If you buy digital ads, you know that feeling when you see a $0.12 average cost per click.
For a brief moment, it feels amazing.
Then you drill down. Almost all those “visitors” bounced in a second or less.
Those bargain-basement clicks are usually worth less what you paid for them: Nothing.
I worked with a client recently who was celebrating their ultra-low CPCs. Then we dug into the data:
- The vast majority of these “low-cost” clicks bounced instantly
- On rare conversions, return rates were through the roof
- Customer service requests spiked
- Their audience quality metrics tanked
Those $0.12 clicks were actually costing a fortune when you counted all the damage.
When you optimize for clicks on a platform like Meta, they send you the mysterious fools who will click on anything. Those people almost never buy, or they’d go in a higher-value group. So you get garbage clicks, on the cheap.
But here’s the flip side: The platforms want you chasing high-cost “conversion” clicks too. They’ll happily charge you $800 for someone filling out your lead form — even if it’s a fake review seller from halfway around the world.
That makes the ad platforms unbelievably easy money. While it decimates your business.
Your tank brain knows better. It sees the pattern: Cheap clicks attract bored tire-kickers. Expensive clicks drain margins and are ridiculously imprecise. Neither builds sustainable growth.
The real metric isn’t cost per click. It’s cost per qualified prospect. Or per actual acquisition. Or per thousand dollars of sales revenue.
Anything tied to revenue and profitability, but not clicks!
This means looking at:
- Return rates by traffic source
- Support tickets per channel
- Cost per actual conversion to sales
- Customer lifetime value
- Brand perception impact
Action for today: Pull your traffic source data routinely. Track each channel’s visitors through to final sale and support costs. The true picture might shock you. Is it time to change your focus to building a more personal connection with your buyers?
Want to discuss growing an audience that actually converts? Let’s explore your acquisition strategy — hit reply.
Laurier
Product Payoff: The founders of Warby Parker shunned low-cost digital channels entirely at launch. Instead, they spent their budget on GQ and Vogue — at $2.50 per click equivalent. (Expensive at the time.) Why? Because those readers could afford multiple pairs of $95 glasses and influenced others by wearing them. Those “expensive” media hits built a billion-dollar brand.