There are a million marketing strategy blogs and videos out there on “how to lower your cost per click.” The irony is that the fact that so many people are searching for this is exactly why Cost Per Click (CPC) has been misunderstood for years.
This level of interest tells us something critical: A powerful myth has taken root in online advertising that lower CPC = better performance. This is exactly what we decided to put to the test and see whether this myth holds any truth.
The Cost Per Click (CPC) Obsession
Advertisers are often obsessed with lowering CPC because it gives the illusion of ‘more bang for your buck.’ A low click price looks great on paper, bosses measure success on it, and clients constantly pressure you about it. But where does this logic actually come from?
Most CPC obsession comes from ignoring the economics of what it truly costs to acquire a customer (CPA). When budgets are too small or expectations are unrealistic, CPC becomes the scapegoat. A $40 click feels outrageous when you’re not thinking about lifetime value, conversion rates, or the CAC required to grow profitably. Instead of doing the math, people chase the cheapest number on the dashboard.
As an agency with a decade in the paid advertising space, we get to see something individual brands never do: how Google Ads behaves across multiple industries, multiple budgets, and thousands of search terms. And one of the biggest recurring debates we see is whether it’s actually smart to chase a lower CPC.
So, we decided to test it ourselves by digging into $2.67M worth of Google Ads search data across eight B2B brands.
The Dataset: What We Analysed
Eight B2B clients agreed to let us use their Google Ads data from the past 24 months as part of this analysis. Some of the data came from periods before we took over the accounts, which reflects real account history rather than controlled experimentation.
We pooled every search term row from each account and normalised all currencies into USD to keep the dataset clean and comparable. This isn’t an academic dataset with perfect controls and isolated variables; instead, it’s real-world, operational Google Ads data.
Here’s what the combined dataset looked like:
Methodology: How We Tested It
To understand whether cheap clicks actually lead to cheaper conversions, we structured the analysis in a systematic way. We exported every search term row from each account and grouped the data inside each brand’s own context, instead of comparing raw CPC numbers across industries. A $5 click in cybersecurity is not the same as a $5 click in SaaS, so each account was analysed individually.
Inside every account, we split all clicks into three CPC buckets:
Low CPC
Mid CPC
High CPC
These buckets were based on that specific account’s CPC distribution. This ensured the comparison remained fair and avoided mismatched data across industries with fundamentally different cost structures.
To measure performance accurately, we calculated CPA using pooled totals, not averages:
CPA = total cost ÷ total conversions.
This avoids the “average of averages” trap that often distorts PPC data.
We also split performance into Brand vs Non-Brand search, since these two behave entirely differently in Google’s auction. Brand clicks carry built-in intent and low competition, while Non-Brand clicks reflect broader, higher-intent commercial searches.
The Results
Once we split each account into Low, Mid, and High CPC buckets and analysed Brand vs Non-Brand separately, the pattern was unmistakable.
1. Non-Brand Search: Cheap Clicks Performed The Worst
Across all eight B2B accounts:
Low CPC CPA: $181.91
Mid CPC CPA: $103.11 (↓ 43.3% vs Low)
High CPC CPA: $99.90 (↓ 45.1% vs Low)
In other words: The cheapest clicks produced the highest CPAs, while Mid and High CPC buckets consistently delivered better efficiency.
This follows a predictable pattern in search:
Higher CPC often signals higher intent and more commercially valuable searches.
Cheap clicks typically come from broad, low-intent, or ambiguous queries.
2. Brand Search: Cheap Clicks Performed Best, But With One Major Exception
Brand search behaved differently, as expected:
Low CPC CPA: $25.76
Mid CPC CPA: $17.58 (↓ 31.7% vs Low)
High CPC CPA: $147.09 (↑ 471% vs Low)
Here, cheap and mid-priced clicks were the most efficient, which is normal because brand terms already carry intent. But why did high CPC brand terms explode?
High CPC brand search was mostly:
Competitor bidding
Ambiguous brand-like terms
Mis-matched close variants
This is the exception: high-CPC brand clicks had a CPA of $147, a 471% increase compared to low-CPC brand clicks. These expensive brand queries were usually caused by competitor bidding, ambiguous brand-like searches, or Google’s close-variant matching pushing irrelevant traffic.
Why Cheap Clicks Fail (The Real Reason)
Cheap clicks don’t fail because of the price; they fail because of the intent behind them.
1. Cheap clicks usually come from low-intent searches.
They’re often broad, vague, or informational queries. These users aren’t ready to buy, compare vendors, or take action, so conversion rates collapse.
2. You’re paying for volume, not value.
Cheap clicks typically come from broad, low-intent, or ambiguous queries, the kind that generate a thousand impressions but very few qualified users from your target audience.
3. Google’s auction reflects intent; high CPC keywords usually mean high intent.
When multiple advertisers compete for buyers who are closer to a decision, CPC rises. The auction isn’t random; it prices keywords based on commercial value. That’s why mid and high CPC clicks delivered the best CPAs in the study.
CPA vs CPC: How to Optimise Google Ads Based on These Results
1. Stop Optimising for CPC
Cheap clicks consistently produced the highest CPAs because low CPC usually reflects low intent.
Action Steps:
Optimise toward CPA/value, not the cost of a click.
Let CPC float, don’t try to force “cheap” traffic.
Judge traffic quality by conversions, not click price.
2. For Non-Brand: Prioritise Intent Over Bargains
Mid- and High-CPC queries delivered the best CPAs because higher CPC generally correlates with stronger commercial intent.
Action Steps:
Invest in mid/high CPC keywords as long as CPA stays efficient.
Review low-CPC queries and remove low-intent or ambiguous terms.
Avoid bid caps that prevent entering high-intent auctions.
3. For Brand: Guard Your Moat
Brand campaigns are highly efficient until CPC spikes, usually from competitor bidding or irrelevant close variants.
Action Steps:
Add negative keywords for competitor names.
Break out brand-like or ambiguous queries into separate ad groups.
Monitor brand search terms and exclude irrelevant close variants.
4. Use CPC as a Diagnostic, Not a KPI
CPC isn’t a performance metric, it’s a signal that helps you diagnose intent and auction competition.
Action Steps:
High CPC + good CPA → strong intent → support it.
Low CPC + bad CPA → low-quality traffic → remove or refine it.
High CPC + bad CPA → investigate competitors, match types, and variants.
CPC VS CPA: Which Metric Really Matters
CPC only tells you what you paid for attention. CPA tells you what you paid for actual results.
Your paid ads CPA shows how efficiently your ad spend converts, and your blended CPA shows how your entire marketing system performs. Cheap clicks might lower CPC, but they rarely improve either CPA, because low-cost traffic usually isn’t high-value traffic. This is why optimising for CPC almost always backfires; you end up lowering the price of the click, but you don’t lower the cost of acquiring a customer.
How to Calculate Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) in 10 Seconds
CPA is a key metric that helps you understand how efficiently your ad spend is driving meaningful results, making it essential for evaluating true advertising campaign performance.
CPA = Total Cost ÷ Total Conversions
For example, if you spent $2,500 and got 50 conversions, your CPA is $50.
Stop Chasing Cheap Clicks
The data makes one thing clear: chasing cheap clicks is rarely the cheapest way to acquire customers. Cheap clicks may look good on dashboards, but they fill your ad campaigns with broad, vague, or informational traffic that rarely converts. The clicks that cost more often mean more, because they come from people who are ready to evaluate, compare, and buy.
Google’s auction isn’t random; it prices intent. The brands that grow aren’t the ones that pay the least per click, but the ones that acquire customers the most efficiently. The takeaway from this is to stop chasing cheap clicks and start investing in the clicks that actually convert.
A final nuance: not all CPC reductions are bad. CPC can decrease when you eliminate waste by improving ad relevance, tightening targeting, and removing irrelevant queries. That kind of drop reflects better efficiency, not bargain hunting. In other words: reduce waste, not intent.
With all of that said, there’s a fine line between reducing waste and killing intent. If you’re not sure whether your clicks are priced right, or if your CPA is too high, schedule a free audit and we’ll tell you exactly what’s working, what’s not, and how we’d fix it.