Google Ads benchmarks for Australia:
real CPC and CPA numbers

Benchmarks are dangerous in both directions: too low and you kill viable campaigns, too high and you feed a bad agency for a year. These numbers come from the accounts we run and audit — real Australian data, not a global average scraped from a report.

Search CPCs, by vertical

• Trades & home services: A$4–9 CPC, A$35–80 per lead
• Legal & finance: A$12–30 CPC, A$90–250 per lead
• E-commerce (generic terms): A$1.50–4 CPC, ROAS target 4–8×
• B2B / industrial: A$6–15 CPC, A$80–200 per lead
• Medical & allied health: A$5–12 CPC, A$40–90 per booking

Brand terms are a different universe — typically 10–30% of generic CPC, and they should always be separated in reporting so they don't flatter the account.

What moves a CPA more than bids

Conversion rate beats bid strategy every time. The single biggest CPA improvement we see in audits comes from fixing tracking (double-counted or missing conversions), then from search-term hygiene, then from landing pages — bid changes are a distant fourth.

An account with honest tracking and a A$8 CPC beats a dishonest account at A$5 every single time.

When your numbers look wrong

If your CPA is 2–3× the range above, the problem is usually structural: broad match with no negatives, PMax eating brand traffic, or conversions that don't reflect revenue. If it's half the range — check the tracking twice. Suspiciously good numbers are almost always a measurement error.

Want to know where your account sits? Our free teardown benchmarks your real numbers against the ranges above.