The Cost Per Click (CPC) is a billing model within online marketing. The CPC is used to determine the amount paid by the advertiser when billing per click (e.g. on an advertising medium).
There are various models for the billing of advertising costs in online marketing, with the pay per click model being the most widespread. Advertising networks such as Google Ads and Google AdSense are prominent examples that predominantly use this form of billing for their services.
The advertiser pays a certain, pre-determined amount for each click on a specific advertising medium such as a text link, video or banner. This is not a classic flat rate.
The price per click depends on several factors:
- Reach of the displayed page
- Type and placement of the advertising media used
- Industry
- Quantity of advertising media booked
- Keyword (for SEA)
- and much more
Marketing takes place mainly in affiliate and search engine marketing, as both are aimed primarily at increasing traffic based on placed advertising measures.
No general statement can be made about the costs of this form of billing, as these can range from cents to double-digit euro amounts. Depending on the placement or keyword, the prices differ enormously (especially in highly competitive industries).
The advantage of this billing model is that the advertiser only incurs costs once a user clicks on an advertising medium and actually shows interest in the offer. In addition, the billing method is very simple, since tracking tools such as Google Analytics make it very easy to measure clicks on an advertising medium.
A negative aspect, however, is the simple abuse of this method. Users can intentionally click several times and thus significantly increase the costs for the advertiser.