PPC stands for "pay per click". It's an online advertising model where you only pay when somebody clicks your ad, instead of paying upfront for the ad slot.
How the model works in practice
A search engine or social platform shows your ad. If the user ignores it, you pay nothing. If they click, the platform charges you. The amount you pay is set by an auction, where you and other advertisers bid on the same click.
What most people don't realise is that the highest bidder doesn't automatically win. The platforms also factor in something called Quality Score (Google's term for it, but every platform has its own version). And Quality Score is, in my opinion, the single most important, most misunderstood, and most underused lever in PPC.
Why Quality Score matters more than your bid
Quality Score is Google's measure of how relevant and useful your ad and landing page are to the person searching. It's scored out of 10. The higher it is, the less you pay per click and the higher your ads rank, even against bigger budgets.
That last part is worth saying twice. A small advertiser with a 9/10 Quality Score will routinely beat a large advertiser with a 5/10 Quality Score. Same auction, same keyword. The small one pays less per click and shows up higher in the results.
In some accounts I've worked on, lifting Quality Score has cut click costs by up to 90%. Not 9%. Ninety. Same budget, ten times the traffic.
So why don't more advertisers obsess over it?
A few reasons. It's slow work. Quality Score moves over weeks, not days. Most agencies and in-house teams don't have the patience to grind on it when there are quicker wins to be had elsewhere.
It's technical. Lifting Quality Score means tightening up keyword groupings, writing more relevant ad copy, fixing landing page speed, and matching the page to what the searcher actually wants. None of that is exciting. It's the unglamorous side of PPC, and it's exactly why most accounts ignore it.
And there's a quieter reason too. The platforms aren't going to push you toward it. Google's recommendations consistently move advertisers toward broader targeting, more automation, and bigger budgets. Quality Score rewards the opposite of all three. Tight targeting. Deliberate ad copy. Well-structured campaigns. The sales pitch you get from your Google rep is rarely going to point you at the thing that lowers their revenue per click.
True best practice vs Google's "best practice"
This is where it's worth being clear about something. Google calls a lot of things "best practice" that aren't, if you measure best practice by what makes your business more money.
Quality Score is true best practice. It rewards tight, well-structured accounts that match real searcher intent, and it pays you back with cheaper clicks and better rankings. It's the most demonstrably valuable lever in the platform, and almost nobody trains specialists to focus on it.
Google's version of "best practice" is the recommendations tab. Switch to broad match. Add Performance Max with no exclusions. Trust the algorithm. Each of those increases Google's auction revenue. Some of them help your business. Most don't, unless you control the inputs carefully.
The accounts that win in PPC are the ones run by someone who knows the difference between the two. Nailing Quality Score saves money directly, and it makes everything else in your account work harder because the foundation underneath is solid. It's the highest-leverage thing most accounts are ignoring.
Where you'll see PPC
The two big PPC channels are Google Ads (Search, Shopping, YouTube, and Display) and Microsoft Ads (Bing and partners). Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and TikTok Ads are also commonly grouped under "PPC" even though some of them charge per impression instead of per click. The catch-all term most professionals use these days is "paid media" or "paid ads", but PPC has stuck as the shorthand.
Why businesses use it
PPC gives you traffic on demand. Set a budget, the campaign goes live, visitors start arriving within hours. That speed is the main reason eCommerce brands use it for product launches, seasonal sales, and testing new markets.
The trade-off is that you're renting that traffic. The moment you stop paying, the traffic stops. SEO, content, and email build assets that keep working when the spend is off. PPC works only while the meter is running.
Is PPC right for your business
Generally yes, if you sell something with a clear path to purchase, you've got at least a few hundred pounds a month to test with, and your margins can support paid traffic. It's harder for very low-margin products or for B2B sales with long, drawn-out cycles, though there are workarounds for both.
If you're not sure whether PPC is worth the spend for your business, or whether you're paying over the odds on click costs because nobody's worked on your Quality Score, message me. I'll give you an honest take based on your actual numbers.