CPC (Cost Per Click)

What is CPC (Cost Per Click)? – Definition

CPC (also known as actual CPC) is the final amount you need to pay per click on your link or banner ad.

It often differs from the maximum CPC, which is the highest cost you declare you are willing to pay per click.

cpc definition

How CPC is Working?

During an auction in Google Ads, you will pay the lowest possible ad cost that is required to reach the ad rank threshold and to outrank your competitors’ ads. This means that if the maximum CPC is set at $1 and the competitive ad is set at $0.40, then in a given auction your CPC (actual cost per click) will be $0.41. If you would like to learn more about Ad Rank thresholds, visit the official Google Ads Help website.

Remember that this rule only applies to a specific billing model. For more on the other billing models available, read the post about Google Ads costs on the Delante blog.

What Has an Impact on CPC (Cost Per Click)?

The ad rank is determined by, among other things, ad quality (e.g., ad relevance, landing page quality score, or expected CTR), maximum CPC set, ad extensions or ad formats. The rank is then used to determine where the ad will appear, as well as the types of extensions displayed with it. It may also happen that the ad doesn’t appear at all because it didn’t get the right score in the rank to achieve that goal.

Example

There are up to four ad positions in Google to display ads in the search results. Five advertisers (A, B, C, D, E) enter the auction. The competitors’ ad rank is as follows: A:  5, B: 8, C: 12, D: 20, and E: 30. Let’s assume that the minimum required rank to display an ad is 10. So only three advertisers meet this condition (C, D, E). Advertisers will pay only $0.01 more for their ad than the competitor below. If competitor E has set the max CPC at $1, competitor D at $0.90, and competitor C at $0.65, then competitor C will pay $0.65, competitor D: $0.66, and competitor E: $0.67.

Was this definition helpful?
(0)
Author
 Marketing Specialist - Ula

Marketing Specialist

Tries to combine creative soul with the Marketing field. When she graduated, she dived into broadly understood content creation. In Delante, takes care of International Marketing. In the meantime, illustrates, draws, learns the art of tattooing and looks for new music to spend the evenings with.

RECENTLY ON OUR BLOG

What’s EEAT & Why Is It Important for SEO?

What’s EEAT & Why Is It Important for SEO?

Some time ago SEO specialists thought that EEAT was only about creating elements such as author’s bios or links to resources to make the website more authoritative for crawlers. Today we know that Google perceives authoritativeness differently. It expects both the brand itself, and the people standing behind it to be industry experts. What’s Google EEAT and how to convince the search engine robots that your content is trustworthy and should be displayed high in the search results?

Read more
Backlink Audit Guide - Review Your Backlink Profile Following These 4 Steps

Backlink Audit Guide - Review Your Backlink Profile Following These 4 Steps

Unfortunately, it’s pretty common for website owners to forget to regularly check on their backlink profile once they establish the base of referring domains. This way they miss out on a lot of ranking-improving opportunities. Don’t be forgetful! Review your backlink profile regularly to make sure it stays strong. Here’s how to do a backlink audit in the comfort of your office.

Read more