Free tool
CPC calculator.
Work out your cost per click, what it turns into per conversion, and the most you can afford to pay for a click and still hit your target.
Cost per click, and what it costs you per customer.
The first two boxes give you CPC. The second two turn it into the number that decides whether to keep going.
What you paid over the period.
Over the same period.
The share of clicks that become a sale or an enquiry. Use your own figure if you have one, however rough.
The most a lead or sale can cost you and still be worth having.
$2.50
Average cost per click
Most of what you pay per click is decided before the campaign goes live. Match types, the negative list, how the ad groups are split and how closely the ad matches the search all move the price. That is the work a build does.
CPC is an input, not a result.
On its own, cost per click tells you almost nothing. It only becomes useful once you follow it through to what a customer costs:
spend ÷ clicks = CPC
clicks × conversion rate = conversions
spend ÷ conversions = cost per conversion
target cost per conversion × conversion rate = the most you can pay per click
That last line is the one worth remembering. It turns a vague question about bidding into a hard ceiling. If your target is $120 a lead and 3% of clicks convert, $3.60 is the number, and no amount of optimisation makes $6 clicks work at that conversion rate.
The most you can pay per click.
Target cost per conversion across the top, conversion rate down the side. Find where yours meet.
| Conversion rate | $50 | $100 | $200 | $500 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1% | $0.50 | $1.00 | $2.00 | $5.00 |
| 2% | $1.00 | $2.00 | $4.00 | $10.00 |
| 3% | $1.50 | $3.00 | $6.00 | $15.00 |
| 5% | $2.50 | $5.00 | $10.00 | $25.00 |
| 8% | $4.00 | $8.00 | $16.00 | $40.00 |
Read it as a ceiling, not a target. Paying under it is how you make margin; paying over it means the campaign cannot pay for itself no matter how it is run.
What actually moves your CPC.
01
Match type and negatives
Broad match without a serious negative list drags you into auctions you never chose. Those clicks are often the dearest and the least likely to convert.
02
Ad relevance
Google ranks on bid and quality together. An ad that matches the search closely can hold position against a higher bidder and pay less for it.
03
Who else is in the auction
A new competitor with a budget moves everyone's costs. Auction insights shows it before you work it out from the invoice.
04
How high you are trying to sit
The top of the page costs a large premium over the second or third slot. For some searches it is worth it; for most it is not, and nobody checks.
Cost per click: the questions.
How do you calculate CPC?
Total spend divided by total clicks. $3,000 across 1,200 clicks is an average cost per click of $2.50. That is your average CPC, which is what you actually paid; it is not the same as your maximum CPC bid, which is a ceiling.
What is the most I should pay per click?
Your target cost per acquisition multiplied by your conversion rate. If you can afford $120 per lead and 3% of clicks become leads, the most you can pay is $3.60 a click. Pay more than that and the maths cannot work however good the campaign is.
What is the difference between CPC and CPA?
CPC is what a click costs. CPA is what a customer or lead costs, and it is CPC divided by conversion rate. A cheap click with a terrible landing page produces an expensive CPA, which is why chasing low CPCs on its own is a trap.
Why did my CPC go up?
Usually one of four things: a competitor started bidding, your Quality Score fell, you broadened match types and started entering more expensive auctions, or you moved into a higher ad position. The auction insights and the search terms report will tell you which.
Does a lower CPC mean a better campaign?
Not on its own. You can drop CPC by bidding on vaguer, cheaper keywords and watch the conversion rate fall further than the cost did. Cost per conversion is the number to optimise; CPC is one of its two inputs.
How does Quality Score affect CPC?
Google ranks ads on bid and ad quality together, so a more relevant ad with a better landing page can hold the same position at a lower cost than a competitor bidding more. It is why the structure of the account changes what you pay, not just the bid.
What is a good conversion rate to assume?
Use your own if you have it, even from a small sample. If you have none, run the calculator across a range rather than picking a figure: the difference between 2% and 5% changes the whole plan, and finding out which you have is the first job of a new campaign.
Do I need a budget big enough for a certain number of clicks?
You need enough conversions to learn from, not clicks. Smart Bidding wants a steady flow of conversions before it can do anything useful, so work backwards: the conversions you need, divided by your conversion rate, times your CPC, is the budget that makes sense.
This calculator does arithmetic on the figures you enter. It does not connect to your account and nothing is sent anywhere.
A cheaper click is not the goal. A cheaper customer is.
Most of what you pay is set by how the campaign is put together: the keywords you chose, the ones you excluded, how the groups are split and how well the ads match. A build is all of that, done once, for a one-off price.
Prices in US dollars. Also useful: the ROAS calculator.