The average amount an advertiser pays for each click generated by a paid campaign.
A common efficiency metric for search, social, and display advertising.
Short and sweet:
The average amount an advertiser pays for each click generated by a paid campaign.
A common efficiency metric for search, social, and display advertising.
See also: CPC, Pay-Per-Click, Click-Through Rate
Cost per click is the specific pricing figure that results from the pay-per-click model, calculated by dividing total ad spend by the total number of clicks a campaign received over a given period. It fluctuates constantly based on auction dynamics, meaning the same keyword can cost noticeably more during a competitive season, like the holidays in retail, than during a slower stretch of the year. Because this figure moves with market conditions rather than staying fixed, advertisers usually monitor it as an ongoing signal of auction competitiveness rather than a number they set once and stop watching.
A landscaping company running Google Ads in a competitive suburb might see a cost per click of $8, a price driven up by dozens of other local businesses bidding on the same terms.
Facebook typically offers a much lower rate per click than Google Search for the same industry, since social platforms price attention differently than intent-driven search traffic.
An advertiser can lower this expense over time by improving ad relevance and landing page quality, since platforms like Google Ads reward more useful ads with cheaper pricing.
