No, in most pay-per-click (PPC) search campaigns you don’t pay for impressions unless someone clicks (or takes a billable interaction), but you can pay for impressions in campaigns that use CPM-style billing.
Here’s the clean way to think about it: “impression” means your ad was shown, “click” means someone tapped it, and billing depends on the pricing model you chose (or the platform chose for that campaign type). In Google Ads Search, the default is usually CPC, so impressions alone do not create charges. Where people get surprised is when a campaign is running on CPM/vCPM (impression-based), or when the platform counts an interaction that is not a website click (like a call button tap on mobile, a location interaction, or a video view).
| Pricing model | What you’re paying for | Can you be charged with 0 clicks? | Common examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPC (cost per click) | A click or other billable interaction | No, if there are truly zero billable interactions | Google Ads Search, Microsoft Ads Search |
| CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions) | Impressions served | Yes | Display awareness, many paid social placements |
| vCPM (viewable CPM) | Impressions that meet viewability rules | Yes | Display brand awareness where “seen” matters |
| CPV (cost per view) | Video views or video interactions | Yes | YouTube video campaigns |
| CPL/CPA (lead or action based) | A lead or conversion event | Yes | Lead-gen formats, some partner networks |
If you’re looking at spend with “0 clicks,” we usually check three things first: (1) the campaign is running on CPM/vCPM (typical for Display and some awareness setups), (2) the platform is billing for interactions that are not counted as “clicks” in your column view (for example, call interactions), or (3) you’re seeing a reporting mismatch where clicks are attributed later, filtered as invalid, or shown in a different report.
For Orlando service businesses like dental, law, pest control, and home services, we typically start with high-intent Search on CPC so your budget goes toward people who actually engage, then add impression-based campaigns only when you have a clear brand or remarketing goal. If you want us to review how your account is set to bill and what’s being counted as a charge, that’s exactly what we do in our PPC management work.
One last practical tip: don’t judge performance from impressions and clicks alone. A campaign can have modest clicks and still drive calls, form fills, or booked appointments if conversion tracking is set up right. The same “scoreboard” mindset we use in SEO metrics you should track applies to PPC too: track leads, booked jobs, and cost per lead, not just visibility.
