PPC, short for pay-per-click, is one way of paying for an online ad: you’re charged when someone clicks it. Online advertising is every paid ad placed on the internet, including ads charged by the thousand showings, by the video view or by the sale. So PPC is one part of online advertising. Agencies use the label loosely: on 11 agency websites read, the PPC page also sells display, video or social ads.
How ads are charged
The ad platforms’ own documentation lists the units an advertiser can be charged in. Google’s bid strategy types set several side by side.
| You pay for | The term | Where the documentation offers it |
|---|---|---|
| Each click | Cost per click (CPC) | Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising |
| Every thousand showings, called impressions | CPM | Google’s display network, Microsoft’s audience ads and Meta |
| Each view of a video | CPV | Google Ads and Microsoft video ads |
| A sale within 24 hours of a click | Cost per sale | Microsoft shopping campaigns |
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, bills differently from a search engine. Its billing events documentation offers billing by impression for every campaign goal it lists. It offers billing by link click only for campaigns set up to win link clicks.
A social campaign sold under a PPC label can therefore be charged per impression. Ask which billing event each campaign uses.
What agency websites list, and what they call it
Of the 40 agency websites read for this directory in October 2026, 34 list paid advertising as a service. Paid search is on 32, under the names PPC, Google Ads or search engine marketing. Paid social is on 30. Display advertising, the banner and image ads on websites and apps, is on 17.
Ten list programmatic buying, which is software that buys ad space in automated auctions across many sites and apps. Six of those ten also list Amazon or retail media, connected TV or outdoor screens. Connected TV is streaming television, and retail media is the ads sold on retailers’ own sites.
The label on the menu varies. Sixteen sites head the service PPC or pay per click, and six call it paid media. Four call it media or media buying. The others use paid advertising, paid search, a platform’s name, or SEM and SEA, short for search engine marketing and search engine advertising.
On 11 sites the page headed PPC also lists display, video or social ads. The label tells you little, so read the list of channels under it.
Which do you need?
| Your aim | Start with |
|---|---|
| Be found by people already searching for what you sell | Search ads, charged per click |
| Sell products from a catalogue | Shopping ads on search engines |
| Reach people who haven’t heard of you | Social, video or display ads, charged by impression, view or click |
| Sell through a retailer’s own site | Retail media on that retailer’s site |
A PPC agency fits the first two rows. The last two belong to the wider job that the online advertising agencies take on: choosing channels, audiences and formats.
What to ask before you hire
Ask each agency three things. Which channels does it run for clients like you, and who makes the ads? How does the platform bill each channel, and how does the agency charge on top? The post on how PPC agencies charge sets out the fee models.
Then ask for a sample report from each channel. How to read a PPC agency’s monthly report shows what a search report should hold.