← all free tools
Google Ads vs Display ads
Side by side on the figures that matter for a small budget, from the same sourced benchmarks used across this site. At $500, Google Ads buys clicks more cheaply ($5.43 each) — but cheaper clicks are not better clicks, so read the caveats.
| Google Ads | Display ads | |
|---|---|---|
| Priced | per click | per thousand impressions |
| Typical price | $5.42 | $8.00 |
| Range | $2.00–$15 | $3.00–$20 |
| Click-through rate | — (billed per click) | 0.05% |
| Least worth spending | $300 | $200 |
| Clicks for $200 | 36 | 12 |
| Clicks for $500 | 92 | 31 |
| Source | WordStream / LocaliQ search advertising benchmarks (2026) | Nielsen Norman Group on banner blindness (2007, re-confirmed since) |
How it works
Google Ads: Below roughly $300 the campaign never leaves its learning phase, so the number you measure is not the number you would get at scale.
Display ads: A 0.05% click-through rate means most of the budget buys impressions nobody registers, and a share of them are never rendered at all.