Monthly market pulse
March 2026 Google Ads Market Benchmarks:
Highlighting the biggest KPI shift in the market.
The biggest movers
Metric | Value | Trend | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
PMax CPC | 0.40€ | +8.1% | After January and February slowdown, PMax CPC is back up +8.1%. Standard Shopping and Search campaigns CPC also climb up in March with +3% and +5% respectively. |
NEW | 14.2% | +12% week-over-week | Direct Temu-competitor, Joybuy, steps in across six European markets. Aggressive initial auction entry. Compared to other giants, it's still early phase as relatively lower percentage of European advertisers are facing it so far. |
Standard Shopping Click-Through Rate | 1.77% | +15% YoY | As the Year-over-Year impressions and clicks decline, the YoY CTR increases all over. Standard Shopping keeps rising (+15%). PMax and Search CTR see even bigger increase with +22% and +35% respectively. |
Joybuy breaking the >10% median shopping impr. share threshold | smec
Industry watch
March CPC per industry (Median data, Month-over-Month)
Home / Garden: +15% Electronics: +13% Health / Beauty: +1.2%
We observe raising CPC (Month-over-Month) across all 8 industries we monitor with increases ranging from +1.2% to +15%.