Pay-per-click


Pay-per-click (PPC) is an online advertising model in which advertisers pay a publisher—typically a search engine or website—each time a user clicks on an advertisement.

Unlike traditional advertising, which often requires payment regardless of user engagement, PPC allows advertisers to pay only when a measurable interaction, such as a click, occurs. This model enables advertisers to evaluate the effectiveness of advertisements and target specific user actions.

PPC is widely used on major search engines and platforms, including Google Ads, Amazon Advertising, and Microsoft Advertising. Advertisers bid on keywords relevant to their target audience, paying when users click on ads. These ads may be text-based, image-based, or a combination. Some publishers charge a fixed rate per click instead of using a bidding system.

Display advertisements, also known as banner ads, are shown on websites with related content that have agreed to show ads and are typically not pay-per-click advertising, but instead usually charge based on cost per thousand impressions (CPM).

Social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit, Pinterest, TikTok, and X also use pay-per-click advertising. The cost for advertisers depends on the publisher and is influenced by the quality of the ad and the maximum bid; higher-quality ads generally result in lower costs per click.

However, websites can also offer PPC ads. Websites that utilize PPC ads will display an advertisement when a query (keyword or phrase) matches an advertiser's keyword list that has been added in different ad groups, or when a content site displays relevant content. Such advertisements are called sponsored links or sponsored ads, and appear adjacent to, above, or beneath organic results on search engine results pages (SERPs), or anywhere a web developer chooses on a content site.

The PPC advertising model is open to abuse through click fraud, although Google and others have implemented automated systems to guard against abusive clicks by competitors or corrupt web developers.

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