WordStream and partner with LOCALiQ this week released new 2021 paid search advertising benchmarks for 23 industry verticals on these metrics:
- Average cost per click
- Average clickthrough rate
- Average cost per lead
- Average conversion rate
The travel industry - hard-hit by COVID-19 travel restrictions, health and safety requirements and lockdowns by national, regional and local governments - is, happily, an industry for which paid search ads can be a very efficient and effective marketing tool for recovering from the pandemic:
Cost per click (All -industry mean: $3.53)
At $1.40, the average cost per click for travel is tied with Real Estate for the lowest CPC of the 23 industries studied. That means travel websites can get a lot of traffic at relatively low cost by using paid search ads.
Clickthrough Rate (All-industry mean: 6.18%)
At 8.54%, the average clickthrough rate for travel is higher than that of any other vertical except for Arts & Entertainment. This high clickthrough rate is likely indicative of the enormous pent-up demand for travel that we know exists because of COVID-19. People are doing serious shopping-around for travel.
Cost per lead (All-industry mean: $41.40)
At $7.34, the average cost of a lead for travel businesses is significantly below the all-industry mean, particularly when you consider the fact that travel products are high-priced shopping goods.
Conversion rate (All-industry mean: 8.82%)
At 6.01%, the travel industry performs below average on this metric. But consider that businesses with the highest conversion rates - veterinary services, medical services, auto repair, dental services, home repair - all are providing services that, unlike travel which is largely discretionary, people most often search for when they need something right now.
Comment: These numbers are very promising for travel and tourism businesses. But remember: the results your business gets will be a function of your execution of market definition, keyword choice, ad creative, landing page design and PPC bidding.
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- David
