Pay Per Click

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What Does Pay Per Click Mean?

Pay per click (PPC) is an online advertising model in which revenue is earned via qualifying sponsored click-through advertisements. PPC is a search advertising component where advertisers bid on relevant keywords.

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Techopedia Explains Pay Per Click

Online publishers generally sell advertising on a cost per impression (CPI or CPM) basis to reduce risks. Most online publishers are not able to sell all ads in this fashion. Thus, at least some ad inventory components are sold via PPC.

PPC and cost per click (CPC) are essentially synonymous but have a slight nuance. Some consider PPC the overall industry term that refers to paid traffic, while CPC refers to specific click costs. In other words, Google is the biggest PPC industry player, vs. 25 cents paid on a specific CPC ad.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.