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Vendor reportChannable, 2026

In EU ecommerce, Shopping campaigns buy clicks and sales cheaper than Performance Max in every category

Channel validation

IndustryCost per acquisition (EUR)Cost per click (EUR)Click-through rate (%)Conversion rate (%)Return on ad spend (%)
Baby & Pets8.980.431.53%4.48%597%
Electronics & Tech15.470.481.22%2.61%414%
Fashion & Apparel13.240.341.5%2.64%588%
Food & Beverages12.60.41.15%3.08%469%
Health & Beauty10.650.421.19%3.3%429%
Home & Garden23.170.431.41%1.74%493%
Other14.40.411.34%2.34%464%
Sports & Leisure13.860.311.44%2.29%707%

Shopping ad performance metrics (CPA, CPC, CTR, conversion rate, ROAS) by industry, last 365 days

Reader Note:
Shopping is the cheaper option on both counts in all eight categories: click price runs 0.31-0.48 EUR against Performance Max's 0.38-0.57 EUR, and cost per sale 8.98-23.17 EUR against 10.02-26.26 EUR. The gap is smallest in Baby & Pets, 0.43 EUR against 0.45 EUR a click, and largest in Electronics & Tech, 15.47 EUR against 20.27 EUR a sale. The other two metrics split. Shopping returns more on spend in six of the eight categories; the exceptions are Electronics & Tech at 414% against 536% and Food & Beverages at 469% against 474%. Performance Max wins click-through rate in all eight, 1.29-1.79% against Shopping's 1.15-1.53%. The comparison is of medians by category, not of the same merchants running both campaign types, so it does not show what any one advertiser would gain by switching.
Evidence:
Observed behaviour
Vendor interest:
Moderate — This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
Sample:
Aggregated and anonymised Google Ads data from more than 10,000 e-commerce accounts across the EU and EEA, covering Shopping, Performance Max and Search campaigns. Selection and privacy rules are disclosed: only e-commerce merchants, only EU and EEA markets, a minimum of 10 independent merchants per segment with smaller segments hidden entirely, a cap preventing any single merchant from exceeding 25% of a segment’s cost or conversions, multi-account merchants counted as one participant, and accounts with unreliable conversion tracking excluded. All figures are medians rather than averages, reported in EUR. The number of merchants behind any individual segment is not published beyond the floor of ten, and no industry, size or basket-value mix is given. The dashboard is live and recalculates over a rolling 365 days; the values captured here cover the window ending 7 October 2026.

Good for

Comparing yourself against a similar segment, and choosing what to test next.

Not for

  • Saying that one thing caused another, or predicting what you would get.
  • This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
  • This is an aggregated or average number that covers very different cases. Real results in a particular segment may differ.
  • Nobody counted this directly — it's a calculation. The publisher worked it out itself, or took the ad platform's word for what its ads achieved.
  • The two groups were not split at random — they picked their own side. The difference may have been there before anything was measured.
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