Full Definition
Cost Per Click (CPC) is the price you pay for each visitor who clicks your ad in a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign. Unlike traditional advertising where you pay for impressions (people seeing your ad), Google Ads' core model only charges you when someone actually clicks. CPC is not a fixed price — it's determined by an auction that runs every time someone searches. Your CPC is influenced by: **Your bid**: The maximum you're willing to pay per click. But you rarely pay your max bid. **Quality Score**: Google rewards well-crafted ads with lower CPCs. A competitor bidding twice as much as you can still pay more per click if their Quality Score is lower. **Competition**: Keywords with many advertisers fighting for top positions drive CPCs up. 'Injury lawyer Delhi' might cost ₹800 per click; 'how to tie a tie' costs almost nothing. **Ad Rank**: The formula (bid × Quality Score + extensions) that determines position. Higher Ad Rank = better position, and often a lower actual CPC. CPC matters because it directly determines how many visitors your budget buys. At ₹100 CPC with a ₹10,000 monthly budget, you get 100 clicks. At ₹50 CPC, you get 200. Halving your CPC (through better Quality Score) doubles your traffic without spending a rupee more. Actionable tip: Review your Search Terms report monthly. Identify which actual search queries are triggering your ads. Add irrelevant ones as negative keywords — this reduces wasted clicks, improves your CTR, and lowers your average CPC.