What is Cost-Per-Click (CPC) ? How to increase CPC in Blogging, Social Media Marketing and Facbook Ads?

What is CPC?

 The cost per click ( CPC ) is the amount paid by an advertiser to a search engine or a site publisher for a click bringing a visitor from the link of an advertisement (text, image, video, etc.) to the site of the 'advertiser.

Pay-per-click is an advertising model used by websites, in which advertisers pay the advertiser only when a user clicks. For search engines, advertisers generally bid on keywords related to their target or industry. For content sites, the price per click is often fixed and does not use an auction system.

Among the solution providers, we can mention the three main ones: Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords), Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft AdCenter. All three work with an auction-based model. The cost per click (CPC) varies depending on the search engine and the degree of competition for a given keyword.

This advertising model is subject to abuse by what is called click fraud, against which the various market players are fighting, through automated fraud detection systems to combat abusive clicks, made by competitors. advertiser, or by site publishers wishing to earn more by clicking on advertisements appearing on their own sites.

Types

Cost-Per-Click with keywords 

Advertisers pay for a keyword they expect their customers to key in when they search for a particular product or service. If a user uses a word that the advertiser has provided as a keyword, or if the user visits a relevant page on a website, the advertiser's ad can be shown.

These advertisements are usually displayed under the heading Sponsored links or Ads next to or below or above the content of the web page itself. The webmaster can decide for himself where the advertisements will be placed.

Cost-Per-Click based on content 

On content sites, such as news websites and weblogs, an advertising network will try to place relevant advertisements based on the content of the website. The user must do this in case no search is started.

History 

The first sites offering pay-per-click advertising began to appear in the early 90s. For example, in 1996 the first known and documented version of the PPC was included in the Planet Oasis web directory. It was a desktop application that had links to informational and commercial websites. Ark Interface II, a Packard Bell NEC Computers developed the application. 

However, the initial response from commercial companies to Ark Interface II's "paid-per-view" model was met with skepticism.

In February 1998, Jeffrey Brewer of Goto.com, a 25-person start-up company (later Overture, now part of Yahoo!), presented a proof of concept for a pay-per-click search engine at a TED conference in California. This presentation and subsequent events created the PPC advertising system. The authorship of the concept of the PPC model is usually addressed to the founder of Idealab and Goto.com, Bill Gross.

Google began advertising on search engines in December 1999. It wasn't until October 2000 that AdWords was introduced, allowing advertisers to create text ads for placement on the Google search engine. However, PPC was only introduced in 2002; before this, ads were charged at cost per thousand impressions (CPM). Overture has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Google, alleging that a competing online search engine illegally uses the ad format.

While GoTo.com started PPC in 1998, Yahoo! did not begin aggregating advertisers from GoTo.com (later Overture) until November 2001. Before this, Yahoo!'s main advertising source was Yahoo! there were IAB contextual advertising banners (mostly 468x60 resolution). When a syndication deal with Yahoo! was updated in July 2003, Yahoo! announced its intention to acquire Overture for $1.63 billion. Today, companies such as adMarketplace, ValueClick, and acknowledge offer PPC services as an alternative to AdWords and AdCenter.

PPC was used by the three largest online providers Google AdWords, Microsoft AdCenter, and Yahoo!, which operated on a bid-based model. For example, in 2014, PPC (AdWords) ad revenue was approximately $45 billion out of a total of $66 billion in Google's annual revenue. 

In 2010 Yahoo! and Microsoft joined forces against Google, and Microsoft Bing became the search engine that Yahoo! used to provide their search results. As they joined forces, their PPC platform was renamed AdCenter. Banners and text ads placed on a grid of their sites are called BingAds.

Features

The main characteristics of a pay-per-click are:

• Ad in text format containing a title, description of the product/service offered, and the URL of the website. When clicked, it takes the user to the advertiser's website; 

• The advertiser only pays when a user clicks on the ad. This value is called the Cost Per Click (CPC); 

• The cost of the click depends on several factors, the main ones being the number of times the keywords chosen by the advertiser are used in Google or Yahoo!, the position of the ad on the search result page, and what the CPC offered by the advertiser;

• The advertiser determines how much he wants to invest per day; 

• Changes to ad, targeting, and investment at any time. 

Formats

There are 3 sponsored link formats. Are they:

• By Keyword: The most known and used in the advertising market. The ads are displayed in the search results of the largest search engines on the Brazilian internet. Every time the search user searches for the keyword that the advertiser is sponsoring, your ad will be displayed along with the results that the search engine generated.

Companies that sell this format: UOL, Yahoo!, and Google.

• By subject: Internet users access content pages on the Internet in search of information and entertainment. Ads are associated with the theme of the page where they are being served.

Companies that sell this format: UOL: Home Content Stations UOL. There are more than 40 themed stations to advertise on sponsored links. Google: Adsense, a network of affiliate sites. Yahoo!: Partner sites.

• My profile: World Pioneer, UOL has exclusivity in the commercialization of this type of sponsored link. When the Internet user accesses his UOL and/or BOL e-mail box, advertisements according to the e-mail user's profile are published on the right side. The advertiser profiles its target audience according to gender, age, and geographic location.
• Some companies specialize in managing sponsored link campaigns.

For greater customer convenience, sponsored link campaigns are monitored by specialized professionals who change values, and campaign texts and devise strategies to optimize the invested budget.

Advertising models 

There are several advertising models. Each advertising model echoes a stage of the sales cycle [Impression (display) > Click > Lead (signup) > Purchase (action)]:

• Impression: CPM (cost per thousand impressions) advertising model;
• Click: CPC (cost per click) advertising model;
• Lead: CPL advertising model (cost per lead, e.g. website or newsletter sign-up);
• Action: CPA advertising model (cost per action, for example, a purchase);
• Engagement: CPE advertising model (cost per engagement, i.e. ad interaction).

Relevance 

CPC, as well as cost per impression and cost per order, are used to evaluate the cost-effectiveness and profitability of an advertising campaign. Pay-per-click (PPC) has an advantage over cost-per-impression in that it conveys information about the effectiveness of ads. 

Clicks are a way to measure attention and interest: if the primary purpose of an ad is to generate a click, or specifically drive traffic to a destination, pay-per-clickv is the preferred metric. Once you reach a certain number of impressions on the web, the quality and placement of your ads will affect your CTR and the resulting CPC. 

Due to the high competition, companies that provide the opportunity to place ads with pay-per-click complement the functionality. 

For example, in Yandex. DirectA new indicator has appeared - the average rate. This is the amount of bid per click, taking into account all applied user adjustments and conversion optimization.

The PPC advertising model is open to abuse through fraud. To misuse competitors' advertising campaign funds, their ads are "clicked on". Thus, the advertiser does not get potential customers to his site. To solve this problem, Google and other developers have implemented automated systems to protect against false clicks from competitors or corrupt web developers.

Pay Per Click Fraud 

In the second half of the 2010s, a new type of fraud began to actively develop: Sites were created and are being created where, according to the scenario, it is necessary to process orders, for example, taxis, shops, or some others, all this happens in 1-2 mouse movements. 

At the same time, up to several hundred rubles are allegedly paid for each click, but as soon as it comes to withdrawing them, the victim of fraud is immediately required to pay for various money transfer services, and if the victim pays the first payment, then she is required to pay for some other services, increasing each time.

At the same time, for the most part, on such sites, you can find a user agreement, where they disclaim responsibility for the fact that their victim will not receive any money.