Paid Search
CPC (Cost Per Click)
CPC is the amount an advertiser pays for each click on an ad, calculated as total spend divided by clicks.
It is a core efficiency metric in paid search and is influenced by competition and ad quality. A higher Quality Score can lower your CPC for the same position. Watching CPC alongside conversion rate shows whether traffic is actually profitable.
CPC is a market price, set by auction competition and your own quality, which means it is managed from both sides: what you pay and what a click is worth. The quality side is the controllable one, better expected CTR and landing page experience buy lower CPCs at the same positions. The strategic error is CPC minimisation as a goal: the cheapest clicks in most accounts are the least commercial ones, and driving average CPC down usually means buying more of exactly those. Judge CPC only alongside what the clicks convert into.
Example
Two ad groups, same budget. "international school bangkok": 95 baht a click, competitive, but clicks convert at 8% into campus tours. "school holiday activities": 6 baht a click, high volume, converts at 0.3%. The cheap clicks cost 2,000 baht per tour; the expensive ones cost 1,200. CPC alone pointed at exactly the wrong winner until conversion data reframed it.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I lower my CPC in Google Ads?
- Raise quality rather than dropping bids: tighter ad groups, ads that mirror the query, landing pages that deliver on the ad. Higher Quality Score directly cuts the price of the same position. Then trim the queries that never convert via negatives.
- What is a good CPC in Thailand?
- Whatever your conversion economics support: a 90-baht click converting at 8 percent beats a 6-baht click converting at 0.3. Benchmarks vary wildly by industry, insurance and legal run high, retail low, so compute backwards from customer value instead of comparing to averages.
Related terms
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