What do cost per click, impressions and reach mean in an ad report?

Ascent Vision · Published October 24, 2026

Cost per click is what you are charged when someone clicks your ad; Google says this way of paying is sometimes called pay-per-click. An impression is one showing of your ad, and reach, in Meta's reports, is the number of accounts that saw it at least once. A click counts a tap on the ad, not a visit or a customer. These numbers describe attention. What tells an owner whether ads pay is the cost per inquiry and per job won.

The words, as the platforms define them

Term	What it means
Pay per click (PPC)	A way of paying for ads where you pay for each click. Google says cost-per-click pricing is sometimes known as pay-per-click.
Cost per click (CPC)	Google: the maximum CPC is the most you are willing to pay for a click, set by you or, with automatic bidding, by Google. You are often charged less, and what you are charged is the actual CPC.
Average CPC	Google: the total cost of your clicks divided by the number of clicks.
Impressions	Google: counted each time your ad is shown. Meta: the number of times your ads were on screen.
Reach	Meta: the number of accounts that saw your ads at least once. Meta says it is estimated from sampled data.
Clicks	Google: counted when someone clicks your ad, such as its headline or phone number.
Clickthrough rate	Google: clicks divided by impressions.

Impressions are not people, and clicks are not visits

Meta says reach differs from impressions, which can include several views of your ads by the same accounts, and that an ad on screen for someone at two different times in a day counts as 2 impressions. So a large impression count can be the same people seeing the ad again.

Google says a click is counted even if the person does not reach your website, so your clicks and your website visits can differ. It also says it filters out invalid clicks, such as accidental clicks or clicks by robots, and does not charge for them; the related answer on fake ad clicks covers what to do if you suspect more.

What to put next to these numbers

Inquiries from the ads: log each one as paid, with the campaign's name.
Cost per inquiry: what the ads cost in a month divided by the inquiries they brought.
Cost per job won: the same cost divided by the jobs won from those inquiries.
What a customer is worth, so you can tell whether that cost per job is affordable. The related answer on what a customer is worth shows how to work it out.

Is there a good number?

Google says a good clickthrough rate is "relative to what you're advertising and on which networks", so a figure that is good for one business can be poor for another. Rather than chasing a benchmark, compare your own months with each other, and judge a campaign by the jobs it wins. A report that leads with impressions and reach but never mentions inquiries is usually not telling you what you need to know; the related answer on what a marketing report should show lists what it should cover.

Sources

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