Content Performance Benchmarks for 2026: Engagement Rates, Bounce Rates, Email Metrics, CTR, Time on Page, Video Completion, Social, and Conversion Benchmarks by Channel and Industry

In 2026, the benchmarks that define content performance have been fundamentally reshaped by three forces: Google Analytics 4’s redefinition of engagement, Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection distorting email open rate data, and AI overviews compressing organic click-through rates across the top of the search results page. Marketers who are still comparing their GA4 engagement rates against pre-2023 Google Universal Analytics bounce rate benchmarks, or measuring their email performance against pre-MPP open rate averages, are working with the wrong standards.

The current landscape looks like this. The average GA4 engagement rate across all industries and company types is 62%, with the Automotive and Health and Wellness industries leading at the highest sector-specific rates, based on Arvo Digital’s study of 65 websites in 2023. The median content marketing CTR across all industries in September 2024 was 1.56%, with Travel and Leisure and Education outperforming, based on Databox’s benchmark group analysis of Google Search Console data. Average website session duration across all industries sits at two to three minutes, with anything over two minutes considered the accepted standard. Ecommerce bounce rates range from 20% to 45%. B2B and professional services bounce rates run 50% to 75% but are accompanied by deeper page consumption patterns among qualified visitors.

In email, the average open rate across all industries is approximately 24% using Mailchimp benchmarks, 42.35% using platforms that include Apple MPP-inflated opens, and 39.5% for B2B email specifically. The most reliable email metric in the MPP era is click-to-open rate and click-through rate. Klaviyo’s analysis of 325 billion emails found that automated email flows generate up to 30 times more revenue per recipient than one-off campaigns. Abandoned cart flows achieve a 39.07% open rate, 23.33% CTR, and 10.7% conversion rate. Email marketing as a whole delivers USD 36 to USD 42 return per dollar spent, making it the highest-ROI digital marketing channel overall.

This article compiles more than 60 content performance benchmark statistics drawn from the Databox Content Marketing Benchmarks by Industry (Google Analytics 4, Google Search Console, Facebook Pages, and HubSpot data, September 2024 reporting period), the Arvo Digital GA4 Engagement Rate Study (65 websites, 2023), the Contentsquare 2024 Digital Experience Benchmark Report, Klaviyo’s 2024 Email Benchmarks (325 billion emails), Omnisend 2025 Ecommerce Marketing Statistics Report, the HubSpot 2025 email benchmarks and State of Marketing 2026, Causal Funnel 2025 Bounce Rate by Industry analysis, the Databox Website Traffic Benchmarks by Industry (April 2023 data), the Promodo eCommerce Digital Marketing Benchmarks 2025, the SocialInsider 2025 social media benchmarks, Backlinko analysis of 11.8 million search results, and WordStream and LocaliQ 2025 Search Advertising Benchmarks, all published within the last two years.

Scope and Methodology

Includes only publicly available content performance benchmark statistics relevant for 2026.
Based on the latest figures published within the last two years.
Sources include primary research, first-party platform data, institutional studies, and industry reports.
Each statistic is listed separately with its original source and study context.
No estimates, forecasts, interpretations, or recommendations are included.

Key Content Performance Benchmarks for 2026

The average GA4 engagement rate across all industries and company types is 62%, based on the Arvo Digital study of 65 websites conducted in 2023, published at Arvo Digital.
The median content marketing CTR across all industries in September 2024 was 1.56%, with Travel and Leisure and Education achieving the highest CTRs, based on the Databox Content Marketing Benchmarks by Industry report analyzing Google Search Console data from their benchmark groups, published at Databox.
The median engagement rate across all industries in September 2024 was 56.21%, with Automotive and Health and Wellness achieving the highest sector-specific engagement rates in the Databox benchmark dataset, based on the Databox Content Marketing Benchmarks by Industry report published at Databox.
Email marketing delivers USD 36 to USD 42 for every USD 1 spent, the highest ROI of any digital marketing channel, and is ranked by 41% of marketing professionals as their most effective channel, compared to social media and paid search which tied at 16% each, based on the Omnisend 2025 Ecommerce Marketing Statistics Report published at Omnisend.
Automated email flows generate up to 30 times more revenue per recipient than one-off campaigns, based on Klaviyo’s analysis of over 325 billion emails sent via the Klaviyo platform, with the average one-time campaign generating USD 0.11 revenue per recipient versus USD 3.65 for abandoned cart flows, published at Klaviyo.
Abandoned cart emails achieve an open rate of 39.07%, a click-through rate of 23.33%, and a conversion rate of 10.7%, making them the single highest-performing email automation type for ecommerce brands, based on Analyzify data cited in a 2025 email marketing statistics overview at Inboxally.
Welcome emails average a 50% open rate and a 27% click-through rate in 2025, down from earlier peaks but still the highest-performing single-send email type by open rate, with a 240% average ROI, based on data cited in a December 2025 email marketing statistics list at CodeCrew.
A 1-second delay in page load time can reduce conversions by 7%, and frustration factors including slow load times and JavaScript errors increase bounces and reduce engagement, combining to cut visit value by 15%, based on the Contentsquare 2024 Digital Experience Benchmark Report published at Contentsquare.
Position 1 in Google Search averages approximately 27% to 28% CTR, with positions 1 to 3 capturing roughly 50% to 60% of all organic clicks and page-one presence driving the vast majority of search traffic, based on Sistrix 2024 data cited in an October 2025 SEO benchmarks by industry guide at International Outsourcing Group.
Featured snippets can capture approximately 8% to 10% CTR for their triggering queries, which is notably lower than a standard position 1 result, reflecting the zero-click effect of AI-generated and structured answer formats in modern search results, based on Ahrefs 2024 data cited in an October 2025 SEO benchmarks guide at International Outsourcing Group.
Email campaign click-to-conversion rates grew by 27.6% in 2024, indicating that consumers who engage with emails are increasingly likely to make purchases after clicking through, based on the Omnisend 2025 Ecommerce Marketing Statistics Report published at Omnisend.
In 2024, automated emails drove 37% of all email-generated sales despite accounting for just 2% of total email volume, based on the Omnisend 2025 Ecommerce Marketing Statistics Report published at Omnisend.

Website Engagement Benchmarks by Industry

The median number of website sessions across all industries for September 2024 was 3,390, with Apparel and Footwear at 13,280 and Automotive at 11,930 leading all sectors, while Construction at 1,420 and Consulting and Professional Services at 2,180 lagged significantly, based on the Databox Content Marketing Benchmarks by Industry report published at Databox.
The median number of pageviews across all industries in April 2023 was 8,820, with Apparel and Footwear achieving the highest pageviews at nearly five times the median and Construction and Consulting recording the lowest, based on the Databox Website Traffic Benchmarks by Industry report published at Databox.
Any session duration over two minutes is considered the accepted standard for websites, and 40 to 50 seconds is a minimum threshold for indicating user attention, based on consensus benchmark data published at RankMonsters.
Hospitality and travel websites average session durations of two to three and a half minutes, B2B and professional services see higher bounce rates of 50% to 75% but longer page depth for qualified visitors, and education sites typically see bounce rates of 40% to 60% with time on page of two and a half to five minutes for long-form curriculum content, based on SimilarWeb 2024 and ContentSquare 2024 data cited in an October 2025 SEO benchmarks guide at International Outsourcing Group.
Ecommerce and retail websites achieve session durations longer than most B2B categories due to product browsing behavior, with product pages driving multiple-page sessions while checkout pages trigger the majority of abandonment events, based on Causal Funnel 2025 bounce rate by industry analysis published at Causal Funnel.
Websites with faster load speeds attract lower bounce rates, and a 300% surge in organic sessions was achieved by one case study after optimizing page speed to under 2 seconds, with mobile users particularly prone to abandoning slow sites, based on the SEOmator 2025 SEO Benchmarks Report published at SEOmator.

Bounce Rate Benchmarks by Industry

The average bounce rate across all website types ranges from 20% to 70%, with anything below 50% considered low and above 50% warranting review in the context of site purpose, based on worldwide bounce rate standards cited at RankMonsters.
Ecommerce and retail websites average a bounce rate of 20% to 45%, reflecting multiple-page browsing sessions driven by product discovery and comparison behavior, based on the CXL Benchmarks Report cited at Promodo and Causal Funnel.
B2B and professional services websites often show higher bounce rates of 50% to 75%, but these rates reflect single-page information-seeking sessions by qualified visitors rather than content failure, based on SimilarWeb 2024 data cited in an October 2025 SEO benchmarks guide at International Outsourcing Group.
Under Google Analytics 4, bounce rate is defined as the inverse of engagement rate: a session counts as engaged if it lasts over 10 seconds, includes more than one page, or triggers a conversion, meaning GA4 bounce rate data is not directly comparable to Universal Analytics bounce rate benchmarks from before 2023, based on GA4 methodology explained at Arvo Digital and Causal Funnel.
Over one-third of web sessions in 2023 included user frustration, with Travel and Hospitality recording the highest frustration rate at over 50% of visits, and JavaScript errors being the single leading frustration factor, based on the Contentsquare 2024 Digital Experience Benchmark Report published at Contentsquare.
Mobile bounce rates increased by 1.2 percentage points year-over-year in 2024 even as desktop bounce rates stabilized, with mobile’s growing traffic share creating a worsening overall trend despite desktop improvements, based on the Contentsquare 2024 Digital Experience Benchmark Report published at Contentsquare.
The UK recorded the lowest bounce rate of any tracked country at 42.7% in the Contentsquare dataset, while American and Japanese visitors breached 50% bounce rates, based on the Contentsquare 2024 Digital Experience Benchmark Report published at Contentsquare.

Email Performance Benchmarks

The average email open rate across all industries is approximately 24% using Mailchimp 2025 benchmark data, with Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection inflating open rates on platforms that do not filter MPP opens, and B2B email achieving an average open rate of approximately 39.5%, based on Mailchimp and Klaviyo data cited in a 2025 email marketing statistics analysis at Inboxally.
The Campaign Monitor 2025 benchmark puts the average open rate at 22.7% across all industries using 2024 data, representing the most conservative and methodologically reliable figure as it excludes MPP-inflated pre-load events, based on Campaign Monitor data cited in a December 2025 email marketing statistics list at CodeCrew.
The average email click-through rate across all industries is approximately 2% to 3%, with nonprofit and B2B achieving higher rates above 2%, and click-to-open rate being the most reliable email engagement metric in the Apple MPP era, based on HubSpot 2025 email benchmark data published at HubSpot.
Transactional emails achieve 8 times higher open and click rates compared to regular marketing emails, making order confirmations, shipping notifications, and password resets the highest-engagement email type by category, based on Experian 2024 data cited at Inboxally.
Sending emails two to four times per month yields the highest sustained engagement, and 86% of companies send marketing emails at least monthly while 58% email their subscribers weekly or more, based on Campaign Monitor 2024 data cited at Inboxally.
Personalized subject lines increase open rates by 20% to 26%, advanced segmentation can increase revenue by 760%, and behavior-based automated emails drive three times higher engagement than scheduled broadcast campaigns, based on Adobe Business, Campaign Monitor, and Moosend data cited at Inboxally.
Ecommerce brands sending automated campaigns including welcome sequences, cart recovery, and post-purchase flows see up to 320% more revenue per email compared to one-off newsletters, based on Omnisend 2025 research published at Omnisend.
Post-purchase email flows achieve the highest open rate at 61.68%, while abandoned browsing flow emails achieve a 5.48% click rate indicating strong re-engagement with the brand, based on Klaviyo platform data cited at Promodo.

Organic Search CTR Benchmarks

The average organic CTR for ecommerce sites ranges from 0.51% to 2.69% depending on product type, target audience, and marketing effectiveness, compared to the all-industry averages of 3.17% for Google Search ads and 0.46% for display, based on ecommerce benchmark data published at Promodo.
Position 1 in Google organic search averages approximately 27% to 28% CTR, moving from position 8 to position 3 can raise clicks by three to four times, and securing top-three placement for program and location queries directly lifts enrollment or lead volume, based on Sistrix 2024 data cited in an October 2025 SEO benchmarks guide at International Outsourcing Group.
Local pack results drive approximately 25% to 35% of clicks for home services and hospitality queries, making local SEO the primary organic performance lever for brick-and-mortar and service-area businesses, based on BrightLocal 2024 data cited in an October 2025 SEO benchmarks guide at International Outsourcing Group.
The average organic CTR across all industries in September 2024 was 1.56% at the content marketing level, while high performers in Travel and Leisure and Education significantly exceeded this benchmark, based on the Databox Content Marketing Benchmarks by Industry report published at Databox.
The average word count of first-page Google results is 1,447 words and the number one ranking position averages 2,400 words, with content depth being a positive signal for both ranking probability and post-click engagement, based on the Backlinko analysis of 11.8 million Google search results published at Backlinko.
Ecommerce organic conversion rates range from 0.4% to 2.7% depending on the industry, with the skincare segment achieving the highest rate at 2.7% and luxury apparel the lowest at 0.4%, based on Statista data cited at Promodo.

Social Media Content Performance Benchmarks

LinkedIn leads all major social platforms in average engagement rate at 6.50% in 2025, followed by Instagram at 0.45% to 3.00% depending on content format, Facebook at 1.08% CTR for ads and approximately 0.07% for organic posts, and TikTok at 2.50% average engagement by follower count, based on Buffer 2025 platform benchmarks cited at Buffer and SocialInsider analysis at SocialInsider.
Instagram Reels achieve an average engagement rate of 1.23%, carousels 0.55%, and single-image posts 0.70% by follower count, with Instagram’s overall engagement rate declining 28% year-over-year in 2025, based on SocialInsider analysis of 31 million Instagram posts from 119,000 pages published at SocialInsider.
LinkedIn’s median CTR for paid ads is 0.52%, with Q3 achieving the highest average CTR of 0.96% and September the single highest month at 1.05%, while LinkedIn organic thought leadership posts generate six times more engagement than job-related content, based on the HockeyStack 2025 LinkedIn Ads Benchmark Report at HockeyStack and Buffer 2025 data at Buffer.
Facebook organic posts average a CTR of approximately 0.07% to 0.09%, with Facebook’s paid ad average CTR across all industries at 1.08% and CPC at USD 1.06, based on WebFX 2025 Meta marketing benchmarks published at WebFX.
TikTok’s average engagement rate by follower count is 2.50%, five times higher than Instagram’s 0.50% average, and TikTok marketing benchmarks for 2026 show average engagement rates ranging from 3.85% to 4.90%, based on SocialInsider analysis cited at Sprout Social and WebFX 2026 TikTok benchmarks at WebFX.
Pinterest’s average post engagement rate increased to 5.93% in 2024, up from 4.36% in 2023, representing a 36% year-over-year improvement driven by visual search growth and the platform’s algorithm changes favoring product discovery content, based on Statista data cited in a December 2025 Pinterest statistics overview at SocialPilot.

Video Content Performance Benchmarks

Short-form video is the highest-ROI content format overall and leads all content types in social media engagement, with 71% of video marketers citing it as delivering their highest returns, based on Wyzowl State of Video Marketing 2025 data cited at Sprout Social.
YouTube’s average CPC is USD 0.49, average CPM ranges from USD 3 to USD 6 for standard placements, and CTV completion rates on YouTube reach 90% to 96%, based on Quimby Digital’s 2025 CPM analysis and Strike Social 2024–2025 CampaignLab data published at Quimby Digital.
92% of video marketers report that video has helped them improve users’ understanding of their products, 89% of consumers say they want to see more brand video content, and 86% report better engagement and ROI from video compared to other formats, based on Wyzowl State of Video Marketing 2026 data cited at Intero Digital.
Webinars convert at 70.2% among all long-form video formats, making them the highest-converting long-form content type, with white papers achieving 7% download rates per click and outperforming blog subscriptions at 4% and webinar attendance at 3%, based on GetResponse and Marketing Sherpa data cited at My Codeless Website.
TikTok videos with high completion rates are shared four to six times more often than those without strong retention, and vertical video formats on TikTok receive 40.1% more impressions than landscape or square formats, based on WebFX 2026 TikTok Marketing Benchmarks at WebFX.

Conversion Rate Benchmarks by Channel and Industry

The average conversion rate for Google Search ads across all industries in 2025 is approximately 4.2% for lead-gen campaigns and the median ecommerce conversion rate ranges from 0.4% to 2.7%, based on WordStream 2025 Google Ads Benchmarks and Statista ecommerce data cited at WordStream and Promodo.
Email marketing achieves an average conversion rate of 9.6% for highly segmented and personalized ecommerce campaigns, with ecommerce email marketing delivering USD 68 ROI per dollar spent for U.S. merchants, based on Klaviyo and Promodo data published at Promodo.
Top B2B gated content offers achieve a 10% to 15% conversion rate, with high-value gated offers converting up to 11% of visitors versus just 2% for standard landing pages, while the median landing page conversion rate across all industries reached 6.6% as of Q4 2024, based on Force24 and MonsterInsights data cited at Amra and Elma.
The average B2B content marketing campaign conversion rate falls between 0.8% and 1.1%, while professional services targets top-three rankings for prime keywords and above 4% lead conversion, based on First Page Sage B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks and SEO benchmark data at First Page Sage and International Outsourcing Group.
LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms convert at 13% compared to 2.35% for external landing pages, a 277% conversion rate advantage that substantially reduces the effective CPA for B2B lead generation campaigns, based on LinkedIn advertising performance data cited at SEO Design Chicago.
The highest converting ecommerce email category in 2024 was games at 0.30%, followed by auto and vehicles at 0.23% and arts and entertainment at 0.18%, based on the Omnisend 2025 Ecommerce Marketing Statistics Report published at Omnisend.

Regional or Geographic Statistics

American and Japanese website visitors breached 50% bounce rates in the Contentsquare 2024 benchmark dataset, while the UK recorded the lowest national bounce rate at 42.7%, and Canadian visitors experienced the highest frustration rate with one in two sessions including friction, based on the Contentsquare 2024 Digital Experience Benchmark Report at Contentsquare.
Traffic fell in most geographies in 2023 with positive exceptions in Japan, Australia, and Netherlands, and Australian and Canadian visitors led in content consumption gains while German and Dutch visitors condensed their visit patterns, based on the Contentsquare 2024 Digital Experience Benchmark Report at Contentsquare.
UK email marketing ROI stands at approximately GBP 35 to GBP 38 for every GBP 1 spent, while U.S. email marketing delivers USD 36 per dollar, making email the highest-ROI marketing channel across both markets, based on DMA data cited in a December 2025 email marketing statistics list at CodeCrew.
APAC LinkedIn advertisers achieve the highest regional CTR at 1.04% and the lowest CPC at USD 1.03, offering substantially better social media content performance per dollar than EMEA or North American benchmarks for B2B campaigns, based on 2025 LinkedIn Ads benchmarks published at Closely HQ.
Over 60% of all global web traffic comes from mobile devices, and mobile bounce rates increased 1.2 percentage points year-over-year in 2024, creating a structural performance gap between mobile-optimized and non-optimized content across all markets, based on Contentsquare 2024 data and Statista mobile traffic data cited at HubSpot.

References

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