Key Takeaways
- • Top Growth Marketing's benchmark report puts the median cost per thousand impressions (CPM) on Meta at $13.52 for direct-to-consumer ecommerce brands, with the middle half of brands between $11.04 and $22.90.
- • Median purchase return on ad spend (ROAS) was 2.96, with the middle half between 2.50 and 5.30, and median cost per purchase was $49.04, ranging from $6.63 to $195.17.
- • Median cost per click was $0.57 and click-through rate was 2.68%, based on 15 brands and $2,464,453 in Facebook and Instagram spend from July 2025 to June 2026.
- • The agency warns the panel reflects actively managed accounts, not an industry average, and its implied average order value of about $145 is roughly double the broad advertiser base.
Summary
Top Growth Marketing, a growth agency for direct-to-consumer ecommerce brands, has published a Meta Ads benchmark report based on first-party data from 15 brands. According to the report, the median DTC ecommerce brand paid $13.52 per thousand impressions on Meta over the past year and earned $2.96 in attributed revenue for every dollar spent. The data covers $2,464,453 in spend on Facebook and Instagram between July 2025 and June 2026, drawn from the Meta Ads API for each account, and represents 171 million impressions, 4.6 million clicks and 92,051 purchases.
The report presents a median and interquartile range for each metric. Cost per click had a median of $0.57, with the middle half of brands between $0.33 and $1.01, while click-through rate was 2.68%. Purchase ROAS ranged from 2.50 to 5.30 across the middle half of brands, and cost per purchase ranged from $6.63 to $195.17 around a $49.04 median. Each account's rate was calculated first and the median then taken across accounts, so a single large advertiser does not drive the benchmark. No brand is named.
The report carries explicit limitations. All 15 accounts are managed by the agency, so the figures describe actively managed campaigns rather than an industry average. The panel's implied average order value of about $145 is roughly double that of the broad advertiser base, which inflates both ROAS and cost per purchase relative to typical advertisers.
Jack Paxton, founder of Top Growth Marketing, argued that ROAS is the metric most often quoted but the least portable across brands because it reflects margin, price point and attribution settings. He recommended that brands assessing media buying effectiveness look first at CPM and click-through rate. The figures are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The agency, founded in 2011, reports more than $336 million in ad spend under management across Meta, Google and TikTok.
The report presents a median and interquartile range for each metric. Cost per click had a median of $0.57, with the middle half of brands between $0.33 and $1.01, while click-through rate was 2.68%. Purchase ROAS ranged from 2.50 to 5.30 across the middle half of brands, and cost per purchase ranged from $6.63 to $195.17 around a $49.04 median. Each account's rate was calculated first and the median then taken across accounts, so a single large advertiser does not drive the benchmark. No brand is named.
The report carries explicit limitations. All 15 accounts are managed by the agency, so the figures describe actively managed campaigns rather than an industry average. The panel's implied average order value of about $145 is roughly double that of the broad advertiser base, which inflates both ROAS and cost per purchase relative to typical advertisers.
Jack Paxton, founder of Top Growth Marketing, argued that ROAS is the metric most often quoted but the least portable across brands because it reflects margin, price point and attribution settings. He recommended that brands assessing media buying effectiveness look first at CPM and click-through rate. The figures are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The agency, founded in 2011, reports more than $336 million in ad spend under management across Meta, Google and TikTok.
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