There is no single conversion rate by industry that applies to every business. WordStream/LocaliQ’s 2026 benchmark puts the median US search ad conversion rate at 8.18%, ranging from 2.64% in finance and insurance to 16.22% in animals and pets.
Site-wide and ecommerce benchmarks run lower, around 2% to 8%, because they divide by sessions or visitors instead of ad clicks.
What a conversion rate measures and why benchmarks disagree
A conversion rate is the number of conversions divided by the number of chances to convert, multiplied by 100. The formula is simple. Sources disagree because they choose different things to divide by and different things to count. The denominator can be ad clicks, sessions or unique visitors. The conversion can be a completed purchase, a form submission, a phone call, or any action an advertiser chooses to track.
The same week of paid search traffic can produce three different rates. For example, Google Ads might credit 120 purchases to 2,000 clicks, which is 6.0%, and that count can include buyers who came back days later on another device. Google Analytics might count 60 sessions with a purchase out of 2,500 paid search sessions, which is 2.4%. The store’s order system might match 57 orders to 3,000 sessions it tagged as paid search, which is 1.9%. Each number is correct for its own definition.
Session-based rates have a further quirk. When buyers make several visits before they convert, the session rate falls even though the same share of people end up buying. A business with a long consideration cycle can look worse on a session benchmark than it really is. The tables below therefore can’t be ranked against each other. Use each one only alongside a rate of your own that is defined the same way.
Search ad conversion rates by industry
The largest recent paid search benchmark comes from WordStream and LocaliQ. Their 2026 search ad benchmarks found a median conversion rate of 8.18% across 13,474 US campaigns on Google Ads and Microsoft Ads between April 2025 and March 2026, as summarized in Digital Applied’s landing page statistics. The rate is conversions per ad click. It counts every conversion action advertisers track, so a form fill, a call and a purchase all count the same. Industry rates in that dataset run from 2.64% in finance and insurance to 16.22% in animals and pets. WordStream calls these medians “averages,” a definitional note recorded by Digital Applied. WordStream publishes the full industry charts on its Google Ads benchmarks 2026 page, which was last updated September 16, 2026.
The series has moved over time. WordStream’s first report, in 2016, gave 2.70%. Its 2025 report gave 7.52%, according to WordStream’s Google Ads performance study. That same study notes that accounts run through its Google Ads Grader convert below the benchmark, which is drawn from accounts on the LocaliQ platform. Treat 8.18% as a figure from managed accounts, not as a floor every account should clear. A low rate in a regulated, high-consideration category is normal. Our guide to advertising for financial advisors covers how to plan around longer decision cycles.
Website conversion rate by industry across all traffic
Ruler Analytics’ conversion rate benchmark study, published May 26, 2026, covers 13 industries, more than 110 million sessions and more than 5 million tracked conversions. It counts form submissions and phone calls as conversions, across all traffic sources rather than ads alone.
| Industry | Average conversion rate |
|---|---|
| Automotive | 7.9% |
| Legal | 7.9% |
| Software | 7.6% |
| Education | 6.3% |
| Finance | 6.3% |
| Marketing & Advertising | 6.2% |
| Professional Services | 6.1% |
| Construction & Engineering | 4.9% |
| Beauty & Cosmetic | 3.5% |
| Real Estate | 2.8% |
| Retail & eCommerce | 2.4% |
| Health & Social Care | 2.3% |
| Travel | 1.9% |
Ruler reports the spend it tracked in pounds (£33.8M+). Our reading is that the sample probably leans toward UK businesses, so US advertisers should treat it as directional. Because calls count as conversions, phone-heavy categories score well here. If you run advertising for auto dealerships, make sure your own tracking counts calls before you compare against that 7.9%. Real estate’s 2.8% reflects how long buyers browse listings before they make contact, which matters when you plan ads for real estate agents.
Conversion rates by channel and industry
Ruler also splits its data by traffic source. Its paid search rates by industry are below.
| Industry | Paid search conversion rate |
|---|---|
| Marketing & Advertising | 8.9% |
| Automotive | 8.6% |
| Software | 8.2% |
| Legal | 7.8% |
| Professional Services | 6.7% |
| Finance | 6.3% |
| Education | 5.7% |
| Construction & Engineering | 5.1% |
| Beauty & Cosmetic | 4.2% |
| Real Estate | 3.7% |
| Travel | 2.2% |
| Retail & eCommerce | 2.1% |
| Health & Social Care | 1.2% |
Across all industries, Ruler found AI referral traffic converting at 5.8%, email at 4.9%, organic social at 2.23% and paid social at 2.11%. Ruler describes the AI referral figure as early data from modest volumes.
These paid search rates sit below WordStream’s 8.18% median because the two studies measure different things. Ruler divides by sessions and counts forms and calls. WordStream divides by ad clicks and counts every tracked action. Neither figure is wrong. In our view, TV and streaming ads fit poorly with a per-click rate, so it makes sense to judge them on other measures. If you plan campaigns for home service businesses that mix TV with search, judge each channel on the measure that fits it.
Ecommerce conversion rates by industry
Purchase-based benchmarks count completed orders. They come out lower than lead-based rates, and each one uses a different period and scope:
- Dynamic Yield: 2.68% average ecommerce conversion rate (completed purchases per visitor) across 400+ brands, October 2025 to September 2026. By industry, beauty and personal care reached 5.38%, food and beverage 4.56%, and fashion, accessories and apparel 2.74%. These figures come from Digital Applied’s 2026 benchmark roundup. A separate reading of Dynamic Yield’s rolling 12-month benchmark, reported by Blend Commerce, showed a 2.72% global average.
- Contentsquare: 2.3% of visits included a conversion event (a purchase or form submission) across 6,500+ websites in Q4 2025.
- IRP Commerce: 1.97% of sessions ended in a transaction for UK and Irish merchants in September 2026, up from 1.68% in September 2025. Blend Commerce also reports an IRP reading of 2.26% for July 2026.
- Littledata: 1.4% of sessions included a purchase at the median Shopify store, July to October 2026, across 433 stores.
The gap between these figures comes mostly from the denominator. Rates per visitor run above rates per session. A considered purchase pulls the rate down further, which is why a retailer running advertising for jewelry stores should expect a lower purchase rate than a beauty brand selling small repeat items. Service businesses that take bookings rather than orders, like those in our med spa advertising guide, will find the lead-based tables above a closer match.
Landing page conversion benchmarks
Unbounce’s 2024 Conversion Benchmark Report puts the median landing page conversion rate at 6.6% conversions per unique visitor. The data covers more than 41,000 pages, 464 million visitors and 57 million conversions between July 2023 and July 2024. Pages with fewer than 50 visitors or no conversions were excluded, which lifts the median compared with all pages. Unbounce has not published a newer edition, according to Digital Applied’s landing page review. The figure is now more than two years old, and it covers only pages built on Unbounce. Use it as a rough reference for a dedicated campaign page, not as a 2026 measurement.
How to compare your own conversion rate
- Pick one denominator and one conversion definition. Write down whether you divide by clicks, sessions or visitors, and whether calls, forms and purchases all count. Then compare only against a benchmark that uses the same choices.
- Check tracking before you read the rate. A broken tag or a new consent banner can lower the rate in one tool without changing real orders or calls. Compare your ad platform against your order system or call log first.
- Compare by channel and by industry row. Set paid search against a paid search table and ecommerce against an ecommerce benchmark, instead of using one blended site-wide number.
- Use a window long enough to smooth out swings. Weekdays and weekends behave differently, and seasonal peaks distort short periods. Avoid windows that span a site relaunch.
- Track your own trend. The comparison that holds up over time is your rate measured the same way each month or quarter. Startups and new brands in particular often see rates change as awareness grows, as our piece on how startups build awareness with ads explains.
Adwave reports website conversions once you install the business’s tracking snippet and choose which actions to count. You can give each conversion a value to report revenue and return on spend. Adwave keeps last-touch credit, assisted conversions and Lift experiments separate, because they answer different questions. Last-touch credit shows which channel closed a sale. Assisted conversions show which channels helped earlier. A Lift experiment tests whether the ads changed outcomes at all. None of these predicts what rate a given campaign will reach.
