Display & Video Ads Benchmarks 2026 (LocaliQ)

Summary:

This report from LocaliQ, an ad services company that is part of USA TODAY Co., gives benchmarks for display and video ads: click-through rate, cost per click, cost per lead, viewability and video completion. It covers results across industries and on the USA TODAY Network.

The figures come from two datasets. The first covers 7,074 LocaliQ customer display campaigns run on Google, Microsoft, YouTube, Meta, Yahoo and other platforms from April 2025 to June 2026. It supplies the industry benchmarks for click-through rate, cost per click and cost per lead. The second covers 55,798 location-based campaigns on the USA TODAY Network from July 2025 to June 2026. It supplies the benchmarks for high-impact, video and native ads. All "averages" in the report are medians, which limits the effect of outliers.

Key findings:
• Education leads display click-through rate. Education and Instruction had the highest display CTR at 0.40%, followed by Arts and Entertainment at 0.27%.
• Beauty pays the most per click. Beauty and Personal Care had the highest cost per click at $5.58.
• Video and native ads are the most viewable. On the USA TODAY Network, video ads reached 71% viewability and native ads 70%, compared with 62% for high-impact display.
• Native and high-impact ads get the most clicks. Native ads had a 0.28% CTR and high-impact display 0.26%. Video had 0.09%.
• Most viewers watch video ads to the end. Video ads had a 67% completion rate.
• Low CTR isn't automatically failure. The report argues that display ads often pay off later rather than through immediate clicks.

Margin notes:
This is a vendor report. LocaliQ sells ad services, and part of the data comes from its own customers and its parent company's network. The industry benchmarks and the USA TODAY Network format benchmarks come from different datasets and ad environments, so they shouldn't be compared directly. Beyond campaign counts, the report gives little sample detail: it doesn't explain how campaigns were selected or weighted, and it doesn't break results down by spend, audience or creative.