In the latest blog in our popular 'Common PPC Questions' series, we're going to explore the average cost per click for Google Ads. This blog is designed as an accompaniment to our suite of PPC training videos, but can also be read as a stand-alone blog.
What is the average cost per click businesses need to pay to be visible on Google with paid ads?
Watch our PPC video here:
The answer is: "It depends”, it depends on the business type and on the cost per click for that specific industry and keyword.
There is a very useful tool within Google Ads which is free, called Google Keyword Planner. So when you're in your Google ads account you go to 'tools and settings' and then click 'keyword planner'. From here you can discover new keywords. We'll use the keyword planner to explore an example keyword below:
- So, for example, if you are a solicitor and you want to find out how much it would cost to advertise on Google, you can try and search for your ideal keywords in the keyword planner. So if your target keyword is say "Solicitors London", you can type this into the keyword planner and you will see a few related recommendations for other keywords you can potentially use.
- Next to the keyword you have an estimate of the cost per click for this specific keyword. So for the keyword "Solicitors London" it could cost from two pounds per click to around six or seven pounds per click. We can see that the average CPC for this keyword is around £4.20.
- But there are many other similar keywords that are more expensive and some keywords can really be extremely expensive at around £20- £30 per click, or even more. For example “divorce lawyer London” is £78 pounds per click!
- This means that every time a person clicks on your ad, having typed in this keyword, you could pay £78 pounds. So as we can see the cost per click is very, very variable and it depends on the keyword you select.
How to choose the right keywords
This is where effective keyword research is key, as it is important to choose keywords with a high enough conversion rate and low enough keyword difficulty rating, that don't have an extortionate cost per click rate.
- You could go for a high CPC if you are a niche business, but if you're competing with thousands of other solicitors (for example) then you're going to struggle with conversions unless you choose your keywords very carefully.
- It is also really important, as well as choosing your target keywords, to exclude negative keywords that you don't want to include in your campaign that could drain your PPC budget.
- If you're a PPC manager you are probably already aware of how to effectively manage a PPC campaign, but there are always new things to learn in the world of pay-per-click advertising and keyword management is a very complex thing.
- At Digital Media Stream we are experts at keyword research and management. So when we build a PPC advertising strategy, we look at the competition, we look at the cost per click for each keyword and we decide with the client what is the best option based on the cost per click for their industry.
Still looking for answers? We’ve got a range of FAQ articles to help you with your Google Ad related questions. Find out more through one of the article below:
- How Long Does it Take for Google Ads to Deliver Results?
- Can I Run Google Ads Without a Website?
- Preview your PPC Ads without using Google Search
- How to Use Negative Keyword Lists
- How to See Competitors' Google Ads
- How to Exclude Bot Traffic from your PPC Display Ad Campaigns
Or, why not check out our Google Search Ad Optimisation Cheatsheet.
