After the rise of social networks and the deviation from traditional media channels increased, marketers needed to start making changes as to how they advertise and reach their customers. An in order to quantify the impact of these new tactics, metrics needed to be set up. One of these metrics is…

Cost Per Click (CPC) which
“bills by the number of times a visitor clicks on a [particular element] instead of by the number of impressions” – Investopedia.com

CPC are most effective for campaigns that:
– work with a set budget allowance
– seek to track and maximize effectiveness

For example Google AdWords allows marketers to place ads with any budget range. Once the budget allowance is reached, the ad is removed from the google searches. Adwords only makes marketers pay for results. If there are no visits or clicks, no fee is charged. CPC ensures that the promotional budget is effectively utilized and spent by only charging for actual clicks, while also gaining some free impressions!

Facebook’s recent updates of its CPC measures on Juy the 8th highlights the benefits of track-ability. Facebook no longer mergers likes, comments, shares and others as part of its CPC measures. CPC payment will only count click on links that direct to another website, on call-to-action buttons to buy or install an app, and among others. This ensure the true impact of the campaigns click-through-rate are captured and eliminates false positive effects of mindless scroll-liking.

Further Reading:
– 5 Pay-Per-Click Mistakes That Can Cost You Money