Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is a model of online advertising where the advertiser pays a fee each time their ad is clicked, rather than paying for the ad to be shown, used most commonly on search engines and social platforms.
Also written as PPC.
PPC buys visibility immediately. Unlike SEO, which compounds slowly, a PPC campaign can put a small business at the top of search results the day it launches, which matters when you need enquiries now.
Because you pay only for clicks, PPC is measurable to the dollar. A small business can see exactly what each campaign cost and what it returned, which makes it easier to control than most marketing.
PPC stops the moment you stop paying. It is rented visibility, so it works best alongside SEO and content, which build an asset you keep, rather than as the only channel.
A new dental practice has no search rankings yet, so organic traffic is near zero. It launches a PPC campaign on Google for emergency dentist and check-up searches in its suburb.
Within a day it is appearing at the top of those results and booking patients, paying only for the clicks that actually happen.
Over the following months its SEO work starts to rank the same pages organically. The practice can then ease back PPC spend on the terms it now ranks for, and keep PPC for the competitive ones.
In-House runs PPC as one workstream among six. The advertising agent handles the campaigns while the SEO agent builds the organic visibility that lets you lean on paid less over time.