Google Ads Ecommerce Benchmarks: Q4 2025 Report

Biggest Mover: Shopping Shopping exhibited the most significant negative shift in absolute costs Quarter-over-Quarter. During Q3 2025 (July–September), Shopping CPC remained relatively flat at approximately €0.29–€0.30. However, in Q4 2025, it experienced a sharp, unfavorable spike, jumping to roughly €0.34 in November and maintaining that elevated cost through December. Interestingly, despite this absolute QoQ cost increase, Shopping’s Year-over-Year (YoY) CPC inflation actually decelerated, dropping from ~16% in Q3 to ~13.5% in Q4.

Performance Max Performance Max showed mild QoQ volatility. In Q3, CPC fluctuated between €0.39 and €0.41. In Q4, it saw a brief negative spike to €0.42 in November before recovering back to €0.40 in December. Its YoY CPC growth rate showed a notable cooling trend, falling from ~10.5% in Q3 to ~7.5% in Q4.

Search Search remained the most stable and cost-efficient channel in terms of inflation. Absolute CPC hovered consistently around €0.40 throughout both Q3 and Q4 2025, showing almost no QoQ degradation. Furthermore, Search maintained the lowest YoY cost increases overall, with its YoY growth rate dipping slightly from ~3.5% in Q3 to ~3.0% in Q4.

Impressions (YoY Comparison) Q4 2025 saw steeper Year-over-Year (YoY) impression declines across all channels compared to Q3 2025.

• Search: Dropped from ~0% YoY in Q3 to -2% YoY in Q4.
• Performance Max: Worsened from -7.5% YoY in Q3 to -8.5% YoY in Q4.
• Shopping: Fell sharply from -7.5% YoY in Q3 to -14.5% YoY in Q4.

Clicks (YoY Comparison) Despite the drop in impressions, click deficits slightly recovered for two channels in Q4 compared to Q3.

• Search: Improved from -3.1% YoY in Q3 to -2.3% YoY in Q4.
• Performance Max: Improved from -2.8% YoY in Q3 to -2.1% YoY in Q4.
• Shopping: Worsened significantly from -1.5% YoY in Q3 to -6.6% YoY in Q4.

Biggest Mover Shopping is the clear Biggest-Mover, displaying the most significant negative shifts. While Search and Performance Max showed minor QoQ recoveries in click volume YoY, Shopping’s click deficit plummeted by 5.1 percentage points (from -1.5% to -6.6%). Concurrently, its impression deficit nearly doubled, dropping 7 percentage points QoQ to reach a severe -14.5% YoY. Despite a mid-November seasonal spike pushing the overall index to ~1.40 for impressions and ~1.35 for clicks, the underlying YoY channel data indicates substantial contraction, particularly in Shopping.

Q4 2025 vs. Q3 2025 Performance Trends

• Shopping: YoY conversion growth accelerated from 30% in Q3 to 35% in Q4. Concurrently, YoY cost growth dropped from 3.5% to 0.5%, reflecting highly improved efficiency.
• Performance Max: YoY conversion growth increased slightly from 10% in Q3 to 12% in Q4, while YoY cost growth slowed from 1.2% to 0.5%.

Biggest-Mover: Search Search experienced the most significant and surprising shifts, making it the Biggest-Mover. YoY conversion growth plummeted by roughly 17 percentage points, dropping from 22% in Q3 to just 5% in Q4.

Despite this massive deceleration in conversions, Search was the only channel to see an increase in YoY cost growth, shifting from -1.0% in Q3 to -0.5% in Q4. This inverse relationship—crashing conversion growth paired with rising relative costs—is a strong negative signal. It directly indicates rising CPC and deteriorating acquisition costs, highlighting a severe drop in Search efficiency compared to the immediately preceding quarter.

Biggest-Mover: Search CTR experienced the most significant and surprising shift, surging from roughly 13.5% at the end of Q3_2025 to a massive peak of over 16.5% in mid-Q4_2025 before settling near 15%.

CTR Trends (Q4 vs Q3): Across all campaign types, CTR improved QoQ. Shopping CTR rose from ~1.5% in Q3 to peak at ~1.8% in Q4. PMax CTR climbed steadily from ~1.3% to ~1.6%. By device, Mobile CTR maintained the highest rate, growing from ~2.0% to ~2.2%, while Computers rose from ~1.5% to ~1.8%.

Conversion Rate Trends (Q4 vs Q3): Q4 introduced sharp seasonal spikes in late November. PMax conversion rates jumped from ~3.5% in Q3 to nearly 5.0% in Q4. Shopping conversion rates similarly peaked at 4.5% (up from ~3.5% in Q3). Conversely, Search conversion rates stagnated between 4.5% and 5.5%, notably underperforming the previous year’s Q4 metrics.

By device, Mobile conversion rates saw a dramatic Q4 spike to ~5.5% (up from ~4.0% in Q3) before sharply declining in late December. Surprisingly, Computer conversion rates trended downward QoQ, dropping from a Q3 average of ~5.5% to ~4.5% throughout Q4.

Q4 2025 vs. Q3 2025 Performance Analysis

Median ROAS In Q3 2025, ROAS remained relatively stable, fluctuating between a low of 5.1 (early August) and a peak of 6.2 (mid-July). Moving into Q4 2025, ROAS exhibited extreme volatility. It initially dropped to 4.5 in mid-October before initiating a steep, sustained climb through November, ultimately peaking at a yearly high of 7.0 in mid-December.

Average Order Value (AOV) Q3 AOV saw a steady climb from roughly 70 in early August to a peak of 85 in early September. In Q4, AOV started stronger, hitting 90 in October. However, unlike the late-quarter surge seen in ROAS, Q4 AOV trended downward in November, hitting a low of 75 before recovering slightly to the 80–85 range in December.

Biggest-Mover ROAS is the definitive Biggest-Mover. The dramatic swing from a Q4 low of 4.5 to a peak of 7.0 represents a massive ~55% intra-quarter increase, significantly outpacing Q3’s constrained 5.1–6.2 range. The initial October ROAS dip to 4.5 points to a brief period of severe inefficiency—likely driven by rising CPCs, a strong negative signal—but the subsequent December surge marks the most significant and surprising positive shift in the dataset.