diff --git a/kokoro/linux/benchmark/run.sh b/kokoro/linux/benchmark/run.sh
index 02d4bacee89bd..eb469bb9fc5ab 100755
--- a/kokoro/linux/benchmark/run.sh
+++ b/kokoro/linux/benchmark/run.sh
@@ -23,8 +23,10 @@ popd
 ./configure CXXFLAGS="-fPIC -O2"
 make -j8
 pushd python
+virtualenv -p python3 env
+source env/bin/activate
 python3 setup.py build --cpp_implementation
-pip3 install . --user
+pip3 install --install-option="--cpp_implementation" .
 popd
 
 # build and run Python benchmark