Cost per click on your ad campaigns. Useful for sanity-checking CPC against expected conversion rate and CPA.
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CPC (Cost Per Click) is what you pay per click on your ad. It's the most granular ad metric — the cost of one visitor to your store. CPC varies wildly by platform (Facebook, Google, TikTok), audience, and creative quality. Anything from $0.20 (cheap TikTok traffic) to $3+ (competitive Google Search) is normal.
CPC = ad spend ÷ clicks
Then: Implied CPA = CPC × clicks per order = CPC × (100 ÷ conversion rate)
Use CPC during the testing phase of a campaign — before you have enough orders to compute ROAS. CPC × expected conversion rate tells you whether the campaign can possibly be profitable. If your CPC is $1 and you need CPA under $10, you need 10% conversion rate, which is very high for cold traffic. If CPC is $0.50, you need only 5% conversion rate — much more achievable.
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Ad spend | $600.00 |
| Clicks | 3,000 |
| Conversion rate | 1.33% |
| CPC | $0.20 |
| Clicks per order | 75 |
| Implied CPA | $15.00 |
Compare $15 CPA to your contribution per unit (e.g. $10.54). This campaign is unprofitable — CPA exceeds contribution. You need either lower CPC (better creative/audience) or higher conversion rate (better landing page/product).
Cost per acquisition — what you pay to acquire one paying customer. Compare to contribution margin to know if ads pay back.
Calculate actual ROAS from ad spend and revenue, and compare it to your break-even ROAS to see if a campaign is profitable.
Net profit on a campaign after ad spend, product costs, and fees. Shows whether your ads actually make money.
These three ad metrics answer different questions. Mixing them up is the most common beginner mistake in the r/dropshipping threads.