platform in mind

There’s a lot to be said for just playing around in Claude Code to see what’s possible. But when you need it to work in a professional setting, it has to fit into the technology jigsaw your platform is built around.

“Where your app is going to live and what that platform can and can’t support is something you should consider early on in the project,” Josh said. “For example, it’s important to tell your AI tool if the end result will wind up on WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, or something else so the AI builds something that works within the architecture of that platform.”

It can get pretty complex in the backend. But if you have a clean start, your vibe coding tool will take care of all that. “The best rule of thumb is to keep it simple,” Josh added. “Before it starts building, ask your AI tool what approach will work best for your platform. When in doubt, a tool or app built with the simple front-end web stack (HTML/CSS/JS) can go a long way, since most website platforms let you embed it.”

And don’t worry. Your AI tool will know how to build with the right front-end web stack if you tell it where you plan to publish.

3. Learn from your vibe coding

One of the knocks on using AI for creating anything is that it reduces the need to think through processes. It doesn’t have to throttle your own development, though.

“Get a good understanding of what your code is doing,” Josh said. “These tools can accomplish a lot for you and can teach you just as much.”

That can mean asking follow-up questions about how the AI decided to do what it did or what you can do next.

“Additionally, once you start scaling your applications, it will become essential that you know how it works,” Josh said. “Ask questions about how your application is working, what and why it is doing what it is doing, and learn from it. One of the most valuable things that AI can do for me personally is teach me things.”

Is your search strategy AI-ready? Get The Complete AI Search Toolkit: Practical Strategies to Get Found by AI

4. Let AI interview you

Katie Parrott is a staff writer at Every. She uses AI to build skills and tools that support her work writing about AI, so I was really interested to hear her best practices.

The first one she shared is so simple but extremely useful. Instead of trying to craft a prompt that perfectly encapsulates the app she’s trying to code, she has AI ask her questions about the job.

“Let AI interview you to draw out your specifications for your project,” she said. “What you want it to do, not do, how it fits into your workflow. And then let AI help you plan the project.”

Here’s how you can play this out in a prompt:

I want to build [a quote calculator for my landscaping website]. Before you build anything, interview me to figure out what I need. Ask me one question at a time. Cover what it should do, what it shouldn’t do, who will use it, and how it fits into my business. When you have enough, summarize the plan and wait for my OK before building.

5. Add (a lot) more context

One way AI is similar to a human coworker is that its output gets better when you give it more details.

And that’s something Katie said is critical to her work. “Context, context, context: the more you can share with AI about your brand, customers, messaging, etc., the easier it is to keep the model in line with those guidelines.”

Here are the types of details Katie included while creating a new writing support tool.

You can always add more context in follow-up prompts. You can also save a lot of time by saving details for repeat use.

“If you keep that context somewhere the model has access to, you don’t have to repeat yourself every time,” Katie added.

Place your examples, brand guidelines, competitor research, and other context in a project or reference file. And make sure to tell your AI tool to reference it.

6. Own your lack of experience

Vibe coding opened the app development door to people who have never dreamed of coding their own online tools. One of the great things about working with AI is that it doesn’t judge you for your lack of knowledge (yet).

“Don’t be afraid to tell AI that you’re new to coding and have it explain things to you in simple terms,” Katie said.

The more your coding partner knows about your experience, the better it can tailor its answers. After a few projects, it’ll know to explain things step by step.

7. Start small and set a specific goal

Vibe coding is fun. But it can also be a bit overwhelming at first. Anna Burgess Yang, a freelance content marketer and journalist, has a couple of tips to help keep the work from getting out of hand.

“Start small,” she said. “Don’t overhaul your entire website on day one. A simple page with low stakes should be your first project, so you get a feel for how it works.”

You could create what developers call a “sandbox” at first. It’s a safe space to build and test without real-world implications. That may be a non-published webpage, for example.

Besides not taking on too big a project on your first vibe coding session, Anna suggests setting a boundary to avoid whiling away hours when the goal is to save time.

“Decide what ‘done’ looks like,” she said. “Vibe coding can be really fun once you get the hang of it, and you could spend forever tweaking a page. You’ve got to know when you’re ready to ‘ship’ the page you’ve created and come back to make more changes later.”

8. Bring examples

AI isn’t truly creative. Not the way you are. If you want it to build something that looks like the thing in your imagination, give it something to reference.

“Coding tools are not designers and not imaginative,” Anna said. “They code. Bring a reference, such as screenshots or even a mockup you’ve sketched on a piece of paper, so your coding tool knows what to build.”

I really like that bit about sketching on a piece of paper. It’s a good reminder that you don’t need to have a sophisticated design to get started. A simple reference point will do. Then you can iterate from there.

A screenshot is enough to kickstart your vibe-coded project.

Vibe coding projects to get started with

There are few limits to what you can vibe code. Our experts each suggested a project to get you started.

A popup for your website

Why not make your first vibe coded project something that helps convert customers?

“I think a good place to start with vibe coding would be a web page element like a popup or a gallery section,” Josh said. “These are great for testing the waters for what your AI can generate for you and give you simple elements you can test with and edit.”

“Once you have a good feel for that, small web applications like calculators and generators can be a great addition to your site,” he added. “We have been having a ton of fun with all that AI can help us create in this realm.”

Custom dashboards

AI is great at parsing and pulling insights from data. Take it a step further, and you can vibe code a way to visualize that data.

“One of the best early vibe coding projects I see is building custom dashboards that pull data from your team’s major sources and surfaces, and putting it together in a way that makes sense for your unique use case,” Katie said.

Here’s an example Katie shared of an OKR (objectives and key results) dashboard she vibe coded.

It has built-in progress scores, calendars, and reviews of recent activity. What process could you visualize with vibe coding?

A one-off webpage

A great web designer makes sure that your site is user-friendly, optimized for search, and built to generate business. But sometimes you need a single page that promotes an event or short-term offer. That’s a perfect use case for your new vibe coding skills.

“It’s so easy to spin up single pages that may not otherwise ‘fit’ onto your website,” Anna said. “For example, I host webinars twice a month. For each webinar, I create a single page that recaps the talking points in a visual format, rather than simply sharing my slides with attendees.”

She also vibe coded a landing page for people interested in her vibe coding checklist.

“That’s something that simply wasn’t possible before vibe coding and provides a much more useful resource for my audience,” she said. “Landing pages, signup pages, or announcements for a specific launch are all great vibe coding projects.”

Use these vibe coding best practices for faster results

Many marketing ideas wither because there aren’t enough developer resources to make them a reality. Vibe coding solves for that. It lets you work through the building process naturally without learning the very intricate task of piecing together complex code.

But as our pros showed, it goes beyond the backend techy steps of generating an app. With the right best practices, vibe coding can help you refine your ideas, come up with novel solutions, and even learn how it all works.

The post 8 Vibe Coding Best Practices for Marketers (+Ideas for Your First Project) appeared first on WordStream.

• A roofing company talks about “comprehensive exterior restoration services.” Customers just search “roof leak after storm.”
• A dentist promotes “comprehensive orthodontic solutions,” while the patient on the phone is asking how much Invisalign costs.
• A marketing agency pitches “full-funnel demand generation.” The prospect just wants more leads.
• And a car rental company leads with “premium fleet solutions” when the traveler on the other end really just wants to know if they can skip the deposit.

That gap shows up everywhere a business talks to a customer: in ads, on landing pages, in search results, in AI answers.

And the cost shows up in different places too.

Customers don’t recognize that you’re solving their problem, so conversion rates take the hit first. Ad costs creep up next, since Google’s Quality Score rewards ads that match what people actually typed. SEO suffers because the business is chasing phrases nobody searches for. And AI tools, which lean on the language people actually use when they talk about a product or service, have a harder time placing the business in an answer at all.

The businesses that consistently outperform their competitors tend to do one thing well: They mirror the language customers already use.

Here’s how to find that language, where it pays off first, and how to turn it into a habit instead of a one-time fix.

Contents

• Why customer language matters more than ever
• The fastest way to find customer language
• How to use customer language to improve your marketing copy
• Common mistakes that keep businesses stuck
• A simple customer language audit
• Your customer language action plan

Why customer language matters more than ever

People rarely describe problems the way businesses describe solutions, and the distance between those two things has always cost businesses money. What’s changed is how much that distance costs now.

For most of the last decade, a business could get away with formal, jargon-heavy copy as long as it ranked well and had a decent website. Customers would find the page, figure out what the business actually did, and convert anyway. That buffer is shrinking. Two things are driving it.

1. Search engines have gotten much better at understanding intent

Google no longer just matches keywords to pages. It tries to understand what the person searching actually wants and surfaces content that delivers it clearly.

Example: A roofing company with a page titled “What to Do When Your Roof Is Leaking” will often outperform a competitor with a page titled “Residential Roofing Services,” even if the competitor has more backlinks, because one page is written in the language of the problem and the other is written in the language of the solution.

2. AI systems like Google’s AI Overviews and ChatGPT are trained on how people actually talk: reviews, forums, Reddit threads, support conversations, Q&A sites

That language becomes part of the retrieval layer that shapes what gets recommended. When a business writes exclusively in internal terminology, it’s optimizing for an audience that isn’t doing the searching.

Stephanie Yoder, Director of Content Strategy at LaunchSquad, puts it directly: “Most brands are still writing for keyword match. AI retrieval doesn’t work that way, and if your content doesn’t show up in that conversation, neither does your brand.”

Example: A pediatric dentist who writes about “anxiety-free pediatric oral care” is not speaking the same language as the parent typing “dentist good with scared kids” into Google at 11 p.m.

This matters even more because there’s less room than ever to make a second impression. Zero-click searches, meaning searches that end without a click to any website, reached roughly 68% in early 2026, up from about 60% in 2024 and under 50% a decade ago, according to SparkToro and Similarweb data.

If a searcher never clicks through, the words inside the AI answer or the search snippet are often the only chance a business gets to be understood. Getting those words right is no longer optional.

Get everything you need to know about showing up in AI search in our free guide: The AI Search Toolkit >>

The fastest way to find customer language

The good news is that most businesses are already sitting on the raw material. The research doesn’t require a budget or a tool subscription. It requires paying attention to conversations that are already happening.

Start with your reviews

Google reviews are often the richest source of customer language because people writing them aren’t trying to sound professional. They’re just describing what happened and how it felt.

A plumbing company that reads through its last 50 Google reviews might find that a dozen of them say some version of “fixed it the same day.” That phrase is more valuable than anything the marketing team has written, because it captures exactly what anxious customers care about most when a pipe bursts. It belongs in a headline, not in paragraph four of a service page.

A lawn care company in Phoenix might find five reviews that all mention some version of “finally someone who didn’t kill my grass in the summer heat.” That’s a targeting insight and a headline waiting to happen.

Get all the tips you need to collect more reviews in this free guide download >> How to Get More Reviews: 8 Tips to Boost Ranking, Reputation, & Revenue

Ask customers what the AI said

Every other method in this section is about inferring customer language from behavior. This one is about getting it directly.

When a prospect mentions they found the business through ChatGPT or Perplexity, ask them to share the conversation. Some businesses are offering a small incentive, a $25 or $50 gift card, in exchange for a screenshot. It takes the customer one click.

What comes back is more useful than any keyword tool or survey. The actual query they ran. The follow-up questions they asked inside the conversation. How the AI compared the business to competitors. What it said before the prospect ever picked up the phone.

One approach worth noting: Many businesses have started doing this systematically with their sales teams, prompting the question any time a prospect mentions AI as a source. Within a few weeks, patterns emerge. Buyers aren’t searching “tell me about [business name].” They’re running deep comparison queries, asking about pricing, timelines, guarantees, and how the business stacks up against two or three specific competitors. In some cases, the AI is surfacing objections the sales team had never heard out loud.

No GEO tool replicates this. The synthetic prompts those tools generate are educated guesses about what customers might ask. This is the actual question, from a real person, in the moment they were deciding.

For a small business, even five or six of these conversations can reshape how the website is written, what the FAQ section covers, and which objections get addressed upfront.

Read your support tickets and emails

Support teams hear real customer language every single day, and almost no one on the marketing side pays attention to it. The questions that come in again and again, the words customers use to describe frustration, the things they say they were confused about before they called: All of it is free research.

If every third support email from a dental practice’s patients asks some version of “does this hurt?” that fear deserves an answer on the website, not just on the phone.

Listen to sales calls

Recorded sales calls are one of the most underused content research tools available to small businesses. Prospects say exactly what they’re worried about, what they’ve already tried, how they’d describe success, and what would make them walk away.

A roofing contractor whose sales team hears “I just want to know the price upfront; the last company wasted my time” has just been handed a headline: “Free Estimate in 24 Hours. No Pressure, No Surprises.”

Pull your Google Ads search query report

If the business is running paid search, the Search Terms report shows the exact phrases people typed before they clicked on an ad. Most advertisers only open it to find negative keywords. That’s leaving money on the table. Read it as a transcript of customer language.

An auto shop that sees “how much does a brake job cost” appearing 80 times a month now knows exactly what to put on its landing page headline and what to bid on more aggressively.

Want to know how your Google Ads campaigns are doing right now? Find out with a free, instant audit >> Google Ads Performance Grader

Explore reddit, forums, and local community groups

Customers talk differently when no one is trying to sell them anything.

A thread in a local Facebook group asking “anyone know a good HVAC company that doesn’t overcharge?” will tell you more about what matters to that customer base than any survey could.

These conversations reveal the real buying triggers, the real objections, and the specific phrases that come up when people are just talking to their neighbors.

How to use customer language to improve your marketing

Let’s explore some of the ways you can use customer language to:

• Cut ad costs
• Improve conversion rates
• Boost SEO
• Increase AI visibility

How to use customer language to cut your ad costs

Most customer-language advice focuses on branding and SEO. The fastest financial payoff is usually in paid search, and it works through a mechanism most small businesses don’t fully understand.

Google uses a Quality Score to evaluate how relevant an ad is to both the search query and the landing page it leads to. According to Google’s own Ads documentation, Quality Score is direct input into Ad Rank and the cost-per-click an advertiser pays for a given position. A higher score can mean paying less for the same placement than a competitor with a lower one.

The language gap sits right at the center of that equation. Consider two auto repair shops bidding on the keyword “brake repair near me.” The first runs an ad that says “Professional Automotive Maintenance Services – ASE Certified Technicians.” The second runs an ad that says “Brake Repair Today – Most Jobs Done in Under 2 Hours.”

Both are targeting the same keyword, bidding similar amounts, and appearing in the same auction. But the second ad speaks the language of the search. It matches what the person typed and answers the unspoken question underneath it: how long is this going to take? That relevance earns a better Quality Score, which translates directly into a lower cost per click.

How to use customer language to improve conversion rates

Getting someone to click is only half the problem. What happens after the click depends almost entirely on whether the page they land on sounds like the answer they were looking for.

The highest-leverage place to apply customer language is in headlines, because that’s the first thing a visitor reads and the fastest way to signal that they’re in the right place. “Comprehensive Plumbing Solutions” tells a visitor nothing specific. “Need an Emergency Plumber? We’ll Be There Today” answers the question they had when they searched.

The closer the headline is to the customer’s actual words, the less work they have to do to decide whether to keep reading.

Service pages are where the language gap tends to do the most quiet damage. A page called “Our Services” is a menu. A page called “How Much Does Emergency Plumbing Cost in Chicago?” is an answer to a real question a real person typed. The second approach doesn’t just improve SEO. It also signals to the visitor that this business understands their situation, which builds enough trust to keep them on the page.

Calls to action follow the same pattern. “Contact Us” is a direction. “Get a Free Roof Inspection” is an offer. “See 3 Ways to Get More Leads This Month” is a promise tied to the exact outcome the prospect cares about. Small agencies that have tested variations of these consistently find that the more specific and customer-centric the CTA, the higher the conversion rate, because the customer can see exactly what they’re getting before they click.

The underlying principle is straightforward: the closer the language on the page is to the language in the customer’s head, the less friction stands between them and a decision.

Ready to quickly increase your conversions and win more customers? Download our guide: Super-Fast Ways to Boost Conversions >>

How to use customer language to improve SEO

Most businesses do keyword research backward. They start with a tool, find terms with decent search volume, and write content around those terms. The problem is that keyword tools surface what people search, not necessarily how they phrase the actual question. Customer language research fills that gap.

A dental practice doing standard keyword research might target “orthodontic treatment options.” A practice that’s been reading its reviews and listening to consultations knows that patients are actually searching “braces vs. Invisalign cost” and “does Invisalign hurt more than braces.” Those long-tail, conversational queries are often less competitive, more specific to buying intent, and far more aligned with what the practice’s prospective patients are actually thinking about.

The same applies to content topics. Customer questions are content briefs in disguise. An HVAC company whose service team hears “should I repair my AC or just replace it?” three times a week has an article topic that is already validated by demand. A property management company whose inbox fills up every spring with “how do I get my security deposit back?” has a piece that will rank for a phrase thousands of people search every year.

None of this requires a content strategist. It requires listening to what customers are already asking and then writing the clearest possible answer.

How to use customer language to improve AI visibility

AI search doesn’t work the way keyword-based search does, and that changes what good optimization looks like.

When someone types a question into ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google’s AI Overviews, they’re usually asking the way they’d ask a person. “Who’s the best pediatric dentist in Tampa for anxious kids?” “What should I do when my furnace stops working in the middle of winter?” “Is it worth getting a home warranty?” These are conversational queries, not keyword strings.

Content that’s written in that same conversational register is easier for AI systems to retrieve and surface as an answer, because it maps more naturally onto the question being asked.

Reviews play a larger role in AI visibility than most businesses realize. AI systems don’t just index formal website content. They synthesize information from across the web, and reviews are part of that picture.

A review that says “They fixed our furnace the same day we called, right before a cold snap, and the technician explained exactly what went wrong” is useful to an AI system trying to answer “who’s a reliable HVAC company in [city]?”

A review that just says “great service, highly recommend” is not. Encouraging customers to write specific, detailed reviews is one of the most underused tactics for improving how a business shows up in AI-generated answers.

Common mistakes that keep businesses stuck

Understanding why businesses default to jargon makes it easier to stop doing it. Most of the time, it isn’t carelessness. It’s that the people writing the copy are too close to the product.

Writing for peers instead of customers is the most common pattern. Industry language sounds competent inside a business. It signals expertise to colleagues, impresses people at trade shows, and feels appropriate on a website that’s meant to represent a professional organization. The problem is that customers are not the business’s peers. A homeowner dealing with a burst pipe at midnight doesn’t want to evaluate credentials. She wants to know someone will show up.

Hiding simple answers behind complexity is related but slightly different. Some businesses bury the most useful information, prices, timelines, process, exactly what’s included, deep in their pages out of habit or a misguided sense that giving too much away loses the sale. In practice, the opposite is usually true.

A roofing company that puts “most residential roof replacements cost between $8,000 and $15,000 depending on size and material, and we’ll give you an exact quote within 24 hours” on its homepage will convert better than one that says “contact us for a personalized estimate,” because it answers the question before the customer has to ask.

As Stephanie puts it: “The instinct to withhold pricing usually backfires. By the time a customer has to call to ask, half of them have already moved on.”

A simple customer language audit

Before running a full strategy overhaul, it’s worth doing a quick diagnostic on what’s already live. Open the homepage, a core service page, the best-performing blog post, and if the business runs paid search, the Google Ads search query report from the last 30 days.

Read through each one and ask a single question: Could I find these exact phrases in a customer review, a support email, or a sales call transcript?

If the answer is mostly no, there’s a gap. The audit doesn’t need to be exhaustive to be useful. Even identifying two or three places where the business is speaking past its customers is enough to get started.

Your customer language action plan

The goal here isn’t to rewrite everything at once. That’s how these projects stall. The goal is to make one targeted change, measure it, and build the habit from there.

This week, pull the raw material: 15 to 20 recent reviews, last month’s support tickets, and if the business advertises, the search query report from Google Ads. Read through all of it and tag every phrase that repeats more than twice. Those repeating phrases are the signal. They’re the things customers care about enough to keep saying in their own words.

Then rewrite three things, not the whole site. Pick one headline, one CTA, and one ad headline if applicable. Swap in the customer’s exact phrasing and leave everything else alone for now. Changing only three things makes the impact measurable. If the conversion rate on the service page goes up and the CPC on the ad goes down, you know the language change is doing something.

Check the numbers in 30 days, then make it a quarterly habit. Customer language isn’t static. New reviews come in, new search terms emerge, and the phrases that resonated last year start to drift. Businesses that treat this as ongoing research rather than a one-time project end up with marketing that stays aligned with how customers actually talk, which is the only way to make sure it keeps working.

The post How to Use Customer Language for Powerful Marketing Copy appeared first on WordStream.

But now, after years of expanding placements on Facebook, adding Instagram, launching Threads, and expanding into the Meta Ads network, your ads can reach your target audience in tons of places across the web.

In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about placements in Meta Ads and how you can control them (or not) to drive strong campaign results.

Contents

• Full list of Meta Ads placements
• How to find placement controls in Meta Ads
• How to decide which placements to use for your campaigns

Full list of Meta Ads placements

A placement in Meta Ads refers to the individual location your ad can show in on a given platform. Think Facebook News Feed, Instagram Reels, and more.

Here is a full list of the placements available in the Meta Ads network:

Depending on your settings, your ads will either show up in some or all of these locations across the Meta Ads network.

Ready for more? Get The 16 Most Effective Strategies for Facebook Ads Success

How to find placement controls in Meta Ads

While the settings are a little hidden, there are several ways to control which placements your ads show in.

At the ad set level

The ad set level is the easiest place to find all of the placement controls for your campaigns.

At the bottom of the control panel, you’ll see a Placements box that looks like the above image.

The first listed item is Account controls. If you hover over and open those controls, you can choose to exclude certain placements in the Audience Network, Facebook Marketplace, and in the right column for the entire account simply by unchecking the box next to them.

Likely, account-level placement exclusions are something only a few advertisers will need, but this does make it convenient for those who need it.

Below the account-level setting, you’ll see Advantage+ placements listed. If you hover over that, you can see the pencil icon and Edit show up in the upper right.

Once you click on that, you’ll see the options for Advantage+ placements vs. Manual placement targeting. Here’s the difference between those two:

• Advantage+ placements: Ads can run on any placement around the Meta Ads Network. Meta states that ad delivery is based on where it thinks your ads will perform best.
• Manual placements: Ads will only run on placements the advertiser has opted into and will not be shown in those that haven’t been selected. What’s not stated here is that Meta will still try to serve your ads in placements it thinks will perform well; it just won’t show them in locations you’ve opted out of.

In the device control menus

If you tap Manual placements, a new portion of the settings opens. From there, you can control several other options.

The first (and smallest) set of controls is going to be devices, found right under the A/B testing checkbox. The setting is so small it’s very easy to miss. Just like finding the Manual placement option, you have to hover over the Devices header to get the Edit pencil to show up in the upper right.

Once that’s open, you can choose to focus on just Mobile or just Desktop devices. A pretty simple set of controls, but don’t worry, there’s more on devices below.

If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page, you’ll see a small “Show more options” link. When you click that, you’ll get the options you see below.

Just like all the other sections, you have to hover over the names to get the Edit pencil to show up, but once you do, you’ll have the following options.

They might not look like much, but if you select one of the operating systems, you’ll gain access to several more controls.

For iOS, for example, you can remove targeting for iPads, iPhones, or iPods as you want.

You can also exclude specific devices just by searching for them in the exclusions window.

Below that, you can also choose the minimum and maximum operating systems.

The controls for Android devices are pretty much the same, just for the Android versions, obviously.

The last two placement controls in this section are as simple as a checkbox.

The first requires only users who are on Wi-Fi to see your ads. This can be helpful if you’re worried about your website loading quickly.

The second allows you to exclude skippable placements, meaning your full ad will be viewable for ads up to 15 seconds.

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In the platforms and placements menus

Hopping back up to just below the first set of device controls, the first set of checkboxes we come across are for the platforms as a whole.

By checking or unchecking these boxes, you can opt for your ads to run on or be excluded from all of Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Audience Network, Messenger, or WhatsApp (depending on your campaign type).

Below that, we have the full list of placements I showed earlier. If you click a checkbox next to one of these platforms, you’ll notice in the longer table below that many of the placements will be removed based on the platform checkbox. In the image above, I opted out of Facebook, and about half of the Feeds placements went away.

In the full table of placements, you can select individual placements that you want to show in, or you can uncheck the box if you don’t want to be there.

You’ll also notice there’s a checkbox next to “Feeds” at the very top. That lets you opt into or out of all placements of that type. If for some reason you don’t want to be listed in Stories and Reels, you can uncheck that box and it’ll remove all placements in that group.

With the limited spend controls menu

A new feature Meta rolled out recently allows advertisers to give some grace when it comes to the placements they exclude.

Meta contends that its platform will get you the best results if you use Advantage+ placements because it has the widest reach and the most flexibility to find your target audience.

But some advertisers don’t want certain placements to take over spend. Here’s where the limited spend control comes in.

When you exclude a placement from the list, a new setting will show up below the table. You’re opted into this setting by default, and it allows Facebook to spend 5% of your budget on placements you’ve excluded if Meta thinks it will improve performance.

Personally, I think this is probably an okay expansion, as sometimes the lesser-loved placements can perform well. The problem is when they take too much budget away from other placements.

But there’s one additional layer to this setting that I really like. If you click the Manage excluded placements button, you can then toggle to choose which placements can get the 5% wiggle room and which have to be entirely excluded.

For my example above, I excluded only the Audience Network placements, so those are the only 2 in this list that I have to choose from.

How to decide which placements to use for your campaigns

Now that we know what all the controls are and you’re aware of how to find which placements are which, the question is: “Which ones should I use?”

If you’ve been reading marketing blogs for any amount of time…I think you already know the answer.

It depends!

Every business has different needs for where their ads can show. But I would say there are some considerations that all businesses should think about.

Placement control vs. content suitability

The most common issue I see with advertisers opting out of certain placements is that they think they’re controlling for the content around the ads, which isn’t true.

A placement is simply where your ad can show around the Meta Ads Network.

If you’re worried about brand safety and want to have some say in what content you show up next to, what you’re really looking for are the content and suitability controls.

These live in the advanced settings at the bottom of the placement controls.

They can also be found in the main navigation under Manage > Brand safety and suitability.

You can learn more about Meta’s brand safety and suitability controls in this video or in this blog post.

Ad creative considerations

Each of the different placements around the Meta Ads system will make your ads look different because each has its own dimensions.

But this is an easily overcome issue depending on your design capabilities. Each time you make an ad, you get the opportunity to customize it by placement and crop it to fit into all placements.

In the end, there are really only three orientations you need to worry about: square, vertical, and horizontal.

With the tools Meta gives you, you can crop an ad from one orientation to another, or you can completely swap out an image if you have one designed for that orientation.

In my opinion, it might take a little design work, but the way an ad is going to look shouldn’t be a reason to exclude a placement.

Advantage+ placements vs. manual options

When Meta claims that their platform does better with full control of placements, they’re usually right. From my experience, the less you try to restrict the Meta algorithm on placements, the more you’re likely to see decent performance.

Almost always, if a placement isn’t performing to your standards, it’s not performing to Meta’s either.

For the vast majority of advertisers, I believe automatic placements are the right move.

Using performance to plan placements

Despite me saying Meta usually limits spending on placements that don’t perform, I can’t say that’s a trusted rule of the platform.

The only reason I exclude placements for my client accounts is based on actual performance.

Once your campaigns have been running for a while, you do have the ability to see how each placement you’ve opted into is performing.

On the campaign, ad set, or ads tabs, above the performance table, you can click the Breakdown button, then select Placement.

From there, you’ll have each line broken down into multiple rows (the actual number will differ depending on how many placements you’re using). Each row will have 3 columns, including:

• Platform
• Placement
• Experience location

To the right, you can see performance for each placement. Everything from clicks to cost to conversions is available here and can help you decide whether a placement needs to be excluded.

Get to know your Meta Ads placements

As you can tell, there are quite a few ways you can choose which placements your Meta Ads show. But I don’t really think they’re useful for most folks. You’ll likely see the best performance with Advantage+ placements. If you notice patterns in your placement performance and want to take charge, review this guide to learn how.

Meta Ads are a lucrative way to promote your business. They can also be complex. Reach out, and we’ll show you how our digital marketing solutions make it easy to get the most out of each campaign.

The post A Complete Guide to Meta Ads Placements for 2026 appeared first on WordStream.

Advertisers don’t get to be early adopters of a new advertising tool on an established platform like Apple Maps every day. If you’re in charge of marketing for a local business—whether you’ve been running search ads for decades or are new to the game—it’s worth getting to know more about this fresh advertising channel.

Read on for a full rundown on ads on Apple Maps: What they are, how they work, a step-by-step setup guide, and why your business should consider them.

Contents

• What are Apple Maps Ads?
• Why advertise on Apple Maps?
• How to run Apple Maps ads: Step-by-step guide
• How much do Apple Maps ads cost?
• Apple Maps ads FAQs

What are Apple Maps ads?

Apple Maps ads are a way to reach Apple customers in the native Maps app on their phone, iPad, or computer. Like with Google Maps ads, businesses can bid to win preferential placement in the Maps interface. Apple allows you to run two types of ads. Your listing can appear as a suggested nearby business before the user even runs a query, or your ad can appear as a sponsored result in search.

These “Suggested Places” appear when a user opens the app.

Apple uses contextual data in its audience targeting, showing ads to users based on their location, recent searches, and other relevant information. This helps your ads appear in front of people who are most likely to find your listing helpful and valuable.

Start with a strong foundation! Get PPC 101: The Complete Beginner’s Guide to (Succeeding at!) PPC

Why advertise on Apple Maps?

Advertising on Apple Maps offers several benefits, from high search volume to strong search intent. Here are some highlights:

• Apple reports 1 billion queries per month in its Maps app. That gives your business plenty of opportunities to get discovered.
• One in two queries on the app results in users taking an action. People who search for your business on Maps may be looking for an immediate solution to their need.
• Apple Maps comes pre-loaded on every Apple device. People don’t need to take additional steps to download, install, and configure the app; it’s immediately accessible.
• Users can’t opt out of ads on Apple Maps. This means advertisers have the potential to rack up more impressions from anyone who uses the app.

All Apple Maps users are opted in to receive advertising.

Beyond the app’s features, it also supports consumer behavior. People want to help small businesses, with 95% of consumers saying it’s important to do so. Apple Maps is one vehicle to connect consumers to nearby local businesses.

“Our own tracking shows Apple Maps traffic converts at about 2X the rate of organic visits from Google overall, even though Apple Maps still accounts for a very small share of organic traffic to websites,” said Katia Hausman, VP of Product for LocaliQ.

“Several location-driven service categories perform even better. And because this only captures referral traffic to websites, rather than all the activity happening within Apple Maps, it likely understates the channel’s total impact.”

Running Google Ads, too? Success starts with The Definitive Guide to the Perfect Google Ads Account Structure >>

How to run Apple Maps ads: Step-by-step guide

Getting started with ads on Apple Maps is pretty simple. This six-step process will have your ads up and running in no time!

1. Create or update your Apple Business account

To establish an Apple Maps listing for your business, you first need to create an Apple Business account.

Apple Business offers a range of functionality for small businesses. You can manage company mobile devices; integrate your email, calendar, and directory services; and build your Apple Maps profile to enhance your business’s discoverability. The sign-up process is free and simple.

Source

2. Claim your business location(s)

Once you’ve established your Apple Business account, you’ll be able to claim your business locations in Apple Maps. Open your Maps app and search for your business name. Scroll down to the bottom of the listing and click on the “Claim This Place” button. If your business is missing, you can also add it by scrolling to the bottom of existing listings and selecting “Add a Missing Place.”

This process establishes you as the legitimate owner of your location and gives you access to update and optimize your listings. If you have more than one location, be sure to claim each one on the platform.

3. Update your Apple Maps business listing

Next, you can build out your listing. Filling out your profile completely makes it more useful for those who are discovering your business in Apple Maps.

To create an optimized listing, you should:

• Add your logo: This helps people who are already familiar with your brand recognize you instantly, and it builds awareness among those who are finding you for the first time on the app.
• Update your hours and contact information: Ensure these details are correct and current, so people can easily stop by your location or reach out if they need assistance.
• Complete your “About” section: Fill out your business’s bio to give visitors some background on your brand, mission, and offerings. This helps people determine if what you do can address their need.
• Upload photos: You can add a cover photo to your listing, plus additional supporting videos. Share pictures that show off your space, your products, and your friendly team. This helps build trust and highlights your work.
• Add custom actions: You can customize the buttons on your Maps listing to make it easier for people to take a next step with your business. Apple allows you to select from actions like “Call Now” and “Rate Us” to encourage the actions you’d like to drive.

A great ad in Apple Maps starts with a great business listing.

4. Set your budget

When launching your first ad, Apple Maps will ask you to set a maximum monthly budget. This is the amount you want to spend over the course of the average calendar month. You’ll have the option to either set your own budget or go with one Apple suggests. Either way, you have control throughout the month to pause or stop ads at any time.

5. Establish your first campaign

To start, Apple will ask you to choose where you want your ad to run. You can either have it appear in Apple Maps when users open the app, or it can vie for placement in search results, or you can do both.

Here’s what the search results ads look like in Apple Maps

From there, you’ll select a bid strategy. Apple Maps also allows you to choose between an automated bidding strategy, which it calls “Maximum Engagements,” or its “Manage Bids” option, where you set your own manual price and keywords. If you go for the automated “Maximize Engagements” option, your ad will automatically run on a cost-per-tap (CPT) model, with the goal of getting you the most engagement within your established budget. If you opt for “Manage Bids,” you can set your own strategy for keywords, which can be structured as either cost-per-tap (CPT) or cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM).

At this stage, you’ll also be prompted to select:

• The business locations for your ads: If you have multiple locations, you can run ads for some or all of them. You can also create location groups to run ads for specific subsets of your locations more easily.
• Search Match: This feature helps your ad get automatically matched with relevant search queries. You can turn this on or off for each campaign.
• Keywords: You can select specific keywords or categories you’d like your ads to target. You can also add negative keywords to omit your ad from searches for certain terms.
• Audience settings: While ads that run when users open the app are set to reach all eligible users automatically, you can define geographic targeting for search ads. You also have the option to define an ad schedule, running your ads only during certain times or on specific days.

6. Design your ad

Once your campaign is configured, you can upload your ad creative. Apple Maps ads allow you to include up to three images or run the ad with your logo (note: you can’t run an ad with your logo and images).

You also have the option to add promotional text. This copy appears in your ad and can highlight a specific offering, deal, or other business update that can help increase foot traffic to your small business.

Once you’ve input your visuals and text, you can see a preview of your ad before publishing it. If everything looks good, it’s time to go live with your very first Apple Maps ad!

How much do Apple Maps ads cost?

Apple Maps ads only launched in August 2026, so there’s not a lot of historical data available for benchmarking advertising costs.

However, if you’re concerned about staying within budget, Apple gives you plenty of control over your ad spend. First, it invites you to select a monthly maximum budget, which allows for flexibility in day-to-day spending while ensuring you stay under a monthly limit. Additionally, you can opt to set daily budget limits for your campaigns.

These average search advertising benchmarks can help you understand general CPC and cost per lead across platforms.

As mentioned earlier, Apple Maps also allows you to choose between an automated bidding strategy, “Maximum Engagements,” or its “Manage Bids” option, where you set your own manual price and keywords. With the Maximum Engagements bid strategy, you’ll be charged only when someone taps on your ad–the cost-per-tap (CPT) model. With the manual bidding option, you can select between CPT and cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) pricing.

The actual cost of running your ad will vary based on several factors, including the bidding strategy you select, general competition in your industry and location, and the relevance of your ad as compared to users’ search terms and intent.

See even more ad costs: Download Display & Video Ads Benchmarks: Exclusive Data & Insights for Every Industry

Apple Maps ads FAQs

Apple Maps ads are new, so there are bound to be many questions. Here are a few of the most common.

When will Apple Maps ads be available?

Apple Maps ads are available to marketers as of August 2026.

Can users turn ads off in Apple Maps?

No, there is currently no “off” switch for ads in Apple Maps. Even paid subscriptions to Apple ONE or iCloud do not remove them.

Where do ads show in Apple Maps?

There are two ad placement options in Apple Maps. The first is sponsored locations. These show inside the new “Suggested Places” section on the search screen. The second is paid business results, which appear at the top of relevant search lists (these are marked with an “Ad” tag).

How much do Apple Maps ads cost?

There is no fixed cost for ads in Apple Maps. Instead, costs are determined by a live auction system. Characteristics like industry niche, target locations, and your account setup (manual or automated) will influence ad spend.

Are you ready to add Apple Maps ads to your marketing strategy?

If your small business is looking to connect with a local audience, Apple Maps ads might be a smart addition to your multichannel marketing strategy. As with any new marketing tactic, evaluate how it aligns with your broader business goals and where it fits into your existing marketing plans before deciding whether to add it to the mix. And if you implement Apple Maps ads, watch key metrics over time to assess how the ads contribute to your overall growth.

Have more questions about getting leads and customers from digital marketing? Reach out, and we’ll show you how we can help.

The post Apple Maps Ads Are Here: Everything You Need to Know appeared first on WordStream.

But running ads via Meta Business Suite to reach audiences on apps like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger can be as confusing as it is rewarding.

If you’ve ever questioned whether the numbers you’re looking at in the Meta Ads dashboard are good or bad, we’ve got the data to guide you. It’s all here in this report of over 1,800 Facebook ad campaigns running over the last year.

We looked at performance averages by industry for four key Facebook advertising metrics: click-through rate, cost per click, conversion rate, and cost per lead. The data is broken out by two different core Facebook ads campaign objectives (traffic and leads).

This exclusive data enables you to benchmark your own results and see where you can improve. Plus, our expert insights will guide you through the tweaks you need to make to drive the best results from your Meta Ads campaigns so you beat the competition.

Contents

• Key takeaways: the big picture
• Facebook ads benchmarks: Traffic campaigns
  • Average click-through rate
  • Average cost per click
• Facebook ads benchmarks: Leads campaigns
  • Average click-through rate
  • Average cost per click
  • Average conversion rate
  • Average cost per lead
• How to improve your Facebook ads results

Key Facebook ads trends: The big picture

Despite rising advertising costs, Facebook ads continue to maintain a cost advantage over Google Ads, making Facebook ads an important part of an overall digital strategy.

Facebook ads with a traffic objective saw strong improvement year over year, with both higher CTRs and lower CPCs compared to 2025.

Facebook leads saw performance improvements after a slight decline last year, with an almost 11% increase in CVR, a 6.25% decrease in CPC, and a slight decrease in CPL (only down 1%, roughly).

Google Ads CPC is more than double the average Meta CPC. Google Ads may have more buying intent, but this is still a substantial win for Meta in terms of cost. It’s not that one channel is better than the other; it’s that they are complementary to one another. You can use Meta Ads to supplement your Google Ads campaigns and stretch your budget further.

Experts have noticed that Meta has been improving the bidding and optimization capabilities of campaign objectives such as the leads objective, so naturally, advertisers may be seeing increases in conversions and decreases in cost.

“These results align with what I’ve been seeing: Meta continues to be a cost-effective channel for both traffic and lead generation, especially as part of a broader digital strategy,” said Kendall Cagle, Product Manager—Social & Display Media at LocaliQ.

“Performance will always vary by vertical, audience, creative, and offer, but the year-over-year improvements in CTR, CPC, and lead conversion reinforce that Meta still deliver efficient results when campaigns are set up and optimized well.”

Want to take this data to go? Download our free 2026 Facebook ads benchmarks report here!

Facebook ads benchmarks for traffic campaigns by industry

Meta’s traffic objective for advertising campaigns acts like the “maximize clicks” bidding strategy on Google Ads. It’s focused on using your budget to serve your ads in a way that’s most likely to drive the highest volume of traffic to your website.

Most businesses consider traffic campaigns a staple part of their Meta Ads strategy since this objective shows your ads to audience members most likely to click off to your website, which helps move potential customers through your funnel.

Average click-through rate for traffic campaigns

Click-through rate is a no-brainer metric for measuring campaigns using the traffic objective in Facebook Ads, since their purpose is to drive clicks. A traffic objective Facebook ads campaign with a high click-through rate is a healthy one.

The average click-through rate in Facebook ads for traffic campaigns across all industries is 1.93%.

This is a 12.87% increase compared to last year’s average of 1.71%.

The industries that had the highest traffic campaign CTRs were Beauty and Personal Care (2.73%), Arts and Entertainment (2.71%), and Restaurants and Food (2.68%).

The industries with the lowest traffic campaign CTRs were Finance and Insurance (1.46%), Automotive—For Sale (1.47%), and Education and Instruction (1.50%).

Ready to see better Meta Ads results? Start with a free, instant account audit using our Facebook Ads Grader!

Average click-through rate: YoY

While overall average click-through rate for Facebook traffic campaigns increased for the majority of industries, there were also still a few industries that saw CTR decreases year over year.

For example, the industries with the biggest decreases in click-through rate for traffic campaigns year over year were Shopping, Collectibles, and Gifts (down 54.48%), Sports and Recreation (down 31.92%), and Travel (down 17.39%).

Meanwhile, the industries with the biggest increases in CTR for traffic campaigns year over year were Physicians and Surgeons (up 128.92%), Automotive—Repair, Service, and Parts (up 88.75%), and Restaurants and Food (up 60.48%).

New vehicle sales in the US have been down slightly, which Cox Automotive attributes to inflation and market fragmentation. Accordingly, consumers may be more focused on repairing or maintaining their current vehicles, which could explain why the Repair, Service, and Parts category saw performance increases in click-through rate year-over-year.

Average cost per click for traffic campaigns

Now you might have a high click-through rate for your Facebook traffic campaigns, but if you also have a high cost per click, you’ll still have a problem because an increase in costly clicks will eat your budget faster. That’s why most businesses prioritize average CPC when evaluating traffic campaign performance in Meta Ads.

The average cost per click in Facebook ads for traffic campaigns across all industries is $0.60.

This is 14.29% lower than last year’s average of $0.70.

The industries with the lowest CPCs in Facebook ads for traffic campaigns included Arts and Entertainment at $0.34, Travel at $0.42, and Restaurants and Food at $0.45.

In contrast, the industries with the highest CPCs in Facebook ads for traffic campaigns included Finance and Insurance at $0.86, Automotive—Repair, Service, and Parts at $0.74, and Apparel, Fashion, and Jewelry at $0.71.

You can learn how to lower your cost per click in Meta Ads here.

Average cost per click: YoY

As overall average click-through rate for traffic campaigns improved year over year for the majority of industries, so did cost per click.

Only two industries saw an increase in their traffic CPCs compared to last year: Shopping, Collectibles, and Gifts with a 73.53% increase, and Sports and Recreation with a 43.90% increase.

On the opposite end, the industries with the biggest improvements to their traffic CPCs year over year were Real Estate with a 39.56% decrease, Restaurants and Food with a 37.50% decrease, as well as Industrial and Commercial with a 37.21% decrease.

Facebook ads benchmarks for leads campaigns by industry

The leads objective is a bread-and-butter strategy for many Meta advertisers. It connects directly back to your business’s bottom line, as it encourages campaign behavior to serve ads to users most likely to convert.

For businesses looking to generate leads, rather than increase sales, the Facebook leads campaign objective is a must-have. That’s partially because of how it influences campaign behavior for the most leads possible, but also because it enables businesses to take advantage of Facebook Lead Ads—which are a special ad format that allows advertisers to build a widely customizable contact form right into their ad that viewers can convert off of without ever having to leave Meta apps.

Click to enlarge

“This year, we saw lead campaigns improve CTR, CPC, and CVR while keeping CPL essentially flat. That tells me advertisers are getting more engagement and stronger conversion efficiency without a meaningful increase in lead cost,” Kendall said.

Average click-through rate for leads campaigns

Although the primary focus of Facebook leads campaigns is, well, leads, click-through rate is still an impactful metric to look at when evaluating your performance. You still need your Facebook Lead Ads to be enticing and “clickable” to get users to your coveted lead form. After all, clicks are the first step to turning potential customers into leads.

The 2026 average click-through rate in Facebook ads for leads campaigns across all industries is 2.70%.

This is a 4.25% increase compared to last year’s average of 2.59%.

The industry with the highest CTR for Facebook leads campaigns this year was Physicians and Surgeons at 4.18%. That industry was followed by Real Estate at 4.17% and Furniture at 3.78%.

The industry with the lowest CTR for Facebook leads campaigns was Beauty and Personal Care at 1.35%, followed by Dentists and Dental Services at 1.62% and Education and Instruction at 1.74%.

Average click-through rate: YoY

The industries with the biggest drops in performance in terms of leads campaign average CTR year over year were Beautify and Personal Care (down 47.06%), Arts and Entertainment (down 14.80%), and Sports and Recreation (down 7.33%).

The industries with the biggest improvements in performance for leads campaign average CTR year over year were Furniture (up 155.42%), Health and Fitness (up 79.65%), and Dentists and Dental Services (up 54.29%).

It’s interesting that the Health and Fitness and Physicians and Surgeons categories had the top CTRs and CTR improvements year over year. This could partially be due to an increase of GLP-1 and weight-loss-related ads in the market as the demand for weight-control drugs has increased.

Source

Average cost per click for leads campaigns

Not only do you want to get clicks to your Facebook leads campaigns, but you also want them to be affordable. Monitoring the average cost per click in Facebook campaigns leveraging the leads objective helps you keep your budget pacing in check.

The 2026 average cost per click for Facebook ads leads campaigns across all industries is $1.80.

This is down by 6.25% compared to last year.

The industries with the highest leads ads CPCs were Dentists and Dental Services $5.70, Beauty and Personal Care $2.97, and Furniture as well as Home and Home Improvement—both at $2.18.

Meanwhile, Career and Employment has the lowest average CPC for Facebook lead ads at $0.73, followed by Arts and Entertainment at $0.88 and Sports and Recreation at $1.08.

Average cost per click: YoY

Average CPC for the leads objective improved for Automotive—For Sale, which was down 44.17%, Dentists and Dental Services, down 41.72%, and Health and Fitness, down 30.30%.

Only two industries saw a cost increase in leads campaign CPC year over year: Education and Instruction, which was up 4.24%, and Sports and Recreation, up 0.93%.

Average conversion rate for leads campaigns

The conversion rate of your Facebook leads campaigns directly ties back to the main purpose of the campaign because it indicates how efficient it is at increasing leads for your business.

The 2026 average conversion rate in Facebook ads for leads campaigns across all industries is 8.54%.

This is a 10.62% increase compared to last year.

The industries with the highest conversion rates for Facebook leads campaigns included Education and Instruction (15.87%), Arts and Entertainment (15.31%), and Health and Fitness (7.98%).

Meanwhile, the industries with the lowest conversion rates included Automotive—For Sale (4.15%), Industrial and Commercial (4.50%), and Home and Home Improvement (5.32%).

But overall, many industries are seeing stable or improved conversion rates. “I’ve personally experienced a large improvement in conversion rate for Facebook Lead Ads, as well as a much lower cost per lead as compared to years prior,” said Brett McHale, Founder of Empiric Marketing. “Our Meta lead ads have never been more efficient, and much of that has to do with the technical improvements Meta has made to the platform over the past 12 months.”

Average conversion rate: YoY

Industrial and Commercial was the industry with the biggest year-over-year decrease in conversion rate—down 51.77%. This industry was followed by Automotive—For Sale, down 51.33%, and Career and Employment, down 6.76%.

On the other hand, Arts and Entertainment was the industry with the biggest year-over-year increase in conversion rate—up 63.90%, followed by Education and Instruction, up 57.37%, and Furniture, up 50.24%.

Average cost per lead for leads campaigns

Your average cost per lead for Meta leads campaigns is your “money metric” that translates how your campaign is contributing to your business’s ROI. The lower your cost per lead, the more leads you can afford to acquire.

The 2026 average cost per lead in Facebook ads for leads campaigns across all industries is $27.39.

This is stable, with only a 0.98% decrease compared to last year.

The industry with the lowest cost per lead for Facebook leads campaigns was Career and Employment at $12.30, followed by Real Estate at $13.74, and Arts and Entertainment at $14.59.

Dentists and Dental Services had the highest cost per lead at $61.56, followed by Beauty and Personal Care at $50.91, and Home and Home Improvement at $42.95.

Average cost per lead: YoY

Most industries saw a decrease in average cost per lead for Facebook leads campaigns year over year, but Home and Home Improvement saw a CPL increase of 4.10% as well as Personal Services with a CPL increase of 24.60%.

The Personal Services category includes businesses such as wedding planners, cleaners, funeral homes, and more, which tend to face higher competition on platforms like Meta as users are more willing to spend in these areas, and that’s typically coupled with a longer sales cycle. Those factors can make managing cost per lead more challenging for these businesses, but not impossible—I’ll explain in our tips section!

The industries that succeeded in the biggest decreases in cost per lead for Facebook Lead Ads year over year were Health and Fitness, which decreased by 48.83%, Physicians and Surgeons, which decreased by 32.29%, as well as Career and Employment, which decreased by 30.27%.

Some of the results across the same industry seem contradictory at first. If you feel your costs are fluctuating, but so are your conversions, you may be dealing with changes in your audience pool.

“These metrics are not independent. If clicks get cheaper and a smaller share of your audience converts, CPC and CVR can both fall. Cost per lead only improves if a drop in cost per click outweighs a drop in conversion rate,” said Sai Paturi, Data Science Manager at LocaliQ.

How to improve your Meta Ads campaigns

No matter where your current Facebook and Instagram ads performance lies in reference to the averages in your industry, there are ways you can improve and optimize your campaigns. Here are our top Facebook advertising tips for this year.

1. Use Meta Ads in tandem with other channels to balance your budget

No two advertising platforms are exactly alike, so there’s not one end-all, be-all channel you should rely on for digital ads. Facebook ads work best when they’re complemented with other channels so your customers have a smooth buyer’s journey across sites and apps.

For example, you can run Facebook ads that align with your Google Ads campaigns to achieve similar goals at different costs for greater budget efficiency.

“I often see Facebook ads perform at a much better cost than Google. With the increasingly sophisticated Conversions API and AI-infused targeting abilities, it has never been easier to achieve a positive ROAS on Meta and mold audiences towards your desired outcomes,” Brett said.

Want to optimize your Meta advertising campaigns to the max? Reach out for a demo to see how our solutions can help perfect your strategy!

2. Optimize your conversion tracking

Your Facebook ads conversion tracking can make all the difference when it comes to your advertising experience. You need to make sure you’re tracking the right actions, so that everything is weighed and accounted for correctly. If you set up the Facebook Conversions API, you’ll be able to track users through their buyer journey at a granular level.

“If you are able to, 100% get Conversions API established within the account,” Brett said.

To start setting up your Facebook Conversions API, navigate over to the Events Manager section of Meta Business Suite and follow the prompts under integrations.

3. Remember that Advantage+ settings are optional

Throughout the Facebook ads setup process, you’ll be prompted to opt into Advantage+ settings when establishing your bidding, targeting, ad creative, and more. Advantage+ is a suite of automated features Meta offers to advertisers to help streamline campaign workflows using AI.

Of course, the trade-off with Advantage+ is manual control. However, most advertisers have incorporated some level of Advantage+ automation into their strategy at this point. There is no right or wrong answer as to whether you decide to take, well, advantage of all the Advantage+ features, but you will want to proceed with caution. Try rolling Advantage+ optimizations into your strategy slowly to see what works best for your business.

“At the management level, be very selective with which AI adjustments and settings you enable. At the end of the day, you are still in charge of your brand and how it is presented to the world. If there is a cosmetic setting you don’t like, disable it,” Brett said.

4. Look at a variety of metrics when measuring performance

While our report focuses on four core metrics of Facebook advertising, there are many other numbers you may want to pay attention to in your account.

Customize your Meta Business Suite reports, and try not to get hung up on any one metric. Each part of your Facebook ads campaign reports works together to tell you a complete story about performance. The relationship between multiple metrics can indicate areas for improvement.

“Each metric can be helpful and worthy of benchmarking to monitor performance trends. But understanding how they work in tandem can help you see the bigger story,” said Michelle Morgan, Co-Founder of Paid Media Pros.

Kendall agrees. “Evaluate performance across the full funnel and refresh creative or adjust the experience based on where the data shows friction, rather than reacting to one metric in isolation,” she said.

“High CTR but low CVR? You have great creative, but you’re not delivering on the promise. In these instances, your call to action is too intense, not appealing, not aligned with the creative, etc. Maintain the strong creative but adjust your CTA to be in line with the expectations and experience you’re setting there.”

“High CPCs but low CPL? Despite reaching a lot of folks, you’re warning off those who aren’t the right fit and still finding the right target audience who is willing to convert at a high rate that keeps CPL low,” Michelle said.

5. Tweak ad creative according to your audience

The most successful Facebook advertising accounts A/B test creative elements on their ads often. You may need to have different visuals or messaging depending on the audience lists you target. Don’t be afraid to play around with your ad assets on a regular basis to inform your strategy.

“Audience controls on Meta can vary in efficacy. What we’re finding drives better results? Treating your creative as your targeting and letting Meta optimize for your outlined conversion action,” Michelle said.

Mat Wendler, Senior Manager of Optimization Strategy & Custom Solutions at LocaliQ, agrees that testing is essential.

“Being open to testing new creative, adjusting messaging, refining audience targeting, and experimenting with different ad formats can help see what resonates most with the audiences you are going after,” Mat said.

“A/B testing is especially valuable, as it allows you to compare variations of creative, imagery, headlines, or messaging and make data-driven decisions based on performance. Consistent testing and optimization are often the key to improving results over time and maximizing your return on ad spend,” he said.

“Start by having sound, accurate conversion tracking on the goal you want. Then, leverage both the imagery/videos and the text portion of your ads to speak (implicitly and explicitly) to your target audience,” Michelle said.

Source

What these 2026 Facebook ads benchmarks mean for your business

These Facebook and Instagram ads benchmarks are meant to help you make confident decisions about your campaigns by establishing how your current performance compares to your average competitor. Use this data as a guiding light when you’re unsure if a new campaign is doing well or if your current campaigns need to be tweaked.

If your results don’t always align with the averages in your industry, don’t fret! Your Meta Ads strategy has flexibility, so you can always shift your strategy as trends evolve. Plus, you don’t have to navigate the nuances of Facebook advertising alone. Reach out, and one of our experts will show you how our solutions can help transform your strategy.

About the data

The traffic objective data is based on a sample of 1,377 US-based Facebook advertising campaigns running between April 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026. Each subcategory includes at minimum 11 unique active campaigns.

The leads objective data is based on a sample of 452 US-based Facebook advertising campaigns running between April 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026. Each subcategory includes at minimum 4 unique active campaigns.

For both objectives, “averages” are technically median figures to account for outliers. All currency values are posted in USD.

The post Facebook Ads Benchmarks 2026: NEW Data, Trends, & Insights for Your Industry appeared first on WordStream.