CPC or Cost per Click

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CPC or Cost per Click meaning

CPC or Cost per Click is a pricing model in online marketing advertising. This model is more predictable and stable than CPM. It allows you to more accurately predict how many clicks you will receive based on your budget.

Let’s have a look at this payment model from both sides:

  • affiliate marketers without their own traffic (publishers),
  • and those who have to buy it from ad networks.

CPC model from publisher’s side

When it comes to publishers (affiliate marketers with their own websites and traffic). This is a prevalent option today as it can be used as an effective strategy to generate revenue from websites or mobile apps.

With the Cost per Click model, you earn money whenever someone clicks on the ad — it’s that simple! The amount you make depends on how much your affiliate program or the network you work with is willing to pay for the click. Generally, clicks are paid anywhere from a cent to a few dollars, with higher prices on customers coming from Tier 1 countries.

Advantages of CPC model for publishers

The main advantage of this payment model is that the conversion flow is very simple! Just one click, and you’ll get paid; it can’t get any easier than that. However, to earn a lot from this, you also need to have a whole bunch of viewers every day.

Disadvantages of CPC model for publishers

If your website is not receiving enough traffic, then you’ll have to purchase them from ad networks. Finding ad networks that deliver high-quality traffic for a price that is lower than what you can possibly earn from the clicks on your website can be tricky.

Furthermore, finding affiliate programs that pay for every click of the ad is not that easy. Your top choice would be Google Adsense, which is widely known to be very picky with the publishers they accept, but this is not the one option to try.

Read how to Monetize Your Website with RichAds on CPC basics here.

CPC model from affiliate marketer’s side

If you are an affiliate marketer without your own traffic, the Cost per Click model means that you have to pay for every click that users make on your ads. It doesn’t matter how many people saw the ad. The main thing is how many are interested in the offer and click on it to move on.

Advantages of CPC model for marketers

For affiliates, Cost per Click is the simplest one in terms of calculating costs and revenues. The cost per click is immediately clear, and the company’s economics will be easier to count.

In addition, those who click on the ad are your potential leads or people interested in the topic. You can work with them later. Even if they did not make a conversion right away — remarketing could help you.

Disadvantages of CPC model for marketers

If you are an affiliate marketer, you need to know that some users often click on ads without performing the targeted action. In this case, it is reasonable to limit the number of clicks from one user not to waste the budget.

As a rule, the second click more often leads to the targeted action than the first one. After 3 clicks per day, the chances of conversion decreases. We recommend setting a limit of 2 clicks per user per day.

RichAds experts

CPC vs CPM models in affiliate marketing

Choosing between cost per click and cost per mile is not always a simple decision.

At first glance, it seems that you need to choose the CPC (Cost per Click) model. It is more predictable and stable. CPC allows you to more accurately predict how many clicks you will receive based on your budget.

Buying traffic using the CPM model is riskier. You won’t be able to predict what results will be received.

It’s up to you how much you are ready to take risks. Experts often recommend leaving the CPM model for scaling when you know that the winning creative-landing page combinations are profitable. There is less possibility of losing money. And you can earn more.

How much you spend on customer acquisition depends on the correct choice of model. At the same time, choosing the right CPC vs CPM model is no less important than making a cool advertising creative or choosing the bid with which you enter the bidding.

If you have any questions, please contact your personal RichAds managers. They will help set up the campaign and prepare creatives.

Launch profitable ad campaigns with RichAds!

What is RichAds?
🔝 High quality push and pop ads,
🔼 domain redirect and native traffic source,
🔝 buy push ads at $0.005 (CPC), pop ads at $0.5 (CPM),
⏫ domain ads costs start from $1.5 (CPM), native ads — from $0.001 (CPC),
⏫ ad network offers large volumes of traffic in more than 200 geos from Tier 3 to Tier 1.


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Aksana Shakal
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Aksana Shakal has been in affiliate marketing for more than 5 years and is currently the Head of Content at RichAds, an ad-tech holding company. Her sphere of interest lies in affiliate marketing and SEO copywriting. In her articles, Aksana provided in-depth expertise in gaining traffic with different ad formats (push and in-page push ads, popunders and native ads) and verticals (Gambling, Dating, Nutra, Finance and much more). Aksana also loves reading novels and watching interviews on YouTube.
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