If you’re spending money on YouTube Ads campaigns, or planning on doing so, it’s important to understand how you’re doing.
So in this article, I’ve compiled the most important YouTube Ads benchmarks that you can use to evaluate your performance.
Table of Contents
Which YouTube Ad Benchmark to start with
If you’re new to running YouTube Ads campaigns it’s sometimes difficult to understand how your campaigns are doing. Depending on the type of YouTube campaign that you’re running, you might or might not see an immediate impact on sales.
So without conversions, how do you know if you need to be more patient, or if you’re just wasting money on “awareness”?
The goal of this article is to give you the YouTube Ads benchmarks for these different metrics. We’ll cover:
- Cost per thousand (CPM): how much do you pay for 1,000 ad impressions on your ad
- View rate: how many of those impressions turn into views?
- Cost per view (CPV): how much do you pay per view
- Video played to rate: do people watch 25-50-75-100% of your video ad?
- Click-through rate (CTR): how many people are clicking through
- Cost per click (CPC): how much are you paying for each click
- Conversion rate: how many people end up purchasing?
If you’re not familiar with what exactly these are, and how to use them to improve your campaigns, I recommend checking out our in-depth YouTube Ads tutorial.
YouTube Ads CPM
The average YouTube Ads CPM is $3.53.
Source: AdStage benchmark report.
CPM is short of cost per mille, or 1000 impressions.
YouTube Shorts Ads CPM
The average YouTube Shorts Ads CPM is $4.
Source: Research by Precise.TV (2024)
YouTube Ads View rate
The average YouTube Ads view rate is 31.9%.
Source: Strike Social benchmark report
This number is calculated by dividing the number of views by the total impressions.
Why is it important?
The average view rate tells you how relevant an ad is to a specific audience. I look at it as the quality score for YouTube Ads.
Your goal is not 100%, but to spot ads/ad groups where the view rate is far below the average.
View Rate By Age Group
Here is a breakdown of the YouTube Ads view rate by age group:
| Age | View rate |
| 18-24 | 31.5% |
| 25-34 | 29.6% |
| 35-44 | 31.4% |
| 45-54 | 32.3% |
| 55-64 | 34.7% |
| 65+ | 31.3% |
| Unknown | 37.4% |
Source: Strike Social benchmark report
View Rate by Gender
Here is a breakdown of the YouTube Ads view rate by gender:
| Gender | View rate |
| Female | 28.1% |
| Male | 34.4% |
| Unknown | 37.7% |
Source: Strike Social benchmark report
View Rate by Month
Here is a breakdown of the YouTube Ads view rate by month:
| Month | View rate |
| January | 34.2% |
| February | 29.2% |
| March | 30.1% |
| April | 38.5% |
| May | 37.5% |
| June | 36.4% |
| July | 26.6% |
| August | 31.6% |
| September | 37.3% |
| October | 25.1% |
| November | 18% |
| December | 10% |
Source: Strike Social benchmark report
View Rate by Device
Here is a breakdown of the YouTube Ads view rate by device:
| Device | View rate |
| Desktop | 35.4% |
| Phone | 33.2% |
| Tablet | 26.2% |
Source: Strike Social benchmark report
View Rate by Industry
Here is a breakdown of the YouTube Ads view rate by industry:
| Industry | View rate |
| Education | 35.4% |
| Fashion | 32% |
| Telecommunications | 31.9% |
| Baby & Child Care (CPG) | 31.2% |
| Healthcare & insurance | 31.2% |
| Toys | 31% |
| Household appliances | 30.7% |
| Entertainment | 30.2% |
| Restaurants | 29.7% |
| Government & advocacy | 29.6% |
| Health & beauty | 29.6% |
| Travel | 29.6% |
| B2B | 35.4% |
| Sports | 35.4% |
| Business & Finance | 35.4% |
| Science & technology | 35.4% |
| Automotive | 35.4% |
| Adult beverage | 35.4% |
| Food (CPG) | 35.4% |
| Electronics | 35.4% |
| Art | 35.4% |
| Home & Garden (CPG) | 35.4% |
| Gambling | 24.4% |
| Gaming | 24% |
| Retail | 15.7% |
Source: Strike Social benchmark report
View Rate by ad placement
The view rate of an ad can vary wildly depending on where on the YouTube platform your ads are showing.
Important here is to clarify the exact definition of a view for each ad placement. To count as a view on
- In-stream ads: Users must watch your video ad for at least 30 seconds or until the end of the ad if it’s less than 30 seconds.
- In-feed ads: Users must click on the thumbnail or watch the ad auto-play for at least 10 seconds or until the end of the ad if it’s less than 10 seconds.
- Shorts ads: Users must watch the video ad play for at least 10 seconds or until the end of the ad if it’s less than 10 seconds.
| Placement | View rate |
| In-stream | TBD |
| In-feed | TBD |
| Shorts | TBD |
We’re currently (February 2024) running an experiment and will report back with our findings.
YouTube Ads CPV (Cost Per View)
The average YouTube Ads CPV is $0.026
Source: Strike Social benchmark report
The cost per view is calculated by dividing the overall cost by the number of views.
While that might sound straightforward, I want to pay a little attention to the definition of a view:
On YouTube, a view is counted when someone watches 30 seconds of your video ad ( or the duration if it’s shorter than 30 seconds) or interacts with the ad, whichever comes first.
Google
And better: if there is no view, you don’t pay. So if someone watches the first 5 seconds of your ad but then skips, you don’t pay.
Why is this metric important?
The average cost per view is a lagging metric of the performance of your ads.
If your CPV is higher compared to the benchmark, it’s time to dig a little deeper and look at your creative, targeting, or both!
YouTube Shorts Ads CPV
The average YouTube Shorts Ads CPV is $0.10-0.30.
Cost per view by age group
Here is a breakdown of the YouTube Ads cost per view by age group:
| Age | Cost per view |
| 18-24 | $0.025 |
| 25-34 | $0.029 |
| 35-44 | $0.028 |
| 45-54 | $0.029 |
| 55-64 | $0.025 |
| 65+ | $0.024 |
| Unknown | $0.020 |
Source: Strike Social benchmark report
Cost per view by gender
Here is a breakdown of the YouTube Ads cost per view by gender:
| Gender | Cost per view |
| Female | $0.028 |
| Male | $0.026 |
| Unknown | $0.023 |
Source: Strike Social benchmark report
Cost per view by month
Here is a breakdown of the YouTube Ads cost per view by month:
| Month | Cost per view |
| January | $0.026 |
| February | $0.030 |
| March | $0.030 |
| April | $0.022 |
| May | $0.025 |
| June | $0.028 |
| July | $0.024 |
| August | $0.022 |
| September | $0.026 |
| October | $0.028 |
| November | $0.033 |
| December | $0.045 |
Source: Strike Social benchmark report
It goes up and down during the year, but the most interesting part of this table is the benchmark for December.
It’s peak shopping season, which attracts more advertisers to the platform, which drives up CPV.
Cost per view by device
Here is a breakdown of the YouTube Ads cost per view by device:
| Device | Cost per view |
| Desktop | $0.028 |
| Phone | $0.026 |
| Tablet | $0.025 |
Source: Strike Social benchmark report
Cost per view by Industry
Here is a breakdown of the YouTube Ads cost per view by device:
| Industry | Cost per view |
| Education | $0.037 |
| Fashion | $0.046 |
| Telecommunications | $0.048 |
| Baby & Child Care (CPG) | $0.035 |
| Healthcare & insurance | $0.071 |
| Toys | $0.038 |
| Household appliances | $0.047 |
| Entertainment | $0.035 |
| Restaurants | $0.037 |
| Government & advocacy | $0.040 |
| Health & beauty | $0.034 |
| Travel | $0.047 |
| B2B | $0.037 |
| Sports | $0.034 |
| Business & Finance | $0.048 |
| Science & technology | $0.038 |
| Automotive | $0.058 |
| Adult beverage | $0.06 |
| Food (CPG) | $0.043 |
| Electronics | $0.042 |
| Art | $0.057 |
| Home & Garden (CPG) | $0.088 |
| Gambling | $0.062 |
| Gaming | $0.046 |
| Retail | $0.045 |
Source: Strike Social benchmark report
The cost per view follows a similar trend to the CPC in Google Ads. If there is lots of money to be made, CPVs are higher.
YouTube Ads Video played to rate
The video played through metrics are 4 metrics that indicate what percentage of viewers make it to that specific part of the video ad
The video played to rate depends on how an ad is showing. An unskippable in-stream ad will have a 100% score.
| Video played to rate | |
| 25% | TBD |
| 50% | TBD |
| 75% | TBD |
| 100% | TBD |
We’re currently (February 2024) running an experiment and will report back with our findings.
YouTube Ads CTR
The average YouTube Ads CTR is 0.65%.
Source: AdStage benchmark report
CTR is short for clickthrough rate. It’s calculated by dividing the number of clicks on your ads by all the views.
CTR by Industry
Here is a breakdown of the YouTube Ads CPC rate by industry:
| Industry | CTR |
| Education | 0.56% |
| Fashion | 0.4% |
| Telecommunications | 0.33% |
| Baby & Child Care (CPG) | 0.07% |
| Healthcare & insurance | 0.45% |
| Toys | 1% |
| Household appliances | 0.045% |
| Entertainment | 0.43% |
| Restaurants | 0.04% |
| Government & advocacy | 0.07% |
| Health & beauty | 0.44% |
| Travel | 0.78% |
| B2B | 0.28% |
| Sports | 0.31% |
| Business & Finance | 0.38% |
| Science & technology | 0.31% |
| Automotive | 0.65% |
| Adult beverage | 0.28% |
| Food (CPG) | 0.31% |
| Electronics | 0.38% |
| Art | 0.36% |
| Home & Garden (CPG) | 0.31% |
| Gambling | 0.023% |
| Gaming | 0.9% |
| Retail | 0.84% |
Source: Strike Social benchmark report
Going Deeper on Google Ads
While this guide is a big one, it barely scratches the surface of what it takes to win with Google Ads campaigns.
That’s exactly why I combined two of our courses, Search Ads Success and Google Shopping Success into a Google Ads Success bundle.
It covers everything I’ve learned from running these campaigns for the past 12 years and much more.
If you want to learn more, I’d love for you to check it out!
On with the article 👇
YouTube Ads CPC
The average YouTube Ads CPC is $0.49.
Source: AdStage benchmark report.
CPC is short for cost per click.
YouTube Ads Conversion rate
The average YouTube Ads conversion rate for ecommerce is 0.05 – 0.5%.
If you’re running YouTube Ads to generate leads, a good conversion rate is 40-60%
How To Use These YouTube Ads Benchmarks
The goal of providing these benchmarks is to provide some perspective on what’s going on in your YouTube campaigns.
Do you need to be at or higher than all of the averages presented here?
No. Sometimes scoring worse or better at one of these metrics can indicate a different problem.
I once had a YouTube Ads campaign with an extremely low cost per view, about 6 times lower than the benchmark here. But when I dug deeper, it turned out that there was a problem with the targeting of the campaign, which resulted in the wrong audience seeing our ads.
These YouTube Ads benchmarks won’t turn you into a world-class advertiser overnight,but by noticing which of your ads or ad groups under or outperform your baseline or the benchmark, you can guide your optimization efforts!
Other benchmarks
Besides YouTube Ads, we also collect benchmarks on other types of advertising:
Found something helpful for your campaigns? Let us know in the comments.
Great compilation of stats. I was looking for something likes this to compare my YouTube ads with. Excellent work.
Happy to hear these were useful Stefan!
It says Updated 2021 but then the source links all link back to 2018 stats page?
Is this right?
Hi Jaron,
Correct, I’ve tried to find the most up to date stats. For some metrics, those are 2018 numbers.
But I regularly update this post, so if there is new research coming out, I’ll include it here!
Hey, these are interesting.
But totally outdated.
It is kind of misleading, that this report claims to be relevant for 2021.
But all the graphs and numbers stop with Q1 of 2020! – that was over a year ago!
Do you guys also have relevant, up to date numbers?
Hi Bernhard,
Totally get where you’re coming from. We mostly use data provided by other sources to put these benchmarks together. And often those reports have a bit of lag in them. (It often takes a few quarters to be released).
But we’re always looking for more accurate data, so in the future, we’ll definitely include the most up to date stats here!
Cost per Mille, not mile. Mille means thousand.
Thanks for spotting the typo Mika.
Hello Dennis. You have really provided useful date in one page. However, I think CTR is calculated by number of clicks/ impressions not the views
That’s correct Sachin!