Cost Per Click
Cost Per Click (CPC) is the amount an advertiser pays each time someone clicks one of its ads. It is a core pricing model for paid search and social advertising, and is calculated by dividing total ad spend by the number of clicks received over a given period.
In auction-based platforms, the actual CPC depends on competing bids, budget, and an ad's quality or relevance score, so stronger, more relevant ads often pay less per click. CPC is an early-funnel efficiency metric: it tells you the price of traffic, not whether that traffic converts.
A common pitfall is chasing the lowest CPC at the expense of intent, which can buy cheap but unqualified clicks. CPC feeds into downstream metrics like Cost Per Acquisition and Return on Ad Spend, which reflect whether clicks become revenue.
Last updated: 14 June 2026