--- title: "What is Cost Per Click?" url: https://fibr.ai/glossary/cost-per-click description: "Learn what Cost Per Click (CPC) is, how it affects your digital marketing campaigns, and how to optimize it for better ad performance and ROI." last_updated: 2026-05-05T11:56:13.920024+00:00 --- Cost per click refers to the amount advertisers pay each time a user clicks on their ad. It is a core metric in paid marketing and reflects how competitively a keyword or audience segment is being bid on. Brands use CPC to measure how efficiently their campaigns drive traffic and engagement. Lower CPC generally indicates better ad targeting, relevance, and quality score, while higher CPC can signal strong competition or poorly aligned messaging. For instance, a B2B SaaS company may pay $1–$5 per click for high-intent keywords on Google Ads, while a D2C brand might see lower CPCs on Meta for lifestyle products. Over time, tracking CPC helps optimize bidding strategy, target segments, and creative performance. ### Explore more Glossary terms ##### Customer Journey Mapping Customer Journey Mapping visualizes how customers move through stages like awareness, consideration, purchase, onboarding, and loyalty. Read More ##### Customer Journey Management Customer Journey Management focuses on designing, monitoring, and improving the end-to-end experience users have with a brand across channels. Read More ##### Customer Data Platform A Customer Data Platform (CDP) unifies data from multiple touch-points, such as websites, apps, CRM systems, and support tools into a single, persistent customer profile. Read More ##### Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) measures how much a business spends to acquire one new customer, including marketing, sales, and sometimes onboarding expenses. Read More ##### Custom Conversion A custom conversion is a user-defined goal in analytics or advertising platforms used to measure specific actions that matter to a business. Read More ##### CUPED CUPED (Controlled Pre-Experiment Data) is a statistical technique used in experimentation to reduce variance and improve test sensitivity. Read More Delaware, USA Subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive updates and insights.