What’s the Difference Between PPC and CPC?

Digital marketing can be confusing, especially if you’re just getting started. There are lots of acronyms, abbreviations, and other complicated need-to-knows that can make it feel difficult to keep up. What’s more, platforms and practices are always changing, meaning you always need to stay flexible to adapt to new changes.

PPC and CPC are two acronyms that commonly trip people up, given that they sound similar and are related. Learn the difference between these two marketing terms and how to choose what to focus on.

What is PPC?

PPC stands for pay per click and is a type of advertising. This marketing strategy allows your business or brand to show up in search engine results, like the front page of Google, and be discovered by potential customers. How high your business shows up on the page depends on many factors, including specific keywords and phrases that your target customers are likely going to be searching for.

The great thing for businesses is that with PPC, you only have to pay for advertising when someone actually clicks on your website’s link– hence the name pay per click. This means that businesses aren’t paying for advertising that doesn’t bring individuals to their website, and search engines are incentivized to show your ad to relevant audiences.

When used correctly, pay-per-click advertising can be extremely effective at using an affordable budget to bring in a wide audience of potential customers to your website.

What is CPC?

CPC stands for cost per click, and rather than being a marketing strategy, cost per click is a metric that allows you to measure the effectiveness of a pay-per-click advertising campaign. It directly reflects the actual monetary amount you’re spending on every click.

This number can be found by dividing your total advertising money spent by the number of clicks your ad campaign received. For example, if you spent 10 dollars on an ad and got 10 clicks, then your cost per click is $1.

Which One Should a Small Business Focus On?

So, which one should you choose to use in your small business’s marketing? Both! PPC is a marketing strategy, and CPC is the way to measure the effectiveness of that strategy, so implementing both into your regular marketing efforts is a great way to collect more data and understand how well your marketing campaigns are performing.

Customized Digital Marketing Solutions

If you’re looking for help with PPC, CPC, or any other marketing strategy or metric, let Skoshe help. We have over 20 years of experience helping businesses nationwide scale up and reach new customers through digital marketing solutions personalized to your business. Our team of professional digital marketers are experts in search engine optimization, advertising, content creation, social media, and more, and look forward to helping you expand your business’s reach and profits. Contact us today to get in touch.