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Optmyzr's Q2 benchmarks: ROAS reverses, and the brand moat closes
Optmyzr's Q2 2026 report across more than 20,000 Google Ads accounts finds median CTR up 8.62% year on year, but ecommerce ROAS fell 3.75% quarter on quarter: ending three straight quarters of gains: as CPC rose roughly 6% across every spend tier. The most striking finding: branded and non-branded CPAs have converged ($42.59 versus $41.67) for the first time in two decades, with branded CPCs inflating faster than conversion efficiency can absorb.
What changed
Demand Gen led every campaign type in ROAS growth at 12.82%, cutting CPA by 4.77% despite the steepest CPC rise, while Display's ROAS fell by 12.08%.
Why it matters for advertisers
For you, this means the cheap-brand-clicks era is closing, and rising CPCs are only bad news if quality does not rise with them. So rerun your brand incrementality maths and judge each channel on what the pricier clicks actually buy.
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Optmyzr's Q2 benchmarks: ROAS reverses, and the brand moat closes
Optmyzr's Q2 2026 report across more than 20,000 Google Ads accounts finds median CTR up 8.62% year on year, but ecommerce ROAS fell 3.75% quarter on quarter: ending three straight quarters of gains: as CPC rose roughly 6% across every spend tier. The most striking finding: branded and non-branded CPAs have converged ($42.59 versus $41.67) for the first time in two decades, with branded CPCs inflating faster than conversion efficiency can absorb. Demand Gen led every campaign type in ROAS growth at 12.82%, cutting CPA by 4.77% despite the steepest CPC rise, while Display's ROAS fell by 12.08%. For you, this means the cheap-brand-clicks era is closing, and rising CPCs are only bad news if quality does not rise with them. So rerun your brand incrementality maths and judge each channel on what the pricier clicks actually buy.
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