What CPC (link click) measures
Meta counts several kinds of click on the same ad. Someone can like it, comment, share it, expand the caption, tap the profile name, swipe a carousel, or click the button that opens your website. The column called CPC (all) divides spend by every one of those actions. The column called CPC (cost per link click) divides spend only by the clicks that opened your destination — your site, an app store listing, a form, a WhatsApp thread.
Outbound clicks narrow it further, counting only the clicks that took someone off Meta’s platforms altogether. Landing page views narrow it further still, counting the occasions where your page actually loaded. The gap between link clicks and landing page views is worth watching closely, because it is mostly made up of people who left before your page appeared.
Why the link-click version matters
Cost per link click is the price of a visit, and a visit is the first thing a website campaign can actually use. Cost per click across all clicks is the price of an interaction, which might be a comment or a caption expansion — pleasant enough, but it puts nobody on your landing page.
The two figures often differ substantially on the same ad, and the direction of the difference tells you something useful. An ad with a cheap CPC (all) and a much dearer cost per link click is generating engagement rather than intent: people react to it and do not travel. That is real information about the creative, and it is invisible if you only ever look at the flattering number.
Comparing creatives is the everyday use. The version buying visits more cheaply is the one worth scaling; the version collecting likes is the one to be sceptical about.
Common mistakes with cost per link click
The first is comparing the two columns without noticing which is which. Reports pulled from different templates quietly mix them, and an account appears to improve because somebody changed a column.
The second is chasing cheap clicks. Clicks are easy to buy cheaply with a broad audience, a curiosity-driven image and accidental taps, and they bounce. The cost that matters is the cost of an enquiry or a sale, and a dearer click that converts beats a cheap one that does nothing.
The third is ignoring the drop between link clicks and landing page views. If you are paying for clicks and a large share of them never see the page, the usual cause is a slow site on a mobile connection — which in Nepal is most of the audience. That is a page speed problem being paid for out of the ad budget.
How to act on it
Set the column once. Make CPC (cost per link click) the default in your Ads Manager view and in every report template, and label it clearly so nobody later compares it against a different definition.
Then read it as a chain rather than alone: impressions, link clicks, landing page views, conversions. The step with the biggest fall is where the money is going, and it is often not the step people assume. A dear cost per link click points at the creative and the audience. A wide gap between clicks and page views points at the site. Plenty of page views with no conversions points at the offer or the form. Working down that chain in order beats adjusting bids.
Finally, judge the campaign on the last link in the chain. Cost per link click is a steering metric — quick to read and easy to compare between creatives — but the campaign’s job is enquiries or sales. When cheap clicks are not becoming either, the answer usually sits on the page rather than in the ad, and fixing the page is what makes Facebook ads pay for themselves.