Cost Per Click (CPC)
Cost per click (CPC) is the amount an advertiser pays each time someone clicks an ad, calculated by dividing total ad spend by the number of clicks received.
In depth
CPC is set through an auction in which your bid, ad relevance, and expected engagement determine what you actually pay. Because it sits at the very top of the funnel, CPC measures the price of attention, not the value of an outcome. Two campaigns with identical CPCs can perform very differently once you look at what those clicks do after the landing page.
The classic pitfall is optimizing purely for cheap clicks and ending up with traffic that never converts. CPC only becomes meaningful when you connect it to downstream metrics like conversion rate and cost per lead. In a quiz-funnel workflow, you send paid clicks into a scorecard rather than a static page, so a slightly higher CPC is justified when the interactive experience converts far more of those clicks into qualified, scored leads.
Example in practice
Frequently asked questions
How is CPC calculated?
Divide your total ad spend by the number of clicks. If you spend $1,000 and receive 500 clicks, your CPC is $2.
What affects how much I pay per click?
Your bid, competition in the auction, ad relevance, and expected engagement all influence CPC. Improving ad quality and targeting can lower CPC without raising your bid.
Is a lower CPC always better?
Not necessarily. A cheap click that never converts wastes budget, while a pricier click that turns into a qualified lead can be far more profitable. Always evaluate CPC alongside conversion rate.