10+ years · 3x UK Search Awards

CPC

📚Basics

CPC (Cost Per Click) is the amount you pay Google each time someone clicks your ad.

Aliases: Cost Per Click · Cena po kliku

What it is

CPC (cost per click) is what you pay Google each time someone clicks your Search ad - the impression itself is free, only the click is billed. Your maximum CPC bid combines with Quality Score through the Ad Rank formula to determine your position in the auction.

CPC = Ukupna potrošnja ÷ Broj klikova

My take

In my accounts I never look at CPC as an absolute number, only against the break-even CPC I calculate from the client's margin and conversion rate - 0.50 EUR is a disaster in one industry and perfectly fine in another.

Example

eCommerce account: average order value 80 EUR, margin 40% (32 EUR), half of which goes into ad spend - max CPA is 16 EUR. At a 2% conversion rate, break-even CPC is 16 x 0.02 = 0.32 EUR. Anything above that eats into profit.