TouchTargets / SEO News Feed / 2026 Benchmarks
2026 Marketing Benchmarks
The numbers we keep beside every planning conversation. Use them as a sanity check on your own reporting, not as targets - benchmarks vary enormously by vertical, geography and offer.
The figures
$2.89
Google CPC avg (2026)
+20% YoY
18.5%
Search CTR pos 1
AI Overviews era
22.1%
Email open rate
+0.6% YoY
4.2x
Avg ROAS (ecomm)
+0.4x YoY
62%
AI content share
of indexed web
65%
Zero-click searches
mobile 2026
What each number actually tells you
| Metric | 2026 | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Google CPC avg (2026) | $2.89 +20% YoY | Average cost per click across Google Search. Rising CPCs squeeze margin on every paid acquisition, so watch this against your own blended CAC. |
| Search CTR pos 1 | 18.5% AI Overviews era | Click-through rate for the top organic result. The decline reflects AI Overviews absorbing clicks that once went to position one. |
| Email open rate | 22.1% +0.6% YoY | Average open rate across marketing email. Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflates this figure - treat it as directional, not absolute. |
| Avg ROAS (ecomm) | 4.2x +0.4x YoY | Return on ad spend for ecommerce advertisers. Below 4x, most stores struggle to cover COGS and fulfilment on paid traffic alone. |
| AI content share | 62% of indexed web | Share of indexed web pages showing signs of AI generation. Relevant to how aggressively search engines now weight originality signals. |
| Zero-click searches | 65% mobile 2026 | Share of mobile searches ending without a click to any website. The single most important number in SEO planning for 2026. |
How to use these
Benchmarks are most useful as a direction check, not a scorecard. If your CPC is well above $2.89 that may be entirely correct for a high-value B2B keyword set. If your position-one CTR is far below 18.5%, the more likely explanation is an AI Overview sitting above you rather than a weak title tag.
The two figures worth revisiting quarterly are zero-click share and AI content share. Both are moving fast, and both change what a realistic organic traffic forecast looks like.
Track the shifts
The live feed surfaces new benchmark studies as publishers release them.
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