Verified Confidence: medium
Primary source found; it says the same thing, the scope matches, and it is reasonably current.
Safe rephrasing
Triple Whale's data for 5,900+ e-commerce brands show a median TikTok ads CPM of $4.08 (Aug. 2025–July 2026), down about 28.5% from $5.71 a year earlier, with a median CPA of $17.07.
What the source says
This analysis includes over 5,900 brands for the period of August 1, 2025 to July 31, 2026. ... CPA $17.07 $24.86 -31.36% CPM $4.08 $5.71 -24.48% CVR 1.56% 2.46% -36.79% ROAS 1.51 1.43 +5.85% ... CPM fell 28.48% year-over-year to $4.08
Triple Whale — TikTok Ads Benchmarks by Industry (Updated 2026 Data, Aug. 20, 2026)
- Commonly cited as
- "TikTok CPMs are $10+"
- True origin
- Triple Whale — TikTok Ads Benchmarks by Industry (Updated 2026 Data, Aug. 20, 2026)
- Type
- Stat check: A widely repeated statistic traced back to its origin.
- Year
- 2026
- Data as of
- Aug. 2025 – July 2026
- Last checked
- Method & sample
- Medians across 5,900+ e-commerce brands using Triple Whale. CTR median 0.61%.
- Drift between quote and source
- Sample: e-commerce (mostly DTC) brands using Triple Whale, not B2B or lead-gen advertisers
- Medians per metric; rows are not one campaign
- Agency 'TikTok CPM $10–20' figures usually come from different, often brand-awareness, datasets
- Source inconsistency: its table shows -24.48% YoY, but its text says 'fell 28.48%' and $4.08 vs $5.71 is -28.5%
- Interest
- Triple Whale sells e-commerce analytics and attribution software; data are its customers' accounts.