Key Takeaways
- • Top Growth Marketing's benchmark report puts the median Meta cost per thousand impressions (CPM) for direct-to-consumer ecommerce brands at $13.52, with the middle half of brands ranging from $11.04 to $22.90.
- • The median purchase return on ad spend (ROAS) was 2.96, with the middle half between 2.50 and 5.30, meaning brands earned $2.96 in attributed revenue per dollar of Meta spend.
- • Median cost per click was $0.57 and click-through rate was 2.68%, while median cost per purchase was $49.04, ranging from $6.63 to $195.17.
- • The dataset covers 15 brands and $2,464,453 in Facebook and Instagram spend from July 2025 to June 2026, drawn from the Meta Ads API.
- • The agency cautions that all 15 accounts are agency-managed and carry an implied average order value of about $145, so the figures are not an industry average.
Summary
Top Growth Marketing, a Los Angeles-based growth agency for direct-to-consumer ecommerce brands, has published a benchmark report based on first-party data from 15 brands. According to the report, the median DTC 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 underlying dataset includes 171 million impressions, 4.6 million clicks and 92,051 purchases, sourced from the Meta Ads API for each account.
The report presents medians and interquartile ranges for each metric. Cost per click was $0.57 (middle half between $0.33 and $1.01), click-through rate was 2.68%, and cost per purchase was $49.04, ranging from $6.63 to $195.17. Each account's rate was calculated before the median was taken across accounts, so a single large advertiser does not skew the benchmark. No brand is named.
The agency's founder, Jack Paxton, argued that return on ad spend is the most widely quoted metric but the least comparable across brands, because it reflects margin, price point and attribution settings. He recommended that brands evaluating media buying performance look first at cost per thousand impressions and click-through rate.
The report acknowledges its limits. Because all 15 accounts are managed by the agency, the figures describe actively managed accounts rather than an industry average. The panel's implied average order value of roughly $145 is about double that of the broad advertiser base, which the report notes raises both ROAS and cost per purchase. The data is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Top Growth Marketing, founded in 2011, reports more than $336 million in ad spend managed across Meta, Google and TikTok.
The report presents medians and interquartile ranges for each metric. Cost per click was $0.57 (middle half between $0.33 and $1.01), click-through rate was 2.68%, and cost per purchase was $49.04, ranging from $6.63 to $195.17. Each account's rate was calculated before the median was taken across accounts, so a single large advertiser does not skew the benchmark. No brand is named.
The agency's founder, Jack Paxton, argued that return on ad spend is the most widely quoted metric but the least comparable across brands, because it reflects margin, price point and attribution settings. He recommended that brands evaluating media buying performance look first at cost per thousand impressions and click-through rate.
The report acknowledges its limits. Because all 15 accounts are managed by the agency, the figures describe actively managed accounts rather than an industry average. The panel's implied average order value of roughly $145 is about double that of the broad advertiser base, which the report notes raises both ROAS and cost per purchase. The data is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Top Growth Marketing, founded in 2011, reports more than $336 million in ad spend managed across Meta, Google and TikTok.
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