Definition of a click in online advertising

Looking for the definiton of CPC? Look no further: CPC

This is probably self-explanatory, but a click occurs when an ad is clicked on.

Self-explanatory? Someone clicks on the ad.

What happens next is the user being redirected to the landing page. The landing page is the page designated to receive the traffic originating from the ad.

Measurement of clicks can be done in several systems. If the landing page is example.com, the ad could in fact link to the publishers ad delivery system, for example fancy-ad-platform.com/?click=12345. The ad system will then redirect the user to the correct landing page, while the click is counted in the ad delivery system.

If the advertiser also wants to keep track of the clicks, the click could be redirected through another system as well, for example campaign-tracking.example.com/?count=67890, which also counts the click.

The process would then be something like this:

1. User clicks on the ad for the business with the web site Example.com
2. The ad is linking to fancy-ad-platform.com/?click=12345
3. The fancy ad platform counts the click
4. The user gets redirected to campaign-tracking.example.com/?count=67890, a system belonging to the advertiser
5. The advertisers system counts the click
6. The user is sent to the final landing page, example.com

There could of course be several other systems in this process, which most often only takes a fraction of a second.

But be aware of measuring clicks in systems meant for web analytics, this could lead to discrepancies in the results.

I also recommended using the CPM calculator to make sure you get your numbers right.