PPC, pay per click, is any advertising model where the advertiser pays each time someone clicks the ad, regardless of impressions. The dominant PPC channel is paid search — text ads on search-engine results pages, bought in an auction and triggered by keywords — but the term also covers PPC display, PPC social, and shopping ads.
Definition
PPC, pay per click, is any advertising model where the advertiser pays each time someone clicks the ad, regardless of impressions. The dominant PPC channel is paid search — text ads on search-engine results pages, bought in an auction and triggered by keywords — but the term also covers PPC display, PPC social, and shopping ads.
The advertiser sets a maximum bid per click or a target cost per action, and the platform combines the bid with a quality/relevance score to decide rank and actual price.
PPC search is high-intent by nature: the user typed a query, so a matching ad reaches someone actively looking. That intent makes search PPC one of the most efficient acquisition channels where it is available, but it is also capacity-limited (only so many people search a term) and competitive (rivals bid on the same keywords), so cost per click rises with demand.
In context
For iGaming, search PPC is a compliant-market channel. In jurisdictions where gambling advertising is permitted, licensed operators run paid search for their brand terms (cheap, high-converting, and a defence against competitors bidding on them) and for category terms (expensive and contested).
Affiliates in these markets may or may not be allowed to bid on the operator's brand terms — a common point in programme rules — and brand-bidding without permission is a frequent cause of disputes and terminations.
Where gambling search ads are not permitted, the channel is simply unavailable through legitimate means, and attempts to run it via cloaking are quickly caught because search platforms review landing pages carefully. The practical PPC skills for iGaming are keyword and match-type selection, negative-keyword lists to exclude irrelevant intent, ad copy that matches the query and the landing page, Quality Score management (relevance lowers cost per click), and bidding to a downstream target (cost per FTD or value) rather than cost per click.
Brand-term policy — who is allowed to bid on what — should be confirmed in writing before an affiliate runs any search campaign for an operator.
Worked example
An operator in a regulated market runs brand-term PPC at a $0.90 cost per click and a 22% click-to-FTD rate, an effective cost per FTD of about $4 — its cheapest channel. It also bids on category terms at $6 per click for a $95 cost per FTD.
An affiliate that bid on the operator's brand terms without permission has its commission for the period voided under the programme rules.
Related terms
Browse the full iGaming & affiliate glossary — hundreds of EN/RU terms with examples.
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