Referred To As: CPC, Cost Per Click
Category: Category
Updated on: 2021-12-07
Correct Use: No specific correct use, there are various bid and targeting strategies
Description: Cost Per Click (CPC) is a PPC metric that is the amount paid for a single click.
Some keywords are highly competitive and have very high competition and cost per click. These keywords are often not the best to target. Thorough keyword research can help identify opportunities that provide much greater ROI.
Our take: The CPC (Cost Per Click) has been a mainstay of the PPC (Pay Per Click) world for a long time. Google introduced the CPC as a bid for a keyword but also used a performance element rather than a pure pay-for position with the quality score.
Bid strategies and keyword targeting matter a lot in PPC campaigns.
Far too often people chose the high volume top-level keywords to target and use a broad match targeting strategy. This generates a lot of traffic, burns a ton of budget but usually doesn’t return positive ROI (Return on Investment).
Do: Monitor your clicks and campaigns closely.
Do go super narrow and hyper focussed on your ad groups and keyword targets.
Don’t: Don’t use broad match and let the algorithms determine how much you should pay.
Remember, increasing Ad Revenue is usually the goal for the PPC platform not necessarily increasing your bottom line – always remember that.
Tip: Do use UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) tracking parameters in your URLs to correctly attribute the keyword, campaign, channel and costs.
Introduced: Google Ads was introduced on October 23rd, 2000.
For a while, after Google’s great success with organic search performance (which at the time was leaps and bounds above any other competitor), people debated how Google would monetize their platform.
The answer was Google Ads or Google AdWords as it was at the time.
The platform has grown and grown ever since and is a major contributor of revenue for the company.
What Google Says: Buy our Ads!
What experts say: Be specific and monitor closely.