CPA benchmarks for 2026: what 40 industries actually pay

Benchmarks are only useful if they are recent and specific. Most published CPA figures are averaged across years and industries, which makes them almost meaningless for planning. So we looked at our own anonymised data: $1.8 billion in spend across 2,100 advertisers between January and June 2026.

The headline numbers

The median cost per acquisition across all industries was $47, down 6% from the same period last year. The spread is wide. Subscription software paid a median of $112, direct-to-consumer apparel $31 and mobile games $9 per install. Financial services remained the most expensive vertical at $186.

Channel matters more than platform

Within the same industry, the channel mix explained more variation than the choice of platform. Advertisers spending over a third of budget on connected TV saw higher CPAs in the first month but 22% lower CPAs by month three, as the upper funnel started to feed search and social.

Scale helps, up to a point

Accounts spending $50,000 to $250,000 a month achieved the lowest CPAs relative to their industry. Below that range, learning phases dominated. Above it, diminishing returns set in as teams saturated their best audiences.

How to use these benchmarks

Treat a benchmark as a starting question, not a target. If your CPA is well above the median for your industry, check your attribution before your creative: in our data, 30% of apparently expensive accounts were over-counting conversions on a cheaper channel and under-crediting a more expensive one.

If you are below the median, look at the trend rather than the level. A low CPA that is rising week on week often signals creative fatigue before any other metric moves.

Methodology

All figures use deduplicated conversions, not platform-reported ones, and exclude accounts with less than 90 days of history. Industries with fewer than 25 advertisers are grouped. The full table, filterable by industry and channel, is available to customers in the Benchmarks tab, or ask our team for a copy.