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'Cost per click' allows advertisers to pay only when someone clicks on their 'link' via Internet search results or subject content header.

Inherent weaknesses include no guarantee of a 'sale', online intent, statement of preference or prelude to action.

Click fraud is one of those problems whereby perception distorts practice. Human behaviour, curiosity or mistake may be indistinguishable from illicit clicks from a conflict of interest (profit from a click or competitor advertising budget impact)

Click usage demands understanding to facilitate analysis and fraud prevention. However the level of redundancy built in is probably impossible to quantify and subsequently to cost.

Two alternative methods with more complexity and resource consumption are 1. 'Click per action' charges advertisers when a potential buyer actions a product/service enquiry form request or an online shopping cart process. 2. 'Click per audience time' charges advertisers per actual resource consumption (time on website, downloadable files) with content importance ranked.