Many of us are often confused between the terms PPC and CPC because we feel they convey the same meaning.
PPC and CPC both are vital terms when we talk about digital marketing. They both play a key role in making your campaign successful. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that both terms are closely connected.
Both PPC and CPC are used when running Adwords campaigns. However, there are certain differences between PPC and CPC.
The major difference between PPC and CPC are as follows:
- PPC stands for Pay Per Click while CPC stands for Cost Per Click.
- PPC is an advertising model while CPC is the cost that you pay for every click generated from your ad.
- CPC is a metric that is used to measure the performance of ad campaigns while PPC is an advertising program that lets you adjust your CPC bids.
Let’s understand both PPC and CPC in detail.
What is PPC?
PPC stands for Pay Per Click in which advertisers have to pay when their ad is clicked.
A good marketing strategy can’t be executed without PPC.
Advertisers analyze the keywords that are relevant to their business and bid on them so that their website display on the result pages of search engines when a buyer searches with keywords related to their business.
When an ad is clicked by a user then that user visits the landing page and the advertiser has to pay to the search engine.
PPC is used to target a more diverse audience so that the viability of a brand can be improved. PPC also aids in conversions. The conversions can be in the form of a sign-up, a download or an actual sale.
Different advertising platforms that are used for PPC are Google, Facebook, Bing, and Youtube.
PPC ads can be classified as search ads, display ads, video ads, and remarketing. Different social media platforms i.e. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, web pages, and mobile apps can be used to display these ads.
How PPC Works?
PPC campaigns consist of ad groups that contain keywords, text ads, and landing pages.
While running ads it is vital to do competitive analysis i.e. to find the keywords that the users are looking for and then fix a budget for those keywords.
A bidding system which is known as Ad auction is used to manage those keywords.
During the auction, advertisers make sure that relevant keywords related to their brand are used so that they can pack the best spot in search results.
It is important to see that keywords have the right search volume.
After selecting the relevant keywords, ads are created and placed in the relevant ad groups.
It’s not necessary that a higher bid will help your ad to hold the best spot in the search results. Apart from that, there are other key factors that are needed to be considered i.e. quality score which is based on the quality and relevancy of your ad, quality of your landing page, and Click-through rate.
Quality score is a score out of 10 and if your ad manages to score 8 out of 10 then it means it will be placed in a higher position and will catch the eye of users and will get clicked.
Ad Extensions should also be used to boost the performance of your campaign and enhance CTR.
Some of the ad extensions are callout extensions, structured snippets, etc. to highlight the services that your business offers. Ad extensions result in positive customer experience.
Product Listing ads are widely used in PPC campaigns these days as it gives luxury to users to see the image along with price and reviews of products. These ads play an integral role in buying website visits.
PPC allows you to keep track of your campaigns i.e. to monitor clicks, impressions, and conversions so that you can manage your budget accordingly. The PPC campaigns should be optimized consistently to increase the conversions.
What is CPC?
CPC (Cost per Click) is the cost that is charged by the advertisers for each click on the ad while running a PPC campaign.
The click indicates that a potential buyer visits the website to check the product a brand offers.
CPC is lower for the keywords that usually perform well as they get more clicks as compared to low performing keywords.
CPC is used to measure the success of a PPC campaign.
If the CPC is low and qualified leads are generated then it’s a win-win situation for advertisers.
For instance, if the CPC is $2 but the ROI (Return on Investment) i.e. the revenue that we generate by investing in that ad is $50 then that means a PPC campaign is successful.
There are certain factors that affect the CPC such as Quality Score and Ad Rank.
Quality Score includes the click-through rate, quality of landing page, and relevancy of the ad.
Ad Rank is determined by the quality score and the maximum bid on the keyword which is placed in that ad.
Higher quality score indicates higher Ad ranking. Higher Ad ranking can lead to more clicks and thus can lower the CPC.
It is really vital to monitor the performance of a campaign consistently to lower the CPC.
The keywords that don’t perform well and are overpaid should be eliminated.
Instead of those new keywords that are relevant should be used as they can maximize the reach and lower the CPC.
A key point while running a PPC campaign is the audience segmentation that is based on age, gender, occupation, etc.
Make sure that the ads in a campaign should focus on these factors in order to attract the people of a targeted group as these people are most likely to click the ads and hence we can see a dip in CPC.
PPC is a paid campaign that is created on different platforms i.e. Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other sites whereas CPC is the amount that an advertiser pays when someone clicks on the ads that are created in those campaigns. To track the success of a PPC campaign it is necessary to measure CPC.
