CPC
Cost per click
What you pay for one click on your ad.
Formula
CPC = ad spend ÷ clicks
How to read it
- It matters most in search, because a click there comes from someone who typed what they wanted.
- A click is not a visit: the dashboard counts every click, the page counts whoever waited for it to load — and the gap between them exposes a speed problem.
- A cheap click from the wrong search term is the most expensive thing you can buy, which is why negative keywords come first.
The common mistake
Optimising for cheap clicks rather than qualified ones. A search campaign with no negative keywords buys plenty of cheap clicks from people looking for a job or a definition, not your service.