CPC Calculator

What is cost per click?

Cost per click (CPC) is what one click on your ad really costs. It is the number every ad platform reports, and the one that decides whether a campaign can pay for itself: if a click costs more than a visitor is worth to you, the campaign loses money no matter how good the ad looks.

Formula

• CPC = total ad spend ÷ clicks
• CTR = clicks ÷ impressions × 100
• CPM = spend ÷ impressions × 1,000

Worked example

You spent 500 and received 420 clicks, so each click cost 1.19. If those ads were shown 38,000 times, the click-through rate is 1.11% and the thousand-impression cost is 13.16.

How to use the CPC calculator

1. Enter your spend for the period you care about — a day, a campaign or a month. Any currency works; the result comes back in the same one.
2. Enter the clicks the platform reported for that same period.
3. Add impressions if you have them, and you also get CTR and CPM without opening another tool.

Making the number useful

• Compare CPC against what a visitor is worth: revenue per visitor = order value × conversion rate. If CPC is higher than that, you are paying to lose money.
• A rising CPC with a steady CTR usually means more competition in the auction. A rising CPC with a falling CTR usually means the ad itself has gone stale.
• Work it out per campaign, not per account. One expensive keyword can hide ten cheap ones.

Frequently asked questions

How do you calculate cost per click?

Divide the total you spent by the number of clicks. Spending 500 for 420 clicks is a CPC of 1.19.

What is a good CPC?

There is no single good number — it depends on what a visitor is worth to you. A 2 CPC is cheap if a visitor brings 10 in profit and ruinous if they bring 0.50.

Is CPC the same as CPM?

No. CPC is the cost of one click; CPM is the cost of a thousand times your ad was shown. The calculator gives you both when you enter impressions.