There’s no universal benchmark since CPA and ROAS depend heavily on industry, product price, funnel stage, and audience intent. However, here’s a general breakdown of how they typically perform:
Retargeting (Remarketing)
CPA (Cost Per Acquisition): Usually lower. You're targeting users who’ve already interacted with your brand, they’re warmer and closer to conversion.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): Generally higher. Since these users are familiar with your product or service, the conversion likelihood is higher.
Best Use Case: Bottom-of-funnel campaigns. Works great for cart abandoners, site visitors, or people who’ve engaged with your ads or content.
In-Market Audience Targeting
CPA: Often higher. These are users actively researching similar products, but they may not know your brand yet.
ROAS: Tends to be moderate. They're in discovery mode, so conversion rates aren’t as strong as retargeted users.
Best Use Case: Mid-funnel or prospecting. Good for introducing your brand to potential new customers.
Realistic Performance Ranges
From aggregated advertiser data across various platforms:
Retargeting CPA often ranges between $5 to $40, with ROAS between 3x to 10x or more.
In-Market CPA typically falls between $25 to $100+, with ROAS ranging from 1x to 3x.
These are ballpark figures and can vary drastically depending on ad creative, landing page UX, and offer strength.
What to Know Before Comparing
Split test both audiences. Keep retargeting and in-market in separate campaigns or ad sets. Don’t blend them — it muddies the data.
Use tailored creatives. Retargeting works well with urgency or offer-driven creatives. In-market targeting benefits from credibility-focused ads or testimonials.
Expect different goals. Retargeting drives conversions. In-market builds your funnel with new visitors.
Rough estimate? Many brands see 2–5x better ROAS and 30–60% lower CPA in retargeting vs in-market. But it really depends on your product, creative, and funnel.