What hunting and fishing brands pay for reach, clicks and sales

Across the hunting and fishing brands we run ads for, April 1 to October 8, 2026, the numbers are these: $10.39 to reach 1,000 people, $0.70 a click, 2 of every 100 people click, 3 of every 100 who click buy, $21 to make one sale, and $4.70 back for every $1 spent. The rest of ecommerce pays more and converts less. Here is each number, where it comes from, and what to do with it.

Where these numbers come from

This is not a survey and it is not a vendor report. It is pulled from the Meta and Google ad accounts Oxbow USA manages for hunting, fishing, tactical and conservation brands. Thirty-one account and platform combinations, April 1 through October 8, 2026, every dollar of spend and every tracked sale, weighted by spend so the big accounts do not get the same vote as the small ones. Brands range from first-year startups to companies spending $50,000 a month. We update it every quarter and keep the old versions up so you can see the trend.

The comparison numbers for the rest of ecommerce are industry averages from the ad platforms and the major analytics vendors. Where we cite one, it is linked.

$10.39 to reach 1,000 people

Cost per thousand impressions (CPM) on Meta for outdoor brands: $10.39. The ecommerce average sits around $15. That means $1,000 in ad spend puts your brand in front of about 96,000 hunters and anglers. Not a booth at a show. Not a magazine page. Ninety-six thousand people who already shoot, fish or run dogs.

Why it is cheaper: fewer advertisers are bidding on this audience than on skincare, supplements or apparel. That will not last forever. The brands in the auction now get the cheap seats. Everyone after them pays more.

2 of 100 click

Click-through rate: about 2%. That is in line with ecommerce as a whole, and clicks are not where this industry wins. At $0.70 a click, $1,000 in ads puts about 1,400 people on your site. People on the page with a card in their pocket, not followers.

What the number tells you: under 1% and nothing downstream matters yet, the ad is the problem. Over 3% and you have found an angle. Put money behind it.

3 of 100 who click buy

Conversion rate: about 3%. The ecommerce average is roughly 1.5%. Double.

This is the number that separates outdoor brands from everyone else online. The buyer shows up ready. He already knows what he wants, he just needs to know it is real. Those 1,400 visitors become about 40 orders. At a 1% conversion rate, it is 14. Same ad spend.

If you are under 2%, start with the site, not Ads Manager. Reviews, real photos, a clear price, a cart that works on a phone with one bar of service.

$21 to make one sale

Cost per sale, all in: ads, clicks, bounces, everything. About $21.

This is the one number you cannot borrow from anyone else, because the right number depends on your margin. A bait company lives on $8 orders. An apparel brand lives on $120. Twenty-one dollars a sale is a win for one and the end of the other.

Your ceiling is simple. Price, minus cost of goods, minus shipping. What is left is the most you can pay for a sale and still make money. Under it, spend. Over it, one of three things is broken: the ad, the site or the price. The numbers above tell you which.

$4.70 back for every $1

Blended return on ad spend (ROAS) across the accounts: 4.70. The sports and outdoor average reported by the platforms sits around 2.35. The apparel median most analytics vendors publish is about 2.2.

A brand spending $2,000 a month at that return does $9,400 in sales. At $5,000 a month, it is $23,500. The return does not fall off when you spend more. It falls off when you stop feeding the account new ads. Most brands never find that out because they never get past $1,000 a month.

The numbers, side by side

What to do with them

Pull up your account and find the number you are under. That is the one to fix, and the order matters.

If your CPM is way above $10.39, your targeting or your creative is fighting the auction. If your click rate is under 1%, the ad is not stopping anyone. If your conversion rate is under 2%, the site is losing people the ad already won. If your cost per sale is over your ceiling and the first three numbers look fine, the price or the margin is the problem, and no amount of ad spend fixes that.

Fix one number at a time, starting at the top of the funnel. Each one you fix makes the next one cheaper.

If you're hiring help with any of this, here's who does what in the the industry.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good ROAS for a hunting or fishing brand? Across the accounts we manage, 4.70 is the blended average. We consider 3 to 4 the floor for a healthy account and we guarantee a minimum of 2 for new clients. High-ticket products like optics, knives and watches run higher, low-ticket consumables like baits and calls run lower.

How much should an outdoor brand spend on Meta ads to start? $3,000 to $5,000 a month is where most brands start, which is enough for the account to get out of the learning phase and produce usable data in the first 30 days.

Why do outdoor brands convert at twice the ecommerce average? The customer arrives with intent. He has usually researched the product category already, he knows the specs he cares about, and he is checking that the brand is real. Reviews, real photos and a clear price close him faster than a discount does.

How often are these benchmarks updated? Quarterly. The current version covers April 1 through October 8, 2026. Earlier versions stay published so the trend is visible.

Can I use these numbers? Yes. Cite them as Oxbow USA Outdoor Industry Ad Benchmarks, 2026, and link to this page.

Oxbow USA is a marketing agency for hunting, fishing, tactical and conservation brands, based in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. We run Meta ads, Google ads and email marketing for outdoor brands. The first 30 days are on us and every account carries a 2x ROAS guarantee.