Advertising
CPC (Cost per Click)
The cost of each user click on a paid ad.
CPC is the price per click in performance advertising. Different from CPM (paid per impression regardless of clicks). You pay only when a user clicks, which makes CPC the standard for traffic and conversion campaigns.
CPC is set by auction. Google Ads CPC ranges from $0.50 for low-competition long-tail to $50+ for "best CRM software"-type queries. Social CPC is usually lower ($0.50-$3 for B2B, $0.20-$1 for B2C).
Lower CPC isn't automatically better. A $5 CPC that converts at 8% beats a $0.50 CPC that converts at 0.1%. Pair CPC with conversion rate to compute actual cost per acquisition (CPA), which is the metric that matters.
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