How to Lower Your Cost Per Click: 20+ Proven Strategies

To lower CPC in Google Ads, leverage negative keywords and controlled bidding while avoiding broad match types. Learn all the ways our team lowers CPC without affecting ad performance on platforms like Google, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.

Cost per click is a metric for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising that measures how much advertisers pay for each click on their ads.

A lower cost per click (CPC) means you spend less money when someone clicks on your ad, resulting in more visibility and conversions (without depleting your budget).

In this article, we’ll share how to lower your CPC across Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

How to lower CPC in Google Search ads

With over 8.5 billion search queries a day, advertising on the search engine results page (SERP) can reach a massive audience — but high competition can drive up ad costs.

Here’s how to lower your CPC for Google Search campaigns:

1. Use negative keywords
2. Stick to manual bidding
3. Work on your Quality Score
4. Review your match types
5. Invest in your best-performing ads

What’s a good CPC for Google Search ads?

The average CPC hovers between $2-$5. However, various factors determine the average cost per click in Google Search Ads – we’ve laid out a few below.

• Competition: When more businesses bid on a specific keyword, it pushes up the average CPC.
• Search intent: A transactional query where the searcher is more likely to buy will have a higher CPC than an informational query where the searcher is looking for answers to questions.
• Industry: Some industries are naturally more competitive than others (e.g., health and wellness and legal).
• Target audience: Factors ranging from the type of device your target audience uses to where they are in the world can affect your cost per click.
• Quality Score: Quality Score is a measurement of how relevant your ad and landing page are to search engine users.

Tip 1: Use negative keywords

Irrelevant searches can sometimes trigger your Google Search ad. This means people with no intention of buying your product or service can click on your ad, driving up costs.

Let’s say that you sell women’s coats online. Google Ads could serve your ad targeting “coats” to people searching for “men’s coats” or “children’s coats” — not your target audience.

This is when a negative keyword list is helpful. When conducting keyword research (we recommend Google’s Keyword Planner), consider words and phrases you also want to avoid.

You can add these negative keywords at the ad group or campaign level in the search terms report, or create a list by going to Tools and Exclusion Lists.

(Image: Google search terms report exclusion list)

Joe Karasin, CMO and Founder at Karasin PPC, told us about a time he launched a campaign for adult Halloween costumes.

“Of course, much of the search volume for Halloween costumes is for kids’ or children’s costumes,” he says. “By excluding terms like ‘children,’ ‘kids,’ ‘child,’ and ‘youth,’ the audience was already more relevant.”

“Many people were also searching for specific character Halloween costumes, such as Bluey or CocoMelon,” Karasin continues. “I identified these using the search terms insight report and added them to the negative keyword list too.”

The original cost per click with the exclusion of keywords like “children” and “kids” was $0.79. By further filtering terms, the final CPC for the campaign was reduced to $0.34.

The conversion rate increased from 6.11% to 9.79%.

Tip 2: Stick to manual bidding

Automated bidding is helpful for businesses that lack the time to optimize their Google Ads accounts. However, automated bidding strategies can have a negative effect on your cost per click because you have less control over your budget.

Plus, automated bidding strategies may not align with your business’s unique goals, leading to possible overspending.

If you use automated bidding, regularly check your Google Ads account to ensure your cost per click is in a healthy range. An experienced PPC consultant can audit your account to ensure you always pay the right amount per click.

Tip 3: Work on your Quality Score

Google Ads uses two factors to determine what position to place your advertisements: The first is your Max CPC (the highest amount you’re willing to pay for your ad, i.e. your maximum bid). The second is your Quality Score.

Quality Score is Google’s assessment of the quality of your ad and the relevance to your targeted keyword — ranging from one to ten.

A higher quality score means Google sees your keywords as more relevant, so your CPC decreases. More specifically, a quality score of 10 means you pay 50% less than if your quality score was 5.

(Image: HawkSEM)

How can you increase your Quality Score? Google Ads considers the following criteria.

• The landing page experience: The more useful and relevant the page your ad links to, the better.
• Ad relevance: How closely your search ad matches the intent behind a search — this considers keywords, ad extensions, and ad copy.
• Expected click-through rate (CTR): This criteria uses historical data to determine how likely a customer will click on your ad.

Tip 4: Review your match types

An easy way to lower your CPC in Google ads is to pay attention to your keyword match types.

There are three keyword variations in Google Ads:

1. Exact match – Your ad shows on searches with the same meaning as your keyword
2. Phrase match – Your ad shows on searches including the meaning of your keyword
3. Broad match – Your ad shows on searches related to the meaning of your keyword

Broad match keywords have their uses — like if you want to find fresh new keywords for your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.

But they’re not ideal for keeping CPC low because you risk attracting clicks from customers with no interest in your products or services.

Phrase match and exact match keywords are more targeted, so they’re more likely to lower your cost per click.

We also recommend taking advantage of long-tail keywords. These are keywords over four words long that have lower search volumes but higher conversion rates. For example, “best organic dog food for senior dogs.”

Tip 5: Invest in your best-performing ads

When trying to lower CPC, it’s tempting to slash your Max CPC. However, this can be a counterproductive strategy.

The best approach is to review your ads and see which ones get the most clicks and conversions, leading to a better return on investment (ROI).

“While it might be tempting to lower bids across the board to reduce cost per click, this isn’t always the right strategy when optimizing CPC,” says Sam Yadegar, Co-founder and CEO of HawkSEM.

“After all, you don’t want to sacrifice profitability just to lower the CPC. You may have a higher return on ad spend (ROAS) at a relatively higher CPC. It’s important to track campaigns properly to identify that all-important sweet spot.”

This is how we helped our client NurseRegistry achieve a 42% decrease in the cost per qualified client using PPC campaigns.

Using our best-in-class Conversion IQ tool, we optimized their Google Ads CPC by funneling more ad spend to the best-performing ads and most competitive keywords.

How to lower CPC on Google Display Ads

Google Display Ads don’t typically drive conversions but raise brand awareness. This means they generally have a lower CPC than other PPC platforms.

Many of the things we looked at for Google Search Ads apply to Google Display Ads, for example, Quality Score and manual bid adjustments.

In this section, we’ll look at additional ways to lower your cost per click in Google Display Ads.

(Image: Etoro display ad)

Need some inspiration for your Google Display Ads? Check out these fantastic Display Ad examples.

• Tip 1: Invest in retargeting
• Tip 2: Block irrelevant domains
• Tip 3: Use frequency capping

What’s a good CPC for Google Display Ads?

The average cost per click for Google Display Ads varies between $0.45 and $1.49 depending on your industry, with the average CPC being $0.63.

Tip 1: Invest in retargeting

A retargeting campaign in Google Display Ads shows ads to people who have already expressed an interest in your products or services, encouraging them to convert.

Take the ad below from Cox Business, a cable service in the U.S. This ad promotes an offer to people who have already visited their website, enticing them to come back to finalize their purchase.

(Image: Cox Business ad example)

Showing ads to people who have already engaged with your website increases your chances of snagging a conversion and lowering CPC.

Tip 2: Block irrelevant domains

You can specify where you don’t want your ads to show on both websites and apps. For example, you may decide you don’t want your ads to appear on mobile apps aimed at kids, to reduce the chances of little fingers accidentally clicking on your ads.

You can identify specific apps and website URLs, or determine particular categories or topics of websites you don’t want your ad featured on.

Tip 3: Use frequency capping

Frequency capping is a feature in Google Display Ads, where you limit how often the Google Display Network shows an ad to the same person over a set amount of time.

You can set a frequency cap by going into Settings, choosing your ad, clicking Additional settings, and selecting Frequency management.

Get the balance right. If you set your frequency cap too low, you may miss vital opportunities to build brand awareness or hit the 6-8 touchpoints it typically takes to make a sale.

How to lower CPC on Google Shopping Ads

Google Shopping Ads appear at the top of the search results page and receive highly targeted traffic.

Highly targeted traffic means lower CPC since there’s less competition and higher targeting for people interested in your products and services.

Let’s look at four ways to lower your CPC on Google Shopping.

(Image: Google shopping search results)

1. Take advantage of bid adjustments
2. Optimize your product feed
3. Group similar products together
4. Think mobile-first

What’s a good CPC for Google Shopping Ads?

The average cost per click for Google Shopping Ads is $0.66. However, depending on the industry, it can range from $0.34 and $1.09.

Tip 1: Take advantage of bid adjustments

If you understand how your target audience likes to shop, you can use bid adjustments in Google Shopping. This is when you increase or decrease your bid by a certain amount in specific situations.

For example, if you sell a product globally but want to target US audiences, you can boost your bids in the US to target your most profitable customers to provide a more optimized cost per click.

You can also adjust your bids by:

• Device
• Days of the week and times of day
• Product categories

Tip 2: Optimize your product feed

Optimize your product feed in Google Merchant Center to include as much information as possible to increase clicks from high purchase intent customers.

Including your product’s features (like color, size, customization options), high-quality images, and benefits (like free shipping) keeps uninterested buyers away and makes those clicks more likely to turn into conversions.

Tip 3: Group similar products together

Have lots of items to promote in Google Shopping? Put them into product groups for easier management and to reduce your CPC.

Adding items into product groups means you can set targeted bids and use negative keywords. For example, if you sell high heels, you can group them together and use “flats” as a negative keyword to ensure your ads don’t show in front of the wrong people.

Pro tip: You can also use a similar strategy in Google Search Ads to lower your CPC – either in the form of Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs) or Single Theme Ad Groups (STAGs).

Tip 4: Think mobile-first

Data shows more than half of all online sales come from a mobile device. Optimizing your website and product pages to be mobile responsive can improve your Quality Score and lower your cost per click.

Aside from creating a more mobile-friendly user experience, mobile responsiveness is an SEO factor that can give you a boost in organic results too.

How to lower CPC on Facebook Ads

Looking to improve your paid social CPC, too?

With over 3 billion monthly Facebook users worldwide, Meta’s highly targeted advertising makes it easy to appeal to the right customers and boost brand awareness.

Ensure your cost per click stays as low as possible by using the following tips:

1. What’s a good CPC for Facebook Ads?
2. A/B test
3. Create content that stops the scroll
4. Target the right customers
5. Check out your relevance score

What’s a good CPC for Facebook Ads?

The average CPC across all industries is $0.77. However, like all PPC campaigns, this can fluctuate depending on the industry you’re in, the type of ads you use, and even the time of year.

Tip 1: A/B test

Facebook lets you carry out A/B testing to learn which paid ads bring the right results.

To do this, run two virtually identical ads at the same time, with one element that is different — such as a call-to-action or product image. Analyze the results from the different ads to see which performed the best with an optimal cost per click.

Tip 2: Create content that stops the scroll

According to Statista, the average person spends over 143 minutes on social media daily.

In that time, users are typically scrolling without the intention to find a product or service to invest in. To catch their attention during “the scroll,” create high-quality, well-designed, relevant ads.

An attention-grabbing ad, whether on Facebook, Google, or another PPC platform, makes your brand more memorable and entices your target audience to click.

Pro tip: Facebook has an Ads Library where you can see what ads your competitors have released for inspiration.

Tip 3: Target the right customers

Facebook collects a lot of data on its users, everything from location and age to hobbies and interests. Use this to your advantage in your ad scheduling.

A targeted ad means the right customers are more likely to see and click on it, keeping your CPC low.

(Image: Facebook ads targeting)

Tip 4: Check out your Relevance Score

Facebook has its own version of a Quality Score, known as Relevance Score. Your ad’s Relevance Score (rated between one and 10) provides a snapshot of how people interact with your ad.

For example, clicking on the ad or converting as a result of seeing the ad increases your score, while hiding or reporting it lowers it.

(Image: Facebook relevance score example)

The higher your relevance score, the lower the cost per click.

You can raise your relevance score by:

• Ensuring your ads target the right people
• Making sure your ads are engaging and interesting
• Creating different variations of ads to keep prospective customers interested

How to lower CPC on Instagram Ads

With over two billion users, Instagram Ads is a powerful way to visually engage with potential customers. However, with engagement so high, businesses are happy to spend large amounts of money for their ads to be served.

Here’s how you can buck the trend and lower your CPC on Instagram.

1. What’s a good CPC for Instagram Ads?
2. Try Stories Ads
3. Promote organic content
4. Identify when your audience is on Instagram

What’s a good CPC for Instagram Ads?

Despite being managed by the same platform (Meta), the CPC for Instagram Ads is higher than Facebook Ads.

The reason: Instagram users are more engaged with ad content than Facebook users, increasing chances of clicks and conversions.

According to Revealbot, the average Instagram CPC is currently $1.32.

Tip 1: Try Stories Ads

Instagram offers various ad types and placements, including:

• Explore
• Stories
• Shopping
• Reels
• Videos
• Carousels

This makes it easy to try different placements to see which delivers the lowest CPC.

(Image: Instagram stories ad example)

In our experience, Stories are a fantastic option if a low cost per click is important. They’re full-screen, so people are more likely to pay attention. Plus, since many use them to build brand awareness rather than conversions, they have a smaller CPC.

Different businesses have different experiences, so try all the ad types available to see which brings the best results.

Tip 2: Promote organic content

Trust is critical for building successful PPC ad campaigns. If a prospective customer sees you as a reliable and credible option, they’re more likely to click, reducing your CPC as a result.

You can turn your organic Instagram posts into ads by boosting them. This allows you to promote your most popular content that followers enjoy and find most useful.

Tip 3: Identify when your audience is on Instagram

If you have an Instagram Business account, see which days and times your followers use Instagram the most.

This identifies when to make your ads visible to get the most attention from your target audience.

(Image: Instagram business dashboard)

How to lower CPC on TikTok Ads

While it’s the newest social media platform on this list, TikTok is becoming a PPC powerhouse. Many businesses use the platform to appeal to younger customers because it has the highest social media engagement rate around.

Here are several tips to gain a competitive cost per click on TikTok Ads:

1. What’s a good CPC for TikTok Ads?
2. Use user-generated content
3. Get to the point
4. Think outside the box

What’s a good CPC for TikTok Ads?

TikTok only introduced advertising in 2019, so there’s less benchmarking data than other PPC platforms. However, according to research gathered from various sources, the average CPC on TikTok is between $0.5 and $1.

Tip 1: Use user-generated content

User-generated content (UGC) is content created by users instead of marketers. UGC video ads on TikTok can get potential customers’ attention and build trust — the perfect combination for lowering cost per click.

Tip 2: Get to the point

Although videos can be up to ten minutes long, customers prefer videos on the shorter side.

The best-performing videos are around 9 to 15 seconds and highlight the key message within the first three seconds.

Tip 3: Think outside the box

TikTok is home to creative, viral challenges (think the water bucket challenge, #FlipTheSwitch, and #PassTheBrush).

Participating in creative content like this shows your brand’s personality, grabs attention, and gets your target audience wanting to know more about you.

If you’re looking for inspiration for your next PPC ad, check out the TikTok Ads Library.

(Image: TikTok ads library)

What is CPC?

Cost per click (CPC) is a metric showing how much you pay each time your ad is clicked.

PPC advertising platforms like Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok charge you each time someone clicks on your advertisement.

When setting up your campaign, you’ll choose a CPC bid. This bid tells the platform how much you’re willing to pay for someone to click on your ad.

The platform then reviews each ad that entered the auction and ranks them using an algorithm based on quality, relevance, and bids (also called ad rank).

When your CPC is high, you pay more when a searcher clicks on your ad. This may mean a higher ad placement and more visibility, but it also means your budget runs out sooner.

When your CPC is low, you pay a lower cost when a searcher clicks on your ad. This may mean a less competitive ad placement, but means you get more clicks for your budget.

Balance is key when it comes to cost per click. You want to ensure the right customers see your ad, but you also want to keep costs low.

How to calculate CPC

To calculate CPC, divide the total cost of your advertising campaign by the number of clicks it received.

(Image: HawkSEM)

Let’s say you create a Google Ads campaign to promote the latest sale on your ecommerce website. You spend $1,800 and get 1,000 clicks in return.

This means your cost per click is $1,800 divided by 1,000 – which equals $1.80.

Is cost per click the same as cost per acquisition?

Not quite. Cost per click tells you how much you pay each time someone clicks on your ad.

Cost per acquisition (or cost per action — CPA) tells you how much you pay for each conversion – for example, when someone signs up for your mailing list.
You can use both metrics to see how your marketing campaigns are doing and use target CPA as a bidding strategy.

Let’s say your cost per click for a campaign is low, but your cost per acquisition is high. Your ads may be working, but your landing page may need revising.

The takeaway

Lowering your cost per click is a cost-effective way to increase leads without scaling back on your budget.

Need to know how to lower your cost per click quickly? Here are nine easy ways to get results, no matter which PPC platform you use:

1. Use negative keywords. This reduces the chance of your ad being clicked on by people who are less likely to convert.
2. Boost your Quality Score or Relevance Score. This means you potentially pay less when people click on your ads.
3. Understand your target audience. When you know what platforms your prospective customers use and when, you can target them more efficiently.
4. Conduct A/B testing. This helps you see which ad elements drive the most clicks at the lowest cost.
5. Target your ads. The more targeted your ads are, the more likely relevant customers are to click and convert.
6. Experiment. Some ad types and ad platforms have a naturally lower CPC than others.
7. Create engaging content. This increases your ad relevance, which in turn lowers your CPC.
8. Spend more on your best ads. Even though your CPC may be slightly higher, you’ll get a better return on investment.
9. Monitor your metrics regularly. This ensures you always know which ads are most optimized for clicks.

If you need to optimize your digital marketing channels to get the right results, our PPC and paid social experts are here to help.

This post has been updated and was originally published in January 2024.

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