Cost Per Click and Cost Per Lead

Cost per click (CPC) is the amount you pay each time someone clicks your advertisement. If you spend $100 on a campaign that receives 200 clicks, your CPC is $0.50. CPC is the fundamental pricing unit in search advertising (Google Ads) and an important metric in social advertising where clicks measure how effectively your ad drives traffic.

CPC is calculated by dividing total ad spend by the number of clicks received: CPC = Total Spend / Total Clicks. In an auction-based system like Google Ads, your actual CPC depends on your Quality Score, your maximum bid, and competitor bids for the same placement. A higher Quality Score earns lower CPCs for equivalent positions.