E-Promo Group: click cost splits from campaign cost in 4 of 5 industries in Q2 2026

September 5, 2026 · cossaru

Cost per click stopped predicting cost per action in four of five industries during the second quarter of 2026, according to E-Promo Group's review of more than 103,000 campaigns with a combined budget above 8 billion rubles, covering ecommerce, finance, pharmaceuticals, real estate and tourism. A year earlier, CPC and CPA in most sectors moved together. This time finance posted a 29.3% rise in CPC alongside a 5.6% drop in CPA, tourism saw CPC up 33.3% while CPA fell 7.2%, and real estate recorded the sharpest split: CPC down 11.8% while CPA rose 29.4%. Pharmaceuticals was the exception, with both CPC and CPA rising together, 52.1% and 50.4% respectively. E-Promo's Larisa Yashina said, "A pricey click sometimes brings a better result than a cheap one."

Budgets built around a target CPC risk throttling the traffic that actually converts, since buyers now research longer and click ads only once they are close to a purchase decision. Real estate campaigns show the downside: cheaper clicks accompanied a 29.4% rise in the cost of an actual lead, a gap E-Promo ties to mortgage rates, regional demand and fewer new projects. Alexey Syrovegin, E-Promo's Head of Research, said CPA increasingly forms outside the ad account itself, shaped by demand, purchase conditions and competition, so cutting it requires work on the offer and the buying path, not cheaper traffic alone.