GOOGLE ADWORDS GLOSSARY

Google AdWords Glossary of Terms

Use these definitions for Google AdWords™ terms to better understand the terminology found on the AdWords web site and in Google’s AdWords reports.

A more detailed version of this information is available on our free AdWords ebooks page.

The AdWords Hierarchy

Campaign – Defines the daily budget, language, geographic scope and the networks where ads are displayed.

Networks where ads are displayed:

• Google Search – Ads displayed on search results pages in Google web site.
• Search Network – Ads displayed on Google search partner sites, which includes Google Groups and search sites such as Ask.com and AOL.
• Display Network – Formerly called the Content Network, this network consists of context-driven ads displayed on non-Google sites through the Google AdSense affiliate network.

Ad Group – A group of ads within a Campaign that are focused on a set of closely related keyword phrases.

Ad – An individual Google ad within an Ad Group. Ad Groups can contain numerous text ads with different ad wording.

Google Report Terminology

Avg. CPC – The average cost-per-click that has been charged.

Avg. Pos – The average rank position for an ad. A rank position between 2 and 3 tends to be most productive and cost-effective.

Campaign Daily Budget – The daily spending limit for an entire campaign. When the daily budget limit is reached, ads cease to display until the next day.

Clicks – The number of users who have been sent to a site because they clicked on an ad.

Content Total – The number of clicks, cost and other statistics related to ads displayed on non-Google sites through the Google AdSense affiliate Content Network.

Conv. Rate – The conversion rate based upon a snippet of Google code added to a Web page. The code is most commonly added to an order confirmation page or a thank you page following an e-mail form submission. This indicates the percentage of users who clicked on an ad and followed through with an order or a request for information.

Cost – Actual cost charged for clicks. Cost is displayed for Ad Campaigns, Ad Groups, Search Total, Content Total and individual keywords.

Cost/Conv. – The average cost for converting a user who clicks on an ad into a customer or for someone who requests further information. Requires a snippet of Google code to be added to an order confirmation or thank you page following an e-mail form submission or order submission page.

CTR – The click-through-rate of clicks divided by impressions. A CTR greater than 0.5% is considered to be average. A CTR of 2% or better is very good.

Current Bid – If you opt for bids on individual keyword phrases this column will display to show the current bid for each.

Current Status – The current status for a Campaign or an Ad Group. Active means ads are displaying, Paused means that ads have been manually disabled.

Destination URL – The actual URL of the page that an ad links to. This must be part of the same domain as the one shown in the display URL.

Display URL – The URL shown on an ad. This does not have to be the same page URL as the destination URL, but it must represent the site being linked to.

Impr. – The number of impressions, which means the number of times an ad has displayed based upon either a user’s search using a keywords phrase (Search network) or based upon the content found on a page for a site that is part of the Google AdSense program (Content network).

Keyword – An individual keyword or keyword phrase assigned to an Ad Group.

Keyword Matching Options – There are several different methods for targeting AdWords ads to more precisely match the ads to the intended search keywords.

• Broad Match – The default option for your keywords. With no special characters surrounding the keyword phrase, AdWords ads should display when users search using any of the words in a keyword phrase and possibly with other words that may be used in the search. At one time a broad match meant that all of the words in a keyword phrase needed to be part of the search, but that was changed to any of the words in a keyword phrase. This is an important reason as to why broad match keywords should only be used on a limited basis. The problem with a broad match is that ANY word in a phrase can be used to trigger an ad. In other words, if you targeted search phrase is ‘Phoenix ticket sales’, any search using the word ‘Phoenix’, ‘ticket’ or ‘sales’ can trigger the display of an ad.
• +Modified +Broad +Match – This is much improved version of the broad match. With a modified broad match, a plus sign (the broad match modifier) is placed directly in front of each word that must be included in the users search phrase in order to trigger an ad. That could be one word or multiple words. An additional benefit is that Google can substitute similar words and misspellings, which allows you to trigger ads based upon a wider range of closely related search phrases.
• Phrase Match "rubber balls" – Surrounding a keyword phrase with quotation marks makes the ad appear only when a user searches for the words "rubber balls" in that order, and possible with other search words. The ad may appear if someone searches for "red rubber balls", but not if they search for "balls made out of rubber".
• Exact Match [rubber balls] – Surrounding a keyword phrase with brackets makes the ad appear only when a user searches for the words "rubber balls" in that word order and without any other search words. The ads will not appear is a user searches for "red rubber balls".
• Negative Keyword – If you sell rubber balls, but do not want your ads to appear if someone searches for "free rubber balls" you can add negative keywords to either a campaign or individual Ad Groups by adding them to a list that is available when you scroll to the bottom of a page under the Keyword tab for any Ad Group. Some popular negative keywords are free, cheap, cheapest, surplus, ebay and craigslist. Negative keywords prevent ads from showing for searchers who are not looking for what you offer.

Max CPC – The maximum cost per click that has been bid for a set of keywords. The bid price is one factor that determines the rank position for an ad.

Search Total – The number of clicks, cost and other statistics related to ads displayed on Google search results pages as part of the Search network.

Served – Displays on individual ad statistics and shows the percentage of times that particular ad has displayed relative to other ads in an Ad Group. Google uses an automatic optimizer algorithm that displays more productive ads most often, so a low Served rate for an ad may indicate a need for rewording.

Status – The status of individual keyword phrases within an individual ad.

• Normal – The ads for this keyword are showing at full delivery.
• In Trial – The ads for this keyword are showing but do not meet Google’s quality threshold and may be slowed or disabled.
• On Hold – The ads for this keyword are not being shown and do not meet Google’s quality threshold.
• Disabled – The ads for this keyword are not showing any longer.

Google will automatically Disable keywords or place them In Trial or On Hold when the keywords are not being used in searches or when users are not clicking on the ads represented by the keywords. This helps focus the ads on the most productive keywords.
Individual Ads may also be disabled for using wording that does not meet ad quality guidelines.

GOOGLE ADWORDS GLOSSARY

    

This AdWords glossary contains some of the most common Google AdWords terms and PPC definitions.

Ad Campaign: A set of ad groups that contain ads, keywords and bids. You can have one or multiple ad campaigns.

Ad Group: A set of keywords, ads, bids, placements and targeting methods. Each ad campaign contains one or more ad groups.

Ad Extensions: A feature that allows you to display extra information about your business in your ads, such as address, phone number, additional site links, reviews, product images and more.

Ad Rank: Calculate by your bid amount and Quality Score, ad rank is a value determined by Google that determines the position and location on a page where your ads are shown.

AdSense: A Google program wherein website owners are paid for showing relevant AdWords ads on their site.

AdWords API: This Application Programming Interface allows advertisers to interact with and edit their AdWords account through applications they create.

AdWords Editor: A free tool that allows you to manage your AdWords account offline and make large-scale changes at one time.

Average Position: Or (Avg. Pos.), this AdWords metric shows how your ad ranks against other ads. This determines the order in which ads appear on a page.

Audience: Also known as remarketing lists, audiences are groups of people you would like to exclude from targeting in your remarketing ad campaigns. They are used in place of keywords for your remarketing ads.

Automatic Bidding: A type of bidding wherein AdWords automatically sets and adjusts your maximum bids.

Automatic Placement: Websites and other places where your ads can appear that are automatically matched to your keywords. Automatic placements are available only on the Display Network.

Auto-tagging: This feature creates custom destination URls automatically. This helps you track the performance of your ad when using tracking programs like Google Analytics.

AdWords: Google’s pay-per-click program where PPC managers can create their own ads using keywords of their choosing.

AdWords Express: Google’s abridged version of Google AdWords designed for local businesses that aren’t as skilled in AdWords.

Bid: The maximum amount you are willing to spend per click for ad groups or individual keywords.

Bid Management: Managing bids in an attempt to lower your minimum bid through effective keyword grouping and optimization.

Bounce: When someone lands on a webpage and leaves the website without first visiting another page.

Broad Match: A keyword match type that uses “+” in front of keywords to tell Google to show your ads for related searches, synonyms and relevant variations of your keywords.

Broad Match Modifier (BMM): A keyword match type that uses quotations around certain words in a keyphrase in order to target searches for close variations, but not synonyms or related searches for a given keyword.

Conversion: When someone clicks on your ad and completes a desired action, such as a purchase or sign up.

Conversion Optimizer: A feature in AdWords that predicts which clicks are likely to be valuable, adjusting your bids to help you maximize your number of profitable clicks.

Conversion Rate: The number of times your ad resulted in a conversion.

CPA: Cost-per-acquisition is the cost of your total ad spend divided by the number of conversions.

CPC: Cost-per-click is a type of bidding wherein you pay for each click on your ads. You specify your CPC bids depending on how much you are willing to pay for each click your ad receives.

CTR: Clickthrough rate is calculated by dividing an ad’s impressions by the number of clicks your ad receives.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): A prediction of the net profit a company will receive over the entire future relationship with a customer.

Daily Budget: A dollar amount you choose for each ad campaign to tell Google how much you want to spend each day.

Description Line 1: After the headline, this is the first line of text in your ad. You can enter up to 35 character in Description Line 1.

Description Line 2: The second line, after description line 1, of text in your ad. You can enter up to 35 character in Description Line 1.

Display Network: One of two networks (the other is Search Network, see below) on which you can show your ads. You can create text, image, animated and video ads that will appear on millions of websites, videos and apps.

Display URL: The webpage that is tied to your ad, typically shown in green text. For each ad you create, you will specify a destination URL, the page someone will land on after clicking on your ad.

Dynamic Keyword Insertion: After inserting a special piece of code into your ad text, AdWords will automatically replace the code with the keyword that fired your ad.

Enhanced Campaigns: A Google AdWords feature that allows advertisers to manage bids from a single campaign across devices, locations and time of day, edit ads for various user contexts and track calls and application downloads as conversions.

Exact Match: A keyword match type that uses brackets to tell Google to show your ads for the exact keyword and close variants of that exact term.

Google Analytics: A free Google program that provides in-depth reporting and metrics on how people use your website, including information about what they do after clicking on your ads.

Google Forwarding Phone Number: A unique phone number provided by Google that you can use in your AdWords ads to track phone calls to your business.

Headline: The very first line of your ad, and the one potential customers will likely notice first. You can enter up to 25 characters in your headline.

Headline, Extended: Adding a period in your headline will extend it by 35 or more characters. It will also place display this ad copy as a hyperlink and will extend your headline. As you’re typing your headline copy with the period, you will be able to see a preview of your ad. Sometimes, the extended headline will show your company name or phone number.

Impression: The number of times your ad is shown. An impression is counted every time your ad is shown on a SERP or other Google Network site.

Impression Share: Or (IS), this is the number of impressions your ads have received divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive.

Keyword(s): Or KW(s), these are word or phrases you select that are highly relevant to your product or service to help determine where and when your ads appear.

Keyword Match Type: A group of five keyword settings that help determine how closely a given keyword needs to match a search query in order to fire your ad.

Keyword Mining: The process of searching for relevant keywords for your ad groups.

KPI: Key performance indicators are metrics used to help a company define and measure its progress toward certain goals.

Landing Page: The webpage where people who click your ad will be taken after clicking on your ad. This page is typically the same one entered into your destination URL.

Location Targeting: A setting in AdWords that helps your ads show to customers in geographic locations you specify.

Low Search Volume: Keywords with this status have very little or no search history on Google. These keywords will be inactive until its search traffic increases.

Managed Placement: An option on the Display Network, a managed placement are the locations that you specify where you want your ads to appear.

Manual Bidding: A type of bidding wherein you choose, set and adjust your maximum bid amounts.

Negative Match: A keyword match type that prevents your ad from firing for a certain word or phrase.

Negative Placement: Locations you specify where you do not want your ads to appear.

Phrase Match: A keyword match type that uses quotations to allow your ad to appear only when a search query includes the exact keyword phrase, or close variations of the exact phrase of your keyword, and possibly additional words as well.

Placement Tool: This AdWords tool helps you find websites and other placements where you might want your ad to show.

PPC: Pay-per-click is an online advertising model wherein an advertiser pays a publisher (e.g. Google AdWords) each time someone clicks on their ad.

Quality Score: A key metric that tells you how relevant your ads, keywords and landing page are to someone who sees your ad.

Remarketing: A feature on the Display Network that allows you to reach people who have previously visited your website.

ROI: Return on investment, in terms of AdWords, is the amount of money you make less the amount you spend on ads. This figure can also be negative.

Search Network: One of two networks (the other is Display Network, see above) on which you can show your ads. You can create text ads that can appear on Google.com and Google search partner sites, like AOL.com and Ask.com.

SERP: The search engine results page is the listing of webpages returned by a search engine in response to a keyword query.

Split Test: Creating a new ad based on a winning ad with a slight variation to see which performs better.

SQR: The search query report shows the exact terms and phrases someone entered into a search engine before they clicked on your ad.