Definition

Cost Per Click, or the exact dollar amount you pay every time someone accidentally taps your ad while trying to close it. It's like putting a coin jar next to a door handle and charging people for touching it on their way out.

Example Usage

"Our CPC went up 40% this quarter, which means we're now paying premium prices for people to briefly glance at our ad before closing the tab."

Related Terms

Advanced

ad exchange

A digital marketplace where publishers and advertisers buy and sell ad inventory in real-time through automated auctions. Imagine the New York Stock Exchange, but instead of trading equity in companies, you're trading the privilege of annoying someone with banner ads.

📣 Marketing / Advertising
Intermediate

marketing mix

The combination of tactics and channels used to promote your product, traditionally reduced to the 'Four Ps' (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) by people who love oversimplifying complex systems. It's strategic planning that fits on a napkin.

📣 Marketing / Advertising
Intermediate

customer lifetime value

The total revenue a business expects from a single customer account over the entire relationship duration. It's how marketers justify spending $200 to acquire a customer who buys a $15 subscription.

📣 Marketing / Advertising
Intermediate

micro-moment

Intent-rich moments when consumers turn to a device to act on a need—to know, go, do, or buy. Google's term for those brief seconds when people might actually pay attention to your ad before scrolling away.

📣 Marketing / Advertising
Beginner

greenwashing

Marketing yourself as environmentally friendly while your actual practices range from negligible to actively harmful, sustainability theater at its finest. It's slapping a leaf logo on your product while dumping toxic waste out back.

📣 Marketing / Advertising
Advanced

incrementality

The measure of whether your marketing actually caused additional sales or just took credit for purchases that would've happened anyway. It's the uncomfortable question that keeps attribution models honest and marketers defensive.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

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