Digital marketing term
CPC
CPC (Cost Per Click): A click-based purchasing model. This digigund glossary entry explains how the term is used in digital marketing.
Detailed explanation
CPC (Cost Per Click), as defined here: stands for Cost Per Click — the amount an advertiser pays to receive a click from search results. Google Ads text ads are one of the best examples of how the CPC model works.
In the digigund glossary, CPC isn't a definition to memorize in isolation — we look at how it should be interpreted on the campaign, measurement, or site side. When making decisions, it's more useful to consider it together with cpm, cpa, and cpl rather than as a single, isolated metric.
This entry is designed to directly answer "What is CPC?" searches. For deeper, real-world examples, explore the related glossary entries and the practical tips / forum discussions linked below.
Frequently asked questions
- What is CPC?
- It stands for Cost Per Click — the amount an advertiser pays to receive a click from search results. Google Ads text ads are one of the best examples of how the CPC model works.
- Why is CPC important?
- When CPC is measured and interpreted correctly, it helps you make more accurate decisions about budget, content, or technical strategy.
Related terms
Internal links for the topic cluster — read these concepts together.
- CPMCPM (Cost Per Mille) is the cost of 1,000 ad impressions; it is one of the most common media buying units.
- CPACPA (Cost Per Action) is a pricing and performance model based on completed actions such as a sale or form submission.
- Quality ScoreQuality Score is Google Ads' 1–10 rating of a keyword's expected relevance, based on expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience.
- Ad RankAd Rank is the ranking score that determines the position an ad appears in on platforms like Google Ads for a given search, combining bid amount, ad quality, and expected impact.
- ROASROAS (Return on Ad Spend) is the revenue generated for every unit of advertising spend; it is used to measure profitability in performance marketing.
Content featuring this term
Practical Guides
- AdsGoogle Ads Daily Budget: 4 Clear Answers on $10 and $20“Is $10 a day enough?”, “Is $20 good?”, and “What do you pay per 1,000 views?” come up often on new accounts. These four answers help you read daily budget through goals, conversions, and learning—not a round number alone.
- Ads5 Signs You’re Hitting Creative FatigueShowing the same ad too long quietly hurts budget. These five signs help you catch creative fatigue early in frequency, CTR, and cost.