Paid MediaMarketing glossary

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Also known as: Pay-Per-Click, Paid search

PPC (Pay-Per-Click) is an advertising model where you pay a fee each time someone clicks your ad, buying visits rather than earning them organically.

The best-known form of PPC is paid search — the ads on top of Google results — but the same model powers much of social and display advertising too. You bid in an auction for placement against a chosen audience or keyword.

PPC's advantage is speed and control: campaigns can bring qualified traffic within hours, with precise targeting and a measurable cost per result. That makes it the perfect partner for SEO, which is slower but keeps building.

Success depends on tight alignment between keyword, ad copy and landing page, plus disciplined management of bids, negative keywords and Quality Score. Left unattended, campaigns waste money very fast.

Frequently asked questions

Is PPC better than SEO?

They serve different goals. PPC gives immediate, controllable traffic but stops when the spending stops. SEO is slower to build but becomes a durable, lower-cost asset. Most effective strategies use both together.

Related terms

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