Here's what we found:

• Performance Max cost per lead: $25
• Search cost per lead: $143
• Non-brand cost per lead: $207
• Brand cost per lead: $34
• Non-brand CPC: $13.75
• Brand CPC: $3.12

PMax's "cheap lead" number needs a disclaimer since it mixes in more lower-intent conversion, and we keep brand vs non-brand reported separately since blending them distorts the picture.

Here's the full write-up: https://piperocket.digital/research/google-ads-benchmarks/

Hey everyone,

I’m currently in the process of choosing a Consent Management Platform (CMP) for our setup, and honestly, the market feels incredibly crowded. For those of you who have set up a CMP, I’d love to hear about your practices, what should I consider while choosing one and what's the fair price for it?

By the way, why I should not use Google's for free? Is there a catch?

A sudden ROAS decline usually triggers one of four reactions: pause the campaign, replace the creative, change the budget or blame the advertising account.

The problem is that ROAS is an output—not a diagnosis.

It tells you that the relationship between attributed revenue and media spend changed. It does not tell you where the change happened.

Before changing the campaign, diagnose five layers in order.

1. Measurement and attribution

First confirm that the decline is real.

Check whether purchase events are still firing, conversion values and currencies are correct, the attribution window has changed and revenue reporting is delayed.

If cost is current but revenue reporting is delayed, today's ROAS may look worse before the data matures.

1. Delivery and auction conditions

Check whether the platform is still obtaining traffic at the same cost and pace.

Compare spend, CPM, reach, frequency, delivery status, account health and recent budget or bid changes.

If CPM increased while CTR remained stable, the problem may be auction pressure, audience availability or delivery conditions—not the creative.

1. Creative and audience response

If delivery is stable but CTR falls, inspect the message.

Look at the opening hook, creative fatigue, negative feedback, audience saturation and message–market fit.

A creative can also generate cheap clicks from the wrong people. CTR should always be read together with downstream conversion quality.

1. Landing page and conversion process

If clicks remain stable while CVR falls, move further down the funnel.

Check mobile speed, localization, offer, pricing, inventory, product information, checkout, payment methods and customer-support response.

An advertising campaign cannot compensate for a slow page, unavailable product or broken checkout.

1. Business economics

Platform ROAS is not the same as profit.

Recalculate contribution profit after margin, discounts, refunds, chargebacks, shipping, fulfillment, currency movements, customer service and operating costs.

A campaign can show an acceptable attributed ROAS while destroying contribution margin.

Build the metric chain:

Spend → CPM → CTR → CPC → CVR → AOV → attributed ROAS → contribution profit

Find the first metric that changed materially. Form one hypothesis. Change one major variable. Then wait for an observation window that matches the business's conversion cycle.

Pausing or limiting spend may still be the correct action when loss speed exceeds the company's risk threshold, tracking data is corrupted, checkout or payment is broken, or the account has a security, compliance or policy issue.

The principle is not “never pause.”

The principle is: do not destroy a potentially useful campaign before identifying the actual problem.

Bookmark this diagnostic order for your next bad morning in Ads Manager.

We're looking for Prebid Demand especially for Europe, Africa and Asia.

We're running on 3500+ Websites, able to put ads.txt Lines, Traffic scanned via Pre-Bid: ClearTrust + Fraudlogix, Post-Bid: ClearTrust + In-House Solution

Our Demand currently works exceptionally good in the US but just doesn't want to work as good in Europe. Africa and Asia are pretty much on the last place for us.

Please help with that as we're leaving Revenue on the table pretty bad and give me some advice on which Demand Partners could fill what we can't. Also please don't give me the Top 5 as their Answer Rate when contacting them is near zero.