What are the most competitive industries for paid advertising?
Legal, Financial Services, and SaaS consistently have the highest CPCs. Legal averages $8.67 CPC on Google Ads. These industries have high LTV per customer, which justifies the premium. Home Services and Ecommerce are competitive but have lower CPCs.
Why do benchmarks vary so much by industry?
Industry variation reflects three factors: (1) LTV per customer (higher LTV justifies higher CPA/CPC), (2) sales cycle length (longer cycles suppress CTR and CVR), (3) ad creative constraints (healthcare and finance face stricter platform policies). Use industry-specific benchmarks - global averages are often misleading.