Social Media
YouTube Ads Benchmarks | CPV, View Rate, and CPM by Industry
The median YouTube cost per view is $0.05 and the median view rate 30.0%. What those mean, how they vary by industry, and which numbers matter for your goal.
BenchMarketing editorial team Updated October 2, 2026 3 min readShare
YouTube is bought in more ways than most platforms, and each buying model comes with its own headline metric. Before comparing your numbers with a benchmark, make sure you are comparing the right one.
The headline numbers
| Metric | Median | Middle half of accounts |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per view | $0.05 | $0.02 to $0.10 |
| View rate | 30.0% | 18.0% to 45.0% |
| Completion rate | 45.0% | 28.0% to 62.0% |
| CPM | $7.50 | $3.80 to $14.20 |
| CTR | 0.65% | 0.32% to 1.20% |
| Cost per conversion | $58.00 | $28 to $112 |
What counts as a view
For skippable in-stream ads, Google counts a view when someone watches 30 seconds of the ad, or the whole ad if it is shorter, or interacts with it. View rate is views divided by impressions. Bumper ads (six seconds, unskippable) are bought on CPM and have no view rate in the same sense.
View rate by industry
| Industry | Median view rate | Middle half of accounts |
|---|---|---|
| Ecommerce | 32.0% | 20.0% to 48.0% |
| Automotive | 38.0% | 24.0% to 55.0% |
| Education | 35.0% | 22.0% to 52.0% |
| Healthcare | 28.0% | 17.0% to 42.0% |
| Financial Services | 24.0% | 14.0% to 38.0% |
| SaaS | 26.0% | 16.0% to 40.0% |
| Home Services | 31.0% | 19.0% to 47.0% |
CPM by industry
| Industry | Median CPM | Middle half of accounts |
|---|---|---|
| Financial Services | $12.40 | $7 to $22 |
| Healthcare | $10.80 | $6 to $19 |
| SaaS | $11.20 | $6 to $20 |
| Legal | $13.50 | $8 to $24 |
| Ecommerce | $6.80 | $3.5 to $12 |
| Education | $7.40 | $4 to $13 |
| Automotive | $8.20 | $4.5 to $15 |
| Home Services | $7.90 | $4 to $14 |
Which metric to watch for your goal
- Awareness: CPM and completion rate. You are paying to be seen; a cheap CPM with a low completion rate means people skip you.
- Consideration: view rate and cost per view. A view rate below 18.0% usually means the first five seconds are not earning attention.
- Action: cost per conversion, judged on a blended basis. YouTube rarely gets credit for the conversions it influences, because people watch, leave, and search later.
Improving the first five seconds
Most skippable ads lose their audience before the skip button appears. Show the product or the problem immediately, put the brand on screen early, and design for sound off. Test two or three openings with the same body; the opening usually moves view rate more than anything after it.
See YouTube Ads benchmarks, including in-stream and Shorts.
About the figures
Benchmark figures in this article come from the BenchMarketing dataset and update when the benchmark pages do. Each benchmark page lists its sources and period; see our methodology.
Sources
See where you stand
Compare your own numbers with these benchmarks for your industry.
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