Gaming CPC Benchmarks
The median cost per click for gaming advertising on Google Search is $1.26 as of July 2026. Half of the 7 keywords we track in this industry fall between $0.65 and $1.68. The most expensive term measured is "game download" at $2.95, and the cheapest is "online games" at $0.44. Reaching top-of-page placement typically requires a bid between $0.41 and $2.64. Search demand for these terms changed -2.1% over the last twelve months. Figures are national United States medians collected via DataForSEO.
Which gaming keywords cost the most?
| Keyword | CPC | Top-of-page bid | Volume/mo | Competition | Opportunity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| game download | $2.95 | $0.86–$4.09 | 18,100 | 0.16 | 5,154 |
| gaming chair | $1.99 | $0.79–$3.19 | 301,000 | 1.00 | 0 |
| gaming headset | $1.37 | $0.30–$1.76 | 74,000 | 1.00 | 0 |
| gaming laptop | $1.26 | $0.50–$2.64 | 301,000 | 1.00 | 0 |
| pc gaming setup | $0.72 | $0.41–$2.10 | 9,900 | 0.98 | 275 |
| mobile games | $0.58 | $0.08–$3.50 | 201,000 | 0.11 | 308,431 |
| online games | $0.44 | $0.10–$1.62 | 550,000 | 0.26 | 925,000 |
How much does a gaming click cost on Google Ads?
The lowest costs we measured, with demand essentially flat.
Gaming has the lowest median of the fourteen industries at $1.26, ranging from $0.65 to $1.68 with a maximum of $2.95 on "game download". Volume moved -2.1% over twelve months — effectively flat, in contrast to the sharp increases in education and travel. The highest-volume term is "online games" at 550,000 searches per month. Top-of-page bids run $0.41 to $2.64. To put the median in budget terms: at $1.26 per click, 100 clicks cost about $126. Depending on which keywords you win, that same 100 clicks ranges from roughly $65 at the 25th percentile to $168 at the 75th. If 2% of those visitors convert, your cost per conversion lands near $63 before accounting for sales or fulfilment costs. That figure, not the cost per click, is the one to compare against what a customer is worth to you. Use the 2% only as a placeholder until you have your own measured conversion rate, since it moves the result more than the click price does.
| Measure | Value | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Median CPC | $1.26 | Half the tracked keywords cost less than this |
| Typical range (p25–p75) | $0.65 – $1.68 | Where half of all keywords fall |
| Full range | $0.44 – $2.95 | Cheapest to most expensive measured |
| Top-of-page bid | $0.41 – $2.64 | Median bid range to reach page-one placement |
| Keywords tracked | 7 | Sample size behind these figures |
| Period | Monthly searches |
|---|---|
| 2025-07 | 1,030,600 |
| 2026-06 | 1,009,300 |
| Change | -2.1% |
At these prices the bottleneck is retention after install, not acquisition cost. Optimising the campaign without measuring day-7 return scales users who never come back.
Figures are medians across the 7 Gaming keywords in our Google Search dataset, collected July 2026 via DataForSEO. How we collect and calculate this.
Opportunity is derived, not measured: (volume × (1 − competition)) ÷ CPC. How this data is collected.