Pay-per-click
(PPC) statistics 2025

PPC (pay-per-click) is a form of online advertising where companies pay a publisher each time a user clicks on one of their ads.

PPC stands for pay-per-click and refers to how much it costs a company every time a user clicks on an advert.

Amazon PPC is an advertising platform that enables Amazon sellers to promote their products online via pay-per-click advertising on the Amazon website.

PPC works by allowing advertisers to:

• Bid on keywords that they want their ads to appear for in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
• Create ads that target those specific keywords.
• Set a maximum bid that they are willing to pay for each click.
• Explore the use of a search engine algorithm to impact which ads show where and in what order.
• Pay a fee when a user clicks on the ad.

PPC can help your business in many ways, such as:

1. Reaching a larger target audience.
2. Increasing the amount of web traffic to your site.
3. Enhancing brand reputation and awareness.
4. Generating quicker results (compared to more traditional, organic approaches like SEO).
5. Helping you to measure the performance and relative success of your ads in an easily testable way.
6. Being more resourceful and cost-effective (as you only pay when someone clicks on your ad).
7. Allowing flexibility and adaptability alongside other marketing approaches, such as social media marketing and SEO.

The cost of PPC can vary depending on numerous factors, such as the industry you work in, consumer behaviour, the relative popularity of keywords you wish to target, and where you’re located. In 2024, the average cost of PPC was between $100 and $10,000 (£80 and £7,980) a month.

Choosing how much to spend on PPC is not an easy decision and certainly one that should not be taken lightly. The amount you spend on PPC advertising will depend on your business goals and budget, the industry/sector you work in, and how competitive the market is for your target keywords.

As a general rule of thumb, between 5-10% of your total revenue should be dedicated to marketing and 20-30% of that to your PPC strategy.

Smaller businesses may be in a position to spend a few hundred/thousand per month on PPC, whereas larger enterprises may be able to afford tens of thousands if not millions, per month on pay per click advertising.

PPC ads can appear in multiple places, the most common of which is in the search engine results pages (SERPs). This tends to be as text ads at the top or bottom of the page.

PPC ads can also appear as display ads (i.e. banner, video, and native ads) on websites, apps, and social media platforms. They can also be displayed as local ads on places such as Google Maps. Companies, such as Amazon and Microsoft Bing, may also have sponsored product ads on their respective sites.

PPC management is the process of overseeing and taking control of a company’s PPC advertising campaigns and spending. This usually involves hiring a PPC agency to undertake several tasks, such as:

• Keyword analysis and deciding on the best ones to target.
• Choosing which channels are best to advertise on.
• Monitoring and tracking the success of PPC campaigns (i.e. ROI).
• Designing, implementing and running PPC campaigns.
• Bid optimisation.
• Tracking conversion rates and optimising campaigns for better results.
• A/B testing to identify new opportunities for further growth.

A PPC agency is a digital marketing company that manages and controls pay per click advertising campaigns on behalf of another company. They will help you stay within budget and get your PPC campaigns performing as profitably as possible.

PPC agencies can charge for their services in many ways, including:

1. Hourly rate - this could be anything from £25 ($31) an hour up to £250 ($313) an hour depending on the type and scale of work being completed.
2. Fixed monthly - this tends to come with average cost of £450 - £2,000 ($564 - $2,506) per month.
3. Percentage-only pricing - this will typically be between 10% and 20%, although it could theoretically be 100%.
4. Performance-based - this is usually an agreed cost per lead or percentage of sales before work commences.

Knowing how much to charge for PPC management does not come with a simple answer. The average monthly PPC management cost tends to be around $10,000 (~£7,980), but this can vary depending on the extent and type of work being completed, the company’s goals and expectations, how much they are willing to invest, and the industry they work in.

A PPC campaign is a type of digital marketing strategy where advertisers pay a fee every time a user clicks on one of their ads. They tend to appear on search engine results pages, websites, and social media platforms.

Running a PPC campaign requires several steps starting from the initial set-up through to monitoring the relative success of your ad groups, ads and campaigns. The key steps are as follows:

1. Work out your goals and expectations - what do you want to achieve due to this campaign?
2. Location - where do you want to advertise? Search engines? Websites? Social media platforms? A hybrid approach?
3. Keyword research - Which keywords do you want to bid on?
4. Budget - How much are you willing to bid for different keywords? How does this fit within your budget to remain as profitable as possible?
5. Ad writing - put together your ad with a link to a target landing page on your site.
6. Monitor the performance of the ad and adjust as you learn what works/doesn’t work.

Knowing how to optimise a PPC campaign requires an in-depth understanding of paid media and what success looks like. The key steps to optimise a campaign are as follows:

1. Undertake effective keyword research that allows you to target specific keywords relevant to your products, services and target audience.
2. Ensure your website is fully optimised for high conversion rates.
3. Have a clear bidding strategy and research how much to bid and what you can afford within your budget to remain as profitable as possible.
4. Create compelling ad copy that appeals to your target audience and is optimised for those important keywords.
5. Your landing pages should match the search intent for each search term you are targeting.
6. Organise your campaigns into intuitive ad groups for greater focus and better monitoring of success.
7. Track performance in line with your overall business objectives and tweak them accordingly.

To complete a competitor keyword gap analysis for PPC, you need to:

1. Identify your competitors.
2. Analyse their keywords (what do they currently rank for? Is it worth going up against them for these or are there any that you could target instead?).
3. Examine their landing pages for keywords, and use of calls to action (CTAs). How have they designed their site to maximise conversions? What is it like from a user experience perspective? What is the branding like? How does the site function? How fast does it load? This might give you some ideas for improving your site which can help you make your PPC campaigns more profitable.
4. Analyse competitor ads and note relevant strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement to give you ideas to improve your own approach.
5. Track display ads over time to see how the performance changes and take learnings from it.

To do keyword research for PPC, you first need to identify what keywords you want to bid on as part of your PPC campaigns. The best way of doing this is to create a Google Ads account, although other analysis tools are available, such as ahrefs, Semrush, or Mangools.

Log in to your keyword tool of choice, and start entering relevant keywords to the product/service you are wanting to advertise. It’s best to try a mixture of short-tail and long-tail keywords to see how the search metrics change for each type. You can also get further inspiration and keyword ideas by entering a URL (either yours or a competitor's) to see what words it ranks for (organically and in the paid results).

You can improve PPC performance by implementing a range of strategies, such as:

• Carrying out additional effective keyword research to help you target keywords which will drive a greater volume of conversions at a lower cost per action (CPA).
• Using negative keywords to prevent irrelevant traffic from triggering your ads.
• Providing additional contact information in your ads (e.g. phone number, address, or web link).
• Optimising your ad copy to make your ads as compelling, engaging, and persuasive as possible.
• Making your landing pages as user-friendly as possible for improved ad quality scores and enhanced conversion rates.
• Tracking performance regularly so you can see what’s working and what isn’t for rapid intervention.
• A/B testing your PPC campaigns and landing pages to judge their relative success and to channel more ad spend into the best performing ones.

PPC and SEO work together in numerous ways. Ultimately, they are trying to achieve the same goals: boost web traffic, increase your leads, and generate more revenue for your business.

Improving the SEO performance of your website should increase your chance of ranking for keywords that you may be targeting in your PPC campaigns. Purchasing PPC ads for those same keywords allows your site to appear multiple times near the top of the page when someone inputs that search term. Combined, this should raise your brand awareness, allowing you to dominate the search results and boost the chance of getting those important clicks.

SEO can affect PPC performance in various ways. When a site already ranks strongly in the organic search results, any PPC ads ran to the same page may experience higher click-through rates (CTR) and quality scores given the pages clear relevance for those search terms.