Find the Average Cost per Click for a Keyword
A question I get a lot, “Can you tell me about how much I need to spend on AdWords?”
My response is usually, “How much are you willing to spend?”
As you can imagine, this doesn’t get either of us very far. 
So here is a partial solution that will give you the numbers you’re looking for.
It’s the Google’s Traffic Estimator and I’ll show you how it works.
Getting Started
Once you arrive at the site, you’ll find a form that asks for:
- Keywords
- Currency & Cost per Click (CPC)
- Daily Budget
- Select Targeting
- Available Countries & Territories
You don’t have to fill this form out completely. All you need is a:
- Keyword
- Language
- Country
If you want help with a keyword list, you can use Google’s Keyword Tool.
When you’re ready, click “Continue” to display your results.
The Results
The results of your search look like this:
They tell you a keyword’s:
- Search Volume
How frequently this keyword is searched for compared to others. - Estimated Avg. CPC
How much it would cost for one click. Since we left most of the fields blank, the tool assumes you want to be in the top 3 results. - Estimated Clicks / Day
This is the average number of searches that take place for a keyword. - Estimated Cost / Day
Given the information we’ve provided, Google estimates how much we’d have to spent each day for the keyword “wine.”
If the budget Google estimates is too high, you can experiment with the max CPC and daily budget. This allows you to see how these changes affect your average ad position and cost.
A Partial Solution
Why do I call this a partial solution? Because Google is including all available data. Whether you’re an AdWords expert or novice, the results you receive are based on the average of everyone.
This means that the average CPC for your campaign, if properly optimized, can be much less.
Nonetheless, these numbers will help you make decisions regarding budget.
March 27th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Hello Brian, thanks for posting up this wonderful tool. I look forward to using it on future campaigns and it happens to look very useful.
March 27th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Thanks NewSun for taking the time to shoot me a comment!
April 12th, 2008 at 6:25 am
The competition has become more terrific than earlier and it is not so easy task for everyone to boost up their own website through natural search engine ranking. Every person has own budget for online advertisment. Big fish are investing more money on Advertisment as well as on natural search engine ranking so they stick on search engine for long term. Small sized business does not have so much budget to invest money on advertisment so they try to invest money for natural search engine. And i believe that it is best way to promote your website Organically rather than investing on Adwords.
April 15th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for the comment!
I agree that AdWords is getting more competitive and expensive. More than likely because it’s working.
I also agree that organic ranking is important, but believe that AdWords can be a big help in making decisions about what phrases to optimize first.
Armed with real data, most importantly which phrases convert, can help you focus your attention on the phrases that matter. This is a much better position to be in then simply guessing which phrases will convert.
What do you think?
April 18th, 2008 at 3:39 am
Hi Brian, You are absolutely correct. But my point to revealing previous comment for those who really want to come up in search engines and want to build their own online business or home business. We cannot talk everyday about Big Giants as they have already Bucks to invest money on advertisment. What about others — “Small Sized Business Owners” Or Any Individual as a Starter. How they will be able to compete those who are already sitting on the top in search engines. I am not against your comments at all but the things which need to be considered is about Natural Ethics. And at the initial stage, I do not prefer to invest money on Adwords, or any paid online advertisment (at least for six-8 months). Does this make sense?
March 25th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
As a Newbie, I am always searching online for articles that can help me about this. Thank you
May 1st, 2009 at 8:27 am
Thanks for this