What Is Clicks Per Search (CPS)?
Clicks Per Search, or CPS, measures how frequently users click on a search result compared to how many times it appears in searches. To get this percentage, divide total clicks by the total number of times the listing was viewed.
If a company’s listing gets clicked often whenever it appears, it has a high CPS. A low CPS indicates the listing isn’t compelling enough to attract clicks from searchers.
CPS is a useful metric for both SEOs and advertisers. It reflects how appealing and relevant your search presence is to users. A high CPS shows that your content effectively grabs searchers’ attention.
Optimizing for a higher CPS helps drive more search traffic to your website. You can improve click-through rates by refining your content, meta descriptions, or positioning to stand out among competing listings. Monitoring CPS regularly helps you evaluate how well your search listings are performing over time.
Why Is CPS Important?
Tracking how often people click on your listings for specific keywords reveals how engaging and relevant your content appears in search results.
A high number of clicks per search indicates your listings are both visible and persuasive. People are seeing your content and choosing to engage with it. In contrast, low CPS can suggest your content is hard to find or not compelling enough to generate interest.
Studying CPS helps refine SEO strategies and content efforts to better attract clicks from searchers.
You can use CPS data to make improvements that increase appeal and curiosity based on actual user behavior.
For advertisers, CPS shows how well ads and targeted keywords are grabbing attention. A high CPS means ads are performing well and attracting valuable traffic efficiently.
By improving ad messaging and refining keyword targeting, you can enhance user engagement and raise your CPS.
Ultimately, CPS is a strong indicator of how clickable and engaging your presence is in key search engine results.
How Does It Relate to Zero-Click Search?
Zero-click searches are queries where users get their answers directly from the search engine results page (SERP) without clicking through to a website.
Examples include quick facts, calculator answers, weather updates, and featured snippets.
For marketers and advertisers, this growing trend can make CPS harder to track and improve.
It’s important to consider both impressions and visibility, even if clicks are not always made, to fully understand performance.
To adapt, focus on optimizing for zero-click opportunities like featured snippets or using structured data markup. These strategies can help maintain visibility and improve CPS even in a zero-click search environment.
How Is CPS Used in Online Advertising?
CPS (Clicks Per Search) is a valuable metric in online advertising for evaluating how effective a campaign is.
It is widely used in platforms such as Google Ads, Bing Ads, and other search marketing tools.
By assessing CPS alongside metrics like cost per click (CPC), conversion rate (CR), and return on ad spend (ROAS), advertisers gain a clearer view of campaign performance.
CPS shows how frequently users click on an ad relative to how many searches are made.
It reflects both user interest and the relevance of the ad to its intended audience.
A high CPS suggests the ad is drawing attention and clicks—indicating strong engagement.
A low CPS might mean the ad copy, targeting, or keyword selection needs improvement.
Tracking CPS allows advertisers to optimize campaigns for better click-through rates, improve ad exposure, and increase ROI.
It supports data-driven decisions and better resource allocation, helping advertisers meet performance goals.
How to Find CPS?
One of the most well-known tools for finding CPS is Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer Tool. In its “Keyword metrics” section, you can view CPS values for specific keywords.
To manually calculate CPS, you need two figures: the number of clicks generated by a keyword or ad, and the number of searches that keyword receives.
Use this formula:
CPS = Clicks ÷ Searches
For example, if a keyword gets 50 clicks out of 1000 searches, the CPS is:
CPS = 50 ÷ 1000 = 0.05
This means for every 1000 searches, the keyword attracts 50 clicks—resulting in a CPS of 0.05.
Conclusion
CPS is a valuable metric for both advertisers and marketers to evaluate how well their digital campaigns are performing.
By tracking CPS, you can identify which keywords and ads drive the most engagement and optimize campaigns for better ROI.
Improving your CPS leads to greater visibility, better user engagement, and higher traffic from search engines.