Traffic cost (or estimated_paid_traffic_cost) is a metric that represents the estimated monthly cost of running PPC ads in Google Search for all keywords a domain ranks for. The number is displayed in USD equivalent.

The metric appears in the following endpoints and APIs:

• Categories For Domain
• Domain Analytics Whois Overview API
• Ranked Keywords
• Competitors Domain
• Domain Intersection
• Subdomains
• Relevant Pages
• Domain Rank Overview
• Historical Rank Overview
• Page Intersection

 
In essence, estimated_paid_traffic_cost gives website owners a sense of how valuable their domains’ keyword profiles are. Alternatively, it shows them how much money they could have spent if they ran PPC ads for their target keywords instead of ranking for them organically.

estimated_paid_traffic_cost is calculated by multiplying the organic estimated traffic volume of all keywords a domain ranks for by their paid cost-per-click value.

CPC is the average cost-per-click historically paid for a keyword — in our case, for all ranking keywords of a domain.

ETV represents the estimated traffic that can be driven to a website by its ranking keywords. The metric displays the approximate number of monthly visits the keywords can bring to a website. To learn how it is calculated, please refer to this help article.

Knowing the total ETV and CPC values of a domain’s ranking keywords, we can easily calculate its estimated_paid_traffic_cost.

Estimated_paid_traffic_cost = ETV * CPC.

For example, if a domain’s ranking keywords have a total ETV of 2163.54 and CPC of 45.64, its traffic cost will be 98743.96 dollars.