Consider this the Rosetta Stone of Paid Search. AdWords Glossary or Paid Search Glossary might be more accurate though. I will try to include pictures or diagrams in the future if at all possible for those visual learners out there.
There are many definitions to learn, and as always within the marketing industry, new terms popping up all the time. I will try to keep this up to date and link to specific terms within future articles so you can easily get a quick reference or refresher. I might throw in some more general marketing and business terminology as well. I just want you to be well rounded. You’re welcome.
If there is anything I missed or you think should be included, just send me a message!
AdWords & Marketing Terms
Above The Fold
A term from the newspaper days when content was literally above the fold or crease in the paper, meaning you didn’t have to open the paper to see the article. Now it means what you see before you have to scroll – which can change dramatically based on device screen size and resolution.
Ad Delivery
Standard or accelerated. Standard attempts to even your budget throughout the day (or when you’ve set your ads to run). Accelerated will show ads every possible chance (and will use your budget quickly if it is not set high enough)
Ad Extensions
Additional lines of text or links to enhance your ads. Examples are location extensions, call extensions, sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets & review extensions. You should always add at least 1 of them. Also a factor in Quality Score.
Ad Group
Subset of a Campaign. Contains Ads and Keywords.
Ad Position
How high on the page your ad shows. This number is an average – and more broad keyword match types tend to have a greater range of positions.
Ad Rank
Bid * Quality Score. Determines how much you pay and what position your ad shows. Not a visible metric.
Ad Rotation
Setting to tell Google how to prioritize which ads to show within an Ad Group. Rotate Indefinitely is what I usually choose.
Ad Scheduling
Setting to set when to show your ads by day of week and/or time of day.
Bounce Rate
From the Google Analytics support page: Bounce Rate is the percentage of single-page sessions (i.e. sessions in which the person left your site from the entrance page without interacting with the page).
Broad Match
Default and worst choice for keyword matching. Tends to target unrelated terms. Use for research purposes. Or not.
Broad Match Modifier
+Broad +Match +Modifier. Also known as Modified Broad Match. Combination of exact and broad.
Call Extensions
Must-have if your business values phone calls. Will show your number on desktop or tablets and will show click-to-call button on mobile.
Campaign
Subset of Account. Contains your Ad Groups and this is the level where you change settings such as location, ad scheduling, ad rotation, budget, etc.
Change History
Lets you see when you made changes to your account. Helpful to diagnose issues or to see when ads or settings changed.
Clicks
Self-explanatory (I think). When someone clicks your ad.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Clicks / Impressions. Major factor in Quality Score. Higher CTR means your ad/keyword alignment is better and more relevant.
Conversion
The desired action you want a visitor to take. Usually a lead or purchase. Could even be a visit to your store.
Conversion Rate
Conversion / Clicks. The rate that people convert. Averages vary by industry. E-commerce might be 2-4% where lead generation could be 8-20%.
Cost-Per-Click (CPC)
Average price paid for 1 click.
Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA)
Cost to acquire a customer. Some people use this interchangeably with CPL.
Cost-Per-Lead (CPL)
Cost to get a lead (potential customer).
Cost-Per-Thousand (CPM)
Cost Per Mille is where the M comes from in case you were wondering. Comes from the “old days” of print advertising and is a standard pricing model for advertising in almost any industry.
Daily Budget
Divide your Monthly budget by 30.4 to get your daily budget. Google will spend up to 20% over during any 1 day but will not exceed your monthly amount.
Destination URL
Deprecated. See Final URL.
Display URL
35 characters max. What the customer sees, not necessarily the page they land on.
Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI)
Feature that will automatically include the keyword into your ad. Important to organize ad groups well to use this feature properly. Looks like {KeyWord:Default Text}.
Exact Match
[exact match]. Only matches to searches exactly (or close variants such as a plural). Does not include anything before or after the keyword.
Frequency
How often a unique IP (think person) will see an ad per day. There are more advanced settings related to this, but that’s the basic idea.
Google AdWords
What you’re learning about!
Google Analytics
Free analytics software. What you need to see what happens after someone clicks your ad.
Google Merchant Center
Used for Google Shopping and Product Listing Ads. Allows you to upload a “feed” of your products. No keywords needed.
Impressions
Number of people who saw your ad. Seems simple but the ad must be shown for at least 3 seconds on instant search.
Impression Share
Percentage your ad shows compared to the total amount of impressions available. Rank and Budget are the factors that lower impression share. You will never be at 100%.
Keyword
Sounds singular but usually contains several words that an advertiser uses to target their ads.
Keyword Research
What you do before you launch an AdWords campaign. Helps determine what to target, what to exclude, CPC, competition, etc.
Landing Page
The page where people “land” after they click your ad. Should be relevant to your keywords and ad. Is a minor factor in Quality Score, but major factor in conversion rate.
Lead
Phone call, submitted form, whitepaper download, etc. Some way to pre-qualify a potential customer and get their contact information.
Location Extensions
Shows your business address and phone number. On mobile, you can click to get directions.
Manual Bidding
Default bidding option (thankfully!). Don’t let Google bid for you.
Match Type
How to match your keyword (what you target with) to a search query (what the searcher enters). Broad Match, +Broad +Match +Modifier, “phrase match”, and [exact match].
Negative Keywords
Keywords you add to exclude certain words or terms from showing your ads. Common examples include “free” & “pictures”.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Popular advertising model where you pay per click, like Google AdWords.
Phrase Match
“phrase match”. Allows words before or after your keyword (phrase) to trigger your ads.
Product Listing Ads (PLA)
E-commerce picture ads. They show the price and product name. Ties to the merchant center.
Quality Score
Secret formula that determines the relevance of your keyword to ad and landing page. CTR is the major factor, along with ad text, landing page and ad extensions. Calculated on the fly based on a number of factors. Default is 6.
Remarketing (or Retargeting)
Allows you to advertise to people who previously visited your site. Do this today!
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
Revenue / Ad Spend. Calculation doesn’t include other expenses, salaries, cost of goods sold, etc. 100% is break-even.
Return on Investment (ROI)
(Revenue – Expenses) / Expenses or Profit / Expenses.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Technically a subset of PPC that includes the search network of search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Not paid advertising. Frequently misused to refer to all online advertising.
Search Network
Where AdWords search ads can appear. Includes google.com (or your country specific version) and Search Partners (below).
Search Partners
Google doesn’t publicly say all the sites that are part of the Search Partners Network. The help file says that “search partners include hundreds of non-Google websites (like AOL), as well as Google sites.” YP.com and Amazon are two other big partners.
Search Query
What the potential customer (or searcher) types in.
Search Query Report
Report to see the actual word or phrase that someone typed before they clicked your ad.
Sitelink Extensions
Allows you to offer additional links to other pages on your site. Follows the same rules as a normal text ad. Makes your ad much larger in many cases.
Spy Tools
These allow you to do legal corporate espionage! I have listed the top spy tools for every type of paid ad. Check it out!
Structured Snippet Extensions
Structured snippets allow you to highlight a list of services, products, brands, neighborhoods and more. They aren’t clickable but they extend your ad by an extra line and you will have more room in your main ad copy to sell the click.
Text Ad
An ad made up of text (helpful right?!). Recently updated to include 2 headlines and a longer description. Now called Expanded Text Ads.
View-Through Conversion
From the AdWords help bubble: View-through conversions happen when a customer views (but doesn’t click) an ad before converting. Excludes conversions from people who click your search ads.