Online ads can be great for building brand awareness – even if no-one clicks on them. However, ultimately you want to generate clicks, as these tend to result in direct leads, allowing you to measure the true effectiveness of your advertising.
The CPC (Cost Per Click) can tell you exactly how much you’re spending to gain each click. Ideally, you want to achieve a low CPC – this allows you to spend less on advertising while getting more clicks.
So what is the average CPC? For Google search ads, the average CPC is $3.01. For Google displays ads, the average CPC is meanwhile $0.71. Of course, this average does vary slightly depending on the industry (as shown in the infographic below).
It’s worth checking your CPC on the Google Ads search network and Google Ads display network dashboards. If you’re spending more than the average, this could be a sign that you’re paying too much for ads.
Fortunately, there are many ways to lower your CPC if you are overspending. The CPC is dependent largely on your quality score. This itself is influenced by many different things such as the keywords you use and the quality of your landing page.
To improve your CPC, consider actions such as trying keyword variations and using A/B testing. There are also a few things you don’t want to do such as adding irrelevant broad match keywords and neglecting ad extensions. The infographic below explains more on what you should and shouldn’t do to improve your CPC.
Infographic by Claire Jarrett from Jarrett Digital
