Pay-per-click (PPC) is a form of online advertising where you pay only when someone clicks your ad, rather than paying for the ad to be shown. In the UK the term usually means paid search ads on Google and Bing, though the same pricing model is offered on many other platforms.
How PPC works
On a search engine, you choose the searches you want to appear for by bidding on keywords, write ads, and set a daily budget in pounds. Each time someone searches, the platform runs an ad auction in a fraction of a second. Your bid matters, but it is not the only factor: Google combines it with the expected click-through rate, the relevance of the ad and the quality of the landing page to decide which ads appear and in what order. That is why a well-built account can pay less per click than a competitor and still sit above them.
When someone clicks, you are charged. On Google Ads the cost per click is often below your maximum bid, because you pay roughly what is needed to hold your position. Clicks vary enormously in price between sectors and locations; a click on a search for emergency legal advice in central London will usually cost far more than one on a search for garden furniture covers.
The main PPC platforms for a UK business are Google Ads (search, Shopping, YouTube and display), Microsoft Advertising (Bing and partner sites) and, where you choose cost-per-click bidding, social platforms such as LinkedIn. Meta’s ads mostly charge by impressions by default, so they are often discussed separately.
Why it matters for a UK business
PPC is the fastest way to appear for a search you do not yet rank for organically. A new dental practice in Croydon or a Shopify shop launching a product range can be visible the day the campaign goes live, while SEO builds over months. It is also measurable to the penny when tracking is set up properly, which makes it a useful testing ground: you can learn which search terms actually lead to enquiries before investing in content for them.
The arithmetic is what decides whether it works. As an illustration only: if your clicks cost £2.50 and one in twenty visitors becomes an enquiry, each enquiry costs £50 in ad spend. Whether that is good depends entirely on what an enquiry is worth to you and how many turn into paying customers. Every PPC decision should start from your own margins, not from a platform’s suggested budget.
Common mistakes
- Launching without conversion tracking, so the account optimises for clicks rather than enquiries or sales.
- Using broad keyword targeting with no negative keywords, which pays for searches that were never going to buy, such as jobs, training courses or free alternatives.
- Sending every ad to the homepage instead of a page that matches what was searched.
- Accepting automated recommendations without checking what they change. Some raise spend more than they raise results.
- Judging the account on a week of data, or switching campaigns off and on, which resets what automated bidding has learnt.
- Ignoring VAT and fees when calculating return: Google charges UK advertisers VAT on top of ad spend and, at the time of writing (October 2026), adds a regulatory operating cost charge for ads served in the UK.
How to act on it
Before spending anything, decide what a conversion is (a call, a form, a booking or a sale), what it is worth to you, and the most you can afford to pay for one. Set up tracking so those actions are recorded in the ad platform and in your analytics. Start with a small number of tightly themed campaigns around the searches closest to buying, with a budget you could afford to lose while you learn.
Review the search terms report every week in the early stages, add negatives, and move budget towards the terms and ads that produce real enquiries. Improve the landing page as seriously as the ads, because it affects both your costs and your conversion rate. If you would rather have an account set up and managed against a clear cost-per-enquiry target, that is what my PPC management service does each month.