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CPC calculator

Cost per click, both ways round. Enter what you know and the missing number appears as you type.

What do you want to work out?
Cost per click — CPC = budget ÷ clicks
The formula

CPC = budget ÷ clicks

CPC is what one click costs. It is the number to watch when the job of the campaign is to send people somewhere. Worth remembering that a click is not a visit: some people leave before the page loads, so your analytics will always show fewer sessions than the platform shows clicks.

Worked example

You spend 4,500 and the campaign delivers 15,000 clicks.

4,500 ÷ 15,000 = 0.30

Your CPC is 0.30.

Estimated click rates

What a click actually costs

These are the estimates Planit starts a traffic plan from, drawn from Gulf market buying through 2026 and quoted before any negotiation. Treat them as a sanity check rather than a price list: rates move through the year, and your own buy will shift with audience, creative and competition.

The spread here is about intent and audience, not quality. Facebook sells clicks cheaply because it has enormous inventory and interrupts people mid-scroll. Google Search costs more because the person typed the query and is closer to deciding. LinkedIn costs most of all because it is selling a scarce professional audience. A cheap click is only cheap if the person behind it does something afterwards, which is why cost per click is worth planning with and a poor thing to judge a campaign on.

One line of a media plan.

A real plan needs every channel, every placement and the totals underneath. Planit turns your rates into a client-ready plan, then exports a PDF to send and a spreadsheet that recalculates when you change a number.

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Questions

Why does my analytics show fewer visits than clicks?
People tap and leave before the page finishes loading, and some clicks are accidental. A gap of a fifth or more between platform clicks and recorded sessions is common and not by itself a sign of anything wrong.
What is a good CPC?
The platform decides most of it, as the rates below show: a click can cost 13 cents on Facebook and over two dollars on LinkedIn, and both can be fair. Compare against the same platform in the same market, and against your own history, before judging the number on its own.
Can I lower my CPC?
Usually by making the ad more relevant to the people seeing it. Better creative and tighter targeting cut the cost per click faster than bidding changes do.
Why does a search click cost more than a social one?
Because the person asked. Someone typing a query has declared what they want, so that click is closer to a decision and is priced accordingly. A social click interrupts someone doing something else, which is why it is cheaper and why fewer of them convert.