What’s the Difference Between CPC and PPC

Learning about the intricacies of topics like digital marketing and SEO can be extremely complicated. The industry is full of jargon and similar-sounding acronyms, all of which cover extremely similar topics and areas. However, understanding this language and what it means is absolutely key in order to have successful digital marketing campaigns. Two key aspects that you need to understand are CPC and PPC. Although they have similar names and cover similar topics, each concept is quite different at its core. So what’s the difference between these two concepts? Let’s take a look.

PPC Defined

PPC is an abbreviation for pay per click, which is very common in digital marketing. Traditionally used to reach out to a lot of potential consumers and build up brand awareness, PPC ads can be a very effective way of building your online presence. PPC ads can get your brand on various search engine results pages, even ranking at the very top. Usually, before a search engine shows the results that organically rank towards the top of search results, a few PPC ads are shown. As a result, PPC ads can be a fantastic way to build brand awareness and generate leads if you’re still working on generating organic traffic and ranking higher for organic search results. As the name suggests, you only pay for these ads when someone clicks on them, which is very beneficial for multiple reasons. First, people may be exposed to your brand through your ad, and if they don’t actually click on the ad, it costs you nothing. In addition, since the search engine only gets paid if the ad gets clicked, they are strongly incentivized to show your ad to relevant audiences and demographics. To effectively use PPC ads, you need to research and identify what searches your target audience is making. You can then take these searches and use PPC ads to stand out from competitors and entrench yourself at the top of the search.

CPC Defined

While PPC is a type of advertisement that you can run for your digital marketing efforts, CPC is instead a specific metric that measures the success of your campaigns. CPC is an abbreviation that stands for cost per click, indicating the amount of money you spend for each individual click on your advertisements. You want your campaign’s CPC to be as low as possible, as that means that each individual click is cheaper. CPC can be an important indicator of how successful an ad campaign really is. If you find that your CPC is very high, people likely aren’t clicking on your ads and visiting your website. On the other hand, a low CPC means that many people are clicking on your ads, and your campaign is performing very well.

Using Both In Campaigns

As you might have already guessed, both PPC and CPC are extremely important concepts in the world of digital marketing. PPC is a vital part of reaching search engine users, allowing you to rank at the top without putting in months of SEO work. Additionally, CPC is an extremely important metric that you need to monitor when running digital marketing campaigns, as CPC can be a fantastic indicator of the success of your campaigns. As a result, both concepts should be used in your efforts to grow your digital presence. PPC ads have fantastic benefits that can quickly reach target audiences and generate a large amount of brand awareness and leads. Additionally, CPC should always be a part of your marketing campaigns, allowing you to see exactly how many people are actually clicking on your ads and how much those clicks are costing you. If you’re not confident in running PPC ads or monitoring your campaign’s CPC, then you could always outsource your digital marketing efforts to a PPC agency. However, regardless of how you approach PPC and CPC, these two concepts will be an integral part of your digital marketing.