47 Performance Marketing Statistics for 2025: Benchmarks Australian Marketers Need to Know

Key Statistics at a Glance

• The global performance marketing industry is projected to exceed USD $700 billion in managed ad spend by 2026, up from approximately USD $577 billion in 2022 (eMarketer).

• Australian digital advertising expenditure reached $15.6 billion in FY2024, with performance-based channels accounting for the majority of that spend (IAB Australia).

• The average return on ad spend (ROAS) across Google Search campaigns in Australia sits between 3x and 5x, depending on the industry vertical (WordStream / Google).

• 72% of marketers globally have adopted automated bidding strategies, up from 48% in 2021 (Google / Salesforce State of Marketing).

• Multi-touch attribution models are now used by 39% of enterprise marketers, compared to just 18% four years ago (HubSpot State of Marketing 2024).

• AI-generated or AI-assisted creative assets are delivering an average 14% improvement in click-through rates compared to manually produced equivalents (Salesforce State of Marketing 2024).

• Australian SMEs allocate an average of 12–18% of revenue to digital marketing, with performance channels consuming roughly 60% of that budget (IBISWorld Australia).

Introduction

Performance marketing — the discipline of paying for measurable outcomes rather than impressions alone — has become the dominant commercial framework for digital advertising globally and in Australia. As platforms mature, attribution technology advances, and AI reshapes campaign management, the benchmarks that define "good" performance shift constantly. Marketers, media buyers, and business owners operating without current data risk making budget decisions based on outdated assumptions.

This article aggregates 47 statistics drawn from authoritative industry sources published between 2022 and 2025, covering global and Australian market sizing, channel-level benchmarks, attribution model adoption, budget allocation trends, and the growing influence of artificial intelligence in performance marketing. Whether you are a CMO benchmarking internal performance against industry standards, a media buyer refining bid strategies, or a business owner evaluating agency proposals, the data below provides a structured reference point. Where Australian-specific figures are available, they are called out explicitly.

1. Performance Marketing Industry Growth

The performance marketing sector has expanded sharply over the past four years, driven by advertiser demand for accountability, the proliferation of first-party data strategies, and the maturation of programmatic infrastructure across Asia-Pacific.

1. Global digital advertising spend is forecast to reach USD $740 billion by 2026, up from USD $522 billion in 2021 — a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 7.2% (eMarketer, https://www.emarketer.com).

2. Performance-based channels (search, paid social, affiliate, programmatic) account for an estimated 78% of total global digital ad spend in 2025, compared with 68% in 2020 (eMarketer).

3. The affiliate and partner marketing segment alone is valued at approximately USD $27.8 billion globally in 2025 and is growing at a CAGR of 9.4% (Statista, https://www.statista.com).

4. Australian digital advertising expenditure hit a record $15.6 billion in FY2024, representing year-on-year growth of 8.3% (IAB Australia, https://iabaustralia.com.au).

5. Search advertising remains the single largest performance channel in Australia, capturing 39% of total digital ad revenue in 2024 (IAB Australia).

6. The number of registered digital marketing and advertising agencies in Australia grew to approximately 4,200 businesses in 2024, generating combined revenue of around $7.1 billion (IBISWorld Australia, https://www.ibisworld.com/au).

7. Agency adoption of formal performance marketing frameworks — defined as campaigns optimised to a cost-per-acquisition (CPA) or return on ad spend (ROAS) target — increased to 64% of Australian agencies surveyed in 2024, up from 44% in 2021 (IAB Australia).

Global vs Australian Digital Ad Spend Growth (2022–2026)

Sources: eMarketer, IAB Australia, IBISWorld Australia.

2. Channel Performance Benchmarks

Understanding channel-level benchmarks is foundational for any performance marketing agency or in-house team setting realistic KPIs. The figures below represent median and average values; top-quartile campaigns will substantially outperform these baselines.

1. The average Google Search click-through rate (CTR) across all Australian industries is approximately 3.17%, though this ranges from 1.8% (B2B services) to 6.5% (legal) depending on sector and keyword intent (WordStream, https://www.wordstream.com).

2. Average cost-per-click (CPC) on Google Search in Australia ranges from $1.20 (e-commerce / retail) to $12.80 (legal and financial services), with an overall average of approximately $3.60 (WordStream 2024 benchmarks).

3. Average Meta Ads (Facebook + Instagram) ROAS across Australian e-commerce accounts is reported at 3.2x, with top-quartile accounts achieving 6x or above (Skai Digital Marketing Report 2024, https://skai.io).

4. Programmatic display advertising delivers an average CTR of 0.10–0.15% across Australian placements, consistent with global averages, though contextual targeting can lift this to 0.35%+ (Nielsen, https://www.nielsen.com).

5. Average cost-per-acquisition (CPA) on Google Ads in Australia by industry vertical (see table below) varies significantly, reinforcing that CPA targets must be set relative to sector norms (WordStream, Google Economic Impact Report).

6. LinkedIn Ads in Australia carry an average CPC of approximately $8.50–$14.00, with lead generation campaigns achieving an average cost-per-lead (CPL) of $75–$180 in B2B contexts (LinkedIn Marketing Solutions / Statista).

7. Connected TV (CTV) and streaming audio are emerging performance channels in Australia; CTV completion rates average 92%, driving growing allocation of performance budgets to video formats (IAB Australia 2024 Video Advertising Report).

Average Google Ads CPA by Industry — Australia (2024–2025)

Sources: WordStream 2024 Industry Benchmarks; Google Economic Impact Report; agency-aggregated data.

3. ROI and Attribution Statistics

Attribution — the process of assigning credit to the marketing touchpoints that contribute to a conversion — remains one of the most contested and rapidly evolving areas in performance marketing. Inaccurate attribution inflates or deflates apparent channel performance, leading to misallocated budgets.

1. Last-click attribution is still the default model used by 47% of small-to-medium Australian businesses, despite well-documented limitations in representing the full customer journey (HubSpot State of Marketing 2024, https://www.hubspot.com).

2. Multi-touch attribution models are now used by 39% of enterprise marketers globally, compared with 18% in 2020 — a 117% increase over four years (HubSpot State of Marketing 2024).

3. Businesses using data-driven attribution (DDA) report an average 15–20% improvement in conversion volume at the same spend level, compared with those using last-click models (Google, https://ads.google.com).

4. Average ROAS across all performance channels for Australian advertisers in 2024 is approximately 3.8x, meaning every $1 invested in paid media returns $3.80 in tracked revenue (Skai Digital Marketing Report 2024).

5. Search advertising delivers the highest average ROAS of any digital channel at 5.2x for Australian advertisers, followed by shopping/product listing ads at 4.6x and paid social at 3.1x (Skai / WordStream aggregated data).

6. 68% of Australian marketers report that cross-channel attribution is either "difficult" or "very difficult" to implement accurately, citing data fragmentation and platform walled gardens as primary barriers (Salesforce State of Marketing 2024, https://www.salesforce.com).

7. Incrementality testing — a methodology that measures the true causal lift of advertising — is used by only 22% of Australian performance marketers, but those who implement it report average budget reallocation improvements of 18–25% (Nielsen).

Average ROAS by Channel — Australian Advertisers (2023–2025)

Sources: Skai Digital Marketing Report 2024; WordStream; Google; IAB Australia. ROAS figures are averages across sectors; individual account performance will vary significantly.

4. Budget Allocation Trends

How organisations divide their marketing budgets between performance and brand channels, and across digital platforms, has shifted materially since 2020. The data below reflects both global and Australian-specific trends.

1. Australian businesses collectively spent approximately $9.4 billion on performance-based digital advertising in FY2024 — roughly 60% of total digital ad expenditure (IAB Australia).

2. The average Australian enterprise marketing team allocates 54% of its total marketing budget to digital channels, with performance channels receiving the majority of that digital allocation (Salesforce State of Marketing 2024).

3. Australian SMEs (businesses with fewer than 200 employees) allocate an average of 12–18% of annual revenue to marketing, with digital performance channels consuming approximately 58–65% of that marketing budget (IBISWorld Australia).

4. Globally, the ratio of performance spend to brand spend has shifted from 60:40 in 2019 to 72:28 in 2024, reflecting continued pressure on marketing teams to demonstrate measurable short-term returns (Forrester Research / eMarketer).

5. Google Ads (Search and Performance Max) retains the largest share of Australian performance budgets at approximately 41%, followed by Meta Ads at 24%, programmatic display at 14%, and all other channels at 21% (IAB Australia Digital Advertising Report 2024).

6. Retail media networks — including Woolworths Everyday Rewards Media and Coles 360 — are attracting growing performance budgets in Australia, with estimated combined revenue of $500–$700 million in 2024, a category that barely existed three years ago (IAB Australia).

7. 43% of Australian marketers reported increasing their paid search budget in 2024, while 31% increased paid social budgets and 26% increased programmatic allocations (IAB Australia Industry Survey 2024).

Australian Performance Marketing Budget Allocation by Channel (2022–2025)

Source: IAB Australia Digital Advertising Reports 2022–2024; estimates for 2025 based on stated intent data.

5. AI and Automation in Performance Marketing

Artificial intelligence is no longer an emerging consideration in performance marketing — it is now embedded in the core bidding, targeting, and creative systems of every major advertising platform. Understanding current adoption rates and performance impacts is critical for benchmarking.

1. 72% of marketers globally have adopted automated or smart bidding strategies (e.g., Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximise Conversions) in at least one campaign, up from 48% in 2021 (Google; Salesforce State of Marketing 2024).

2. In Australia specifically, 67% of performance marketers report using automated bidding as their primary bid management approach, compared with 41% in 2021 (IAB Australia).

3. Google's Performance Max campaigns — which use AI to optimise across all Google inventory — are now used by 58% of Australian Google Ads advertisers, with adoption accelerating following the phase-out of Smart Shopping campaigns (Google Australia data, 2024).

4. AI-generated or AI-assisted creative assets (copy, imagery, video scripts) are delivering an average 14% improvement in click-through rate compared with manually produced equivalents in controlled A/B tests (Salesforce State of Marketing 2024).

5. Predictive audience modelling — using machine learning to identify users likely to convert before they have expressed intent — improves average conversion rates by 20–35% versus standard demographic or interest-based targeting (Salesforce; Nielsen).

6. 61% of Australian marketing leaders say AI-driven insights are "important" or "very important" to their performance marketing strategy in 2025, up from 34% in 2022 (SEMrush State of Content Marketing 2024, https://www.semrush.com).

7. Despite high interest, 44% of Australian marketers report a lack of internal skills or resources as the primary barrier to deeper AI adoption in paid media (Salesforce State of Marketing 2024).

8. Automated creative testing tools (such as Meta's Advantage+ Creative and Google's Asset Testing) reduce the average time to statistical significance in A/B tests by approximately 40%, enabling faster iteration cycles (Meta for Business / Google).

6. Australian Market Performance Marketing Statistics

This section consolidates the most relevant Australian-specific data points for practitioners operating in the local market. Given the distinct media landscape, competitive dynamics, and consumer behaviour patterns in Australia, global benchmarks should always be contextualised against local figures.

1. Australia ranks 12th globally for total digital advertising expenditure, despite being the 13th largest economy by GDP — indicating a relatively high digital ad intensity (eMarketer 2024).

2. Mobile devices account for 64% of digital ad impressions served in Australia, and 71% of paid social interactions occur on mobile (IAB Australia Mobile Advertising Report 2024).

3. The average Australian internet user is exposed to approximately 4,000–6,000 ad impressions per day across digital channels, making creative differentiation a critical performance lever (Nielsen Australian Consumer Research 2024).

4. Google holds approximately 94% of the Australian search engine market share, making Google Ads the near-mandatory foundation of any performance search strategy (Statista / StatCounter 2024).

5. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Digital Platform Services Inquiry has increased scrutiny of data practices and platform transparency, with compliance considerations now influencing how performance marketers structure data collection and attribution (ACCC, https://www.accc.gov.au).

6. Australian Privacy Act amendments — anticipated to take effect in 2025–2026 — are expected to restrict third-party cookie reliance further, accelerating first-party data strategies among 78% of Australian enterprise marketers already investing in customer data platforms (CDPs) (Salesforce).

7. The average Australian e-commerce conversion rate across paid traffic sources is approximately 2.1%, compared with a global average of 2.5%, partly reflecting higher mobile traffic shares and longer purchase consideration cycles for certain categories (Statista; Shopify Australia data).

8. Retail and e-commerce is the largest performance marketing vertical in Australia, accounting for 28% of total digital ad spend, followed by financial services (18%), automotive (11%), and travel (9%) (IAB Australia 2024).

9. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, https://www.abs.gov.au), approximately 2.6 million small businesses operate in Australia, the vast majority of which rely on digital performance channels as their primary customer acquisition mechanism.

10. The average cost of engaging a performance marketing agency in Australia ranges from $3,000 to $15,000 per month in management fees, depending on scope and channel complexity, with enterprise retainers extending well above this range (IBISWorld; industry survey data).

Key Takeaways

The following observations are drawn directly from the data above and are intended to assist practitioners in applying these benchmarks to their own planning and optimisation processes.

1. Benchmark CPA and ROAS against your specific industry, not global averages. The variance in average CPA between e-commerce ($28 AUD) and legal services ($145 AUD) illustrates that cross-industry benchmarks provide limited practical guidance. Practitioners should use sector-specific figures as the baseline and adjust for account maturity, geographic targeting, and audience temperature.

2. Attribution model selection materially affects reported performance. The 15–20% conversion volume improvement observed when switching from last-click to data-driven attribution is not a performance gain — it is a more accurate representation of existing performance. Businesses still operating on last-click are likely misallocating budgets away from upper- and mid-funnel channels that contribute to conversion without receiving credit.

3. Automation adoption is accelerating — strategy is the differentiator. With 72% of marketers globally using automated bidding, the competitive edge no longer lies in manual bid management. The practitioners achieving top-quartile results are differentiating through audience architecture, creative strategy, and measurement frameworks — areas where human expertise remains essential. For an overview of how structured frameworks inform performance outcomes, 3P Digital's paid media methodology provides a useful reference point.

4. First-party data infrastructure is now a performance asset. With Australian Privacy Act amendments anticipated in 2025–2026 and continued deprecation of third-party identifiers, the 78% of enterprise marketers already investing in CDPs are building a structural advantage. Businesses that delay first-party data strategies will face increasing CPA inflation as audience targeting precision degrades.

5. Retail media is the fastest-growing performance channel in Australia. The emergence of Woolworths Everyday Rewards Media, Coles 360, and similar retail media networks represents a structural shift in how consumer goods and retail brands access high-intent, first-party-data-enriched audiences. Budget allocation toward this channel is expected to grow from 5% to 7%+ of performance budgets by 2025.

6. Channel diversification reduces dependency risk. With Google holding 94% of Australian search market share, over-reliance on a single platform creates both cost inflation risk and algorithm dependency risk. The data suggests that diversified multi-channel performance portfolios — across search, paid social, programmatic, and emerging retail media — deliver more resilient blended ROAS over time. Practitioners interested in multi-channel analytics frameworks can explore 3P Digital's analytics services for further context.

Methodology & Disclaimer

This article aggregates statistics from publicly available research reports, industry bodies, platform-published benchmarks, and commercial research organisations published between 2022 and 2025. Data points have been selected for relevance to Australian performance marketing practitioners and have been attributed to their original sources where known.

Statistics from sources such as eMarketer, Statista, IBISWorld, and Forrester are drawn from their publicly available summaries and press releases. Full access to underlying methodology requires subscription to those platforms. Where statistics from multiple sources corroborate one another, they have been presented as supporting evidence. Where only a single source is available for a statistic, this is noted implicitly by the singular citation.

Year-over-year trend data and 2025–2026 forecasts are drawn from sources' own forward projections and should be interpreted as directional estimates, not guaranteed outcomes. Individual campaign, account, and business performance will vary based on factors including industry, geographic targeting, creative quality, landing page experience, audience strategy, and competitive environment.

Practitioners are advised to verify individual figures directly with the cited sources before using them in internal reporting, board presentations, or published content.

Sources

1. IAB Australia — Digital Advertising Industry Report 2024. https://iabaustralia.com.au

2. eMarketer — Global Digital Ad Spending Forecast 2024–2026. https://www.emarketer.com

3. Statista — Digital Advertising Worldwide & Australia Segment Reports 2024. https://www.statista.com

4. WordStream — Google Ads Industry Benchmarks 2024. https://www.wordstream.com

5. Google — Economic Impact Report & Ads Performance Benchmarks. https://ads.google.com

6. HubSpot — State of Marketing Report 2024. https://www.hubspot.com

7. Salesforce — State of Marketing Report, Eighth Edition (2024). https://www.salesforce.com

8. Skai — Digital Marketing Report 2024. https://skai.io

9. Nielsen — Nielsen Annual Marketing Report & Australian Consumer Research 2024. https://www.nielsen.com

10. SEMrush — State of Content & Performance Marketing 2024. https://www.semrush.com

11. IBISWorld Australia — Digital Advertising Agencies Industry Report 2024. https://www.ibisworld.com/au

12. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) — Counts of Australian Businesses 2024. https://www.abs.gov.au

13. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) — Digital Platform Services Inquiry Reports. https://www.accc.gov.au

14. LinkedIn Marketing Solutions — B2B Advertising Benchmarks Report 2024.

15. Meta for Business — Advantage+ Creative Performance Data 2024. https://www.facebook.com/business

Frequently Asked Questions

What is performance marketing?

Performance marketing is a digital advertising approach in which advertisers pay based on measurable outcomes — such as clicks, leads, sales, or app installs — rather than for ad impressions or reach alone. Common performance marketing channels include Google Search Ads (pay-per-click), Meta Ads optimised to conversions, affiliate marketing, and programmatic advertising with CPA-based buying. The defining characteristic is accountability: every dollar spent is tracked against a specific business outcome. This distinguishes performance marketing from traditional brand advertising, which is optimised for awareness and reach metrics.

What is a good ROAS for Australian advertisers in 2025?

A "good" ROAS depends heavily on the industry, channel, and business model. Based on 2024–2025 benchmark data, Australian advertisers should target the following as baseline expectations: Google Search (4x–6x ROAS), Google Shopping and Performance Max (3.5x–5.5x), Meta Ads (2.5x–5x), and programmatic display (1.5x–3x). High-margin businesses with strong customer lifetime values can operate profitably at lower ROAS thresholds, while low-margin e-commerce businesses may require 6x or above to justify paid spend. A blended ROAS of 3.8x across all performance channels represents the Australian advertiser average, according to the Skai Digital Marketing Report 2024.

How much do Australian businesses spend on performance marketing?

Australian businesses collectively spent approximately $9.4 billion on performance-based digital advertising in FY2024, representing around 60% of total digital ad expenditure of $15.6 billion (IAB Australia). At a business level, Australian SMEs allocate 12–18% of annual revenue to marketing overall, with performance channels consuming roughly 58–65% of that marketing budget (IBISWorld Australia). Enterprise businesses typically commit a higher absolute dollar value but a similar or slightly lower percentage of revenue, with the average Australian enterprise allocating 54% of its total marketing budget to digital channels.

What channels deliver the best performance marketing results in Australia?

Google Search consistently delivers the highest average ROAS (5.2x in 2024) for Australian advertisers, reflecting the high purchase intent of search queries. Affiliate and partner marketing delivers the highest average ROAS (6.1x) when measured on a last-click basis, though this partially reflects attribution bias toward bottom-funnel touchpoints. Meta Ads deliver an average 3.2x ROAS for Australian e-commerce accounts, with significant variation by creative quality and audience architecture. The optimal channel mix depends on business category, sales cycle length, and audience behaviour. Multi-channel strategies consistently outperform single-channel approaches in terms of blended ROAS and customer acquisition volume.

How is AI changing performance marketing in Australia?

AI is embedded in performance marketing at multiple levels: automated bidding (used by 67% of Australian performance marketers), creative generation and testing, predictive audience modelling, and campaign structuring tools such as Google's Performance Max. The performance impacts are measurable: AI-assisted creative delivers an average 14% CTR improvement, predictive audience models improve conversion rates by 20–35%, and data-driven attribution (an AI-dependent model) increases recorded conversion volume by 15–20% at equivalent spend. The primary constraint on deeper AI adoption in Australia is internal capability, cited by 44% of marketers as their main barrier. For practitioners, the implication is that AI handles execution at scale while strategic input — audience architecture, offer development, and measurement design — remains a human responsibility.

What should I look for when choosing a performance marketing agency in Australia?

Key criteria when evaluating a performance marketing agency in Australia include: transparent reporting against agreed KPIs (CPA, ROAS, CPL) rather than vanity metrics; demonstrated experience in your specific industry vertical; clarity on attribution methodology and how performance is measured; access to Google Premier Partner and Meta Business Partner certifications as indicators of platform-validated capability; and a clear framework for connecting paid media activity to broader business outcomes. The average cost of engaging an Australian performance marketing agency ranges from $3,000 to $15,000 per month for SME-scale engagements, scaling upward for enterprise scope and multi-channel complexity. Practitioners seeking to understand how agencies structure performance engagements can refer to published frameworks such as 3P Digital's performance marketing approach as a reference example.