My customers frequently ask me about the profitability of cost per click (otherwise known as pay per click) campaigns.

Over the years, I put together a spreadsheet that I send them when asked.

Not that I have any interest in running ad campaigns for my customers (or SEO work for that matter), but I have a vested interest in making sure that my customers are happy long term, and that often includes educating them with regards to topics like marketing their business online.

I’ve now built a web version of the calculator – hopefully this will be something that people find useful. The idea is that you can punch in some numbers regarding your market size and profit margin, and the calculator will output general recommendations regarding whether your business is a good fit for CPC campaigns.

Disclaimer: there’s a lot of variables involved in making a decision whether to emphasize CPC in your marketing mix. This calculator can’t factor in everything, and you shouldn’t rely on it to make your decisions for you!

You can access the calculator here.