CPC (Cost Per Click)
Also known as: Cost Per Click
CPC is the average amount you pay each time someone clicks your ad, calculated as total spend divided by clicks.
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What it actually means
Cost per click measures the price of getting one person from the ad to your destination — a landing page, website, or lead form. It is driven by two things: how much it costs to show your ad (CPM) and how often people click it (click-through rate). Improve either and CPC falls. Meta reports both an all-clicks CPC and a link CPC; the link version is the one that matters because it counts only clicks that actually leave the ad. CPC is a useful early signal, but it is a means to an end — cheap clicks that never convert cost you more than expensive clicks that do.
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If you spend $150 and get 300 link clicks, your CPC is $0.50.
A low CPC feels good, but a local business should judge it against cost per lead, not in isolation. Cheap clicks from the wrong neighborhood drain budget without filling your calendar.
Official definition
Straight from the ad platform's own help pages:
- Meta Business Help Center — CPC (cost per link click) (undated page; read September 26, 2026)Cost per link click is the amount spent divided by link clicks.
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Numbers and costs
Related terms
CPM is the cost to show your ad 1,000 times, calculated as total spend divided by impressions, multiplied by 1,000.
CTR is the percentage of people who click your ad after seeing it, calculated as clicks divided by impressions.
CPL is the average cost to generate one lead, calculated as total ad spend divided by the number of leads collected.
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