Short Definition: The amount of money spent to receive one click on a paid advertisement.

What is cost-per-click?

Cost-per-click (CPC) is a model used to determine how much you pay for online ads. Rather than pay every time an ad runs (or a web user sees an ad), you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.

Why CPC?

There are other payment models (such as cost per impression, or CPM, that may be used in online advertising). However, CPC has become a very popular model. CPC helps you understand how well your ad is doing. You get more than knowing someone saw your ad, you know they engaged with it. This can also be beneficial if you are a smaller company. You are only charged when someone clicks on your ad, and in theory, you could be getting tons of free impressions (views without clicks).