← DictionaryCost Per Click
The average amount paid for each click on a paid placement.
What each click cost you.
What It Is
In the BWH map, Cost Per Click lives under Measurement — Conversion. The canonical meaning is the average amount paid for each click on a paid placement.
It is something measured and compared over time, so one reading in isolation tells you almost nothing. Keep it that plain and it will still be true in twelve months.
How It's Used
Cost Per Click earns its keep in reporting, analytics reviews and the arguments about what the numbers mean. It normally appears alongside Pay Per Click, Ad Spend and Cost Per Lead. The practical test is whether it is measured the same way each period, against something.
Why It Matters
The cost of being vague about Cost Per Click shows up later, not today. When it is unclear, reporting becomes a matter of opinion. Clarity here removes a surprising amount of downstream argument.
Picture a speedometer. It tells you how fast, not whether you are going the right way. What each click cost you.
Termshift™
How the meaning shifts depending on who is using it, and where.
Professionally, Cost Per Click carries the narrow meaning: the average amount paid for each click on a paid placement.
Explained to someone with no marketing background, Cost Per Click is what each click cost you.
The Bottom Line
Keep Cost Per Click plain: what each click cost you. That is the version that holds up in a real project.