Our newsletterVendor reportTriple Whale, 18 Aug 2026
Median cost per sale from Meta ads across all industries reached $38.99, up from $37.80 a year ago
Performance measurement
Overall Benchmarks for Meta Ads: Cost per acquisition (CPA) for Meta Ads, current vs prior 12-month period (USD)
Overall Benchmarks for Meta Ads: Cost per acquisition (CPA) for Meta Ads, current vs prior 12-month period (USD)| Time period | CPA (USD) |
|---|---|
| Aug 2025 to July 2026 | $38.99 |
| Aug 2024 to July 2025 | $37.8 |
- Reader Note:
- Up 3.1% in a year, a much smaller move than the 13.2% rise in the cost of reaching a thousand people over the same window: brands paid noticeably more for attention but converted it at close to the same cost. The median hides a range from $26.80 to $51.86 across the 17 categories. A sale is what Meta attributes to the ad under each brand's own tracking setup, which the report does not describe.
- 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:
- Performance data from over 40,000 brands using Triple Whale, covering Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram) and grouped into 17 ecommerce industry categories; selection details not disclosed.
Reader Note:
Evidence:
Vendor interest:
Sample: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 source says how much it looked at, but not how any of it was chosen.
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