PPC

Pay-per-click advertisements, abbreviated PPC, are a form of advertising where the advertiser pays every time an ad is clicked. Google’s advertising network, for example, runs on a PPC model.

Each time a user clicks on an ad next to the search results, the advertiser pays Google a fee. This fee is generated by a bid system, where advertiser competition determines the cost per click, or CPC.

Since Google ads can also appear on websites, when website publishers use AdSense, a portion of that CPC can go to the website owner hosting the ads. While PPC ads can be a useful and fast way of generating traffic, they can also be expensive, especially for highly competitive terms.