Cost Per Click / Advertising Terms Cost Per Click Cost per click, or CPC, is a digital advertising metric that represents the amount an advertiser pays each time a user clicks on their ad. CPC is used in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising models, where businesses are charged only when someone actively engages with their ad by clicking on it. This pricing model is common in platforms such as Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Facebook Ads and LinkedIn Ads. CPC is calculated by dividing the total cost of your ad campaign by the number of clicks it generates. For example, if you spend $200 on a campaign and receive 100 clicks, your average CPC is $2. The actual CPC can vary based on factors such as keyword competition, ad quality, audience targeting, and bidding strategy. In auction-based systems like Google Ads, a higher quality score can help lower your CPC by signalling that your ad and landing page are highly relevant to users. Lowering CPC while maintaining strong results is a key goal in campaign optimisation. Techniques include refining keyword lists, improving ad copy, adjusting bids based on performance and using negative keywords to filter out irrelevant traffic. For nonprofits and smaller budgets, a well-optimised CPC strategy ensures that every dollar spent leads to meaningful engagement. For B2B and e-commerce brands, CPC is closely tied to return on ad spend and cost per acquisition. By tracking and improving CPC over time, marketers can stretch their ad budgets further and deliver higher value from each campaign.