What is an Ad
Auction?
Algorithmic process whereby advertisers compete with one
another to have their ad displayed.
What is an Ad Copy?
The text part of a text ad. Also known as copywriting.
What is an Ad Group?
Ad Group: The sub-level to a Campaign, this contains one or
more ads and keywords to trigger the ad.
What is an Ad Rank?
Ad Rank: Quality score (QS) multiplied by your maximum CPC
bid determines how high on the search results your ad will show. The advertiser
with the highest score gets the highest position.
QS x max CPC bid = Ad Rank
What is an AdSense?
Google’s ad publishing platform that allows website owners
to monetize traffic by placing ads served from Google’s Display Network.
Analytics
Google Analytics is a web software tool that allows you to
place a tag in your website code to track, view & learn about the traffic
visiting all web pages where it’s been installed. This is done by logging in to
google.com/analytics and creating a new property.
Audience
Either your target market, or referring to a group of users
who have your cookies saved in their web browser (see remarketing below).
Average Position
On the search network, up to 7 ads will show on the Search
Engine Results Page (SERP). Average position of your ads describes where your
ad ranks on average. A 1.0-3.0 average position is desirable because that means
your ad was at the top of the page when it fired and had the best chance to be
seen and clicked.
Broad Match Keyword
A keyword that will trigger your ad for that term, similar
phrases, synonyms, or spelling variations. These keywords provide the lowest
level of control, but the largest potential reach.
Broad Match Modified
Keyword
A middle ground between broad and exact match keywords.
Formatted as a plus sign in front of your +keyword or +keywords. The plus sign
is the modifier, which requires the keyword to be in the query for the ad to
fire. Very powerful stuff.
Branded Search
Bidding on your own brand or business name search. Branded
terms often have a very high CTR, and therefore a high quality score and low
cost. Eg: “Best Western Vancouver” is a branded search, whereas “Hotels in
Vancouver” would be a non-branded search.
Bounce or Bounced
Visit
When a user visits a page on your site and leaves without
interacting with it or clicking through to another page. A Bounce Rate is
calculated by dividing bounced sessions by total sessions and can be used as a
relevance indicator.
Call To Action (CTA)
The next step you want your user to take on your landing
page, usually in the form of a CTA button. (eg: “buy now” “contact us”).
Call Extension
On mobile, a call button is placed with your search ad,
allowing the user to tap to call directly from the search results page. These
calls can be tracked to better understand ad performance of Return On Ad Spend
(ROAS).
Callout Extension
An ad extension consisting of 1-25 characters of
non-clickable text. Usually used for highlighting specific products, services,
or promotions.
Campaign
The top level of ad account structure. The campaign is where
you specify targeting, budgets, scheduling, bid strategy and more.
Click-Through-Rate
(CTR)
The percentage of time your ad is clicked. Calculated by ad
clicks divided by ad impressions.
Cookie
Data that is stored in a user’s browser containing
information about visits to a particular website.
Conversion
A conversion takes place when a user takes a desired action.
(ex. submitting a form, registering an account, phone call, or purchase)
Conversion Rate (CR)
This is the rate at which people convert on your site or
landing page. Divide total sessions by total conversions to calculate a
conversion rate.
Cost-Per-Click (CPC)
This is the dollar amount that you will pay per each click
on your ad. Bidding is always done using CPC on the search network, and is
often used on the Google Display Network as well.
Cost-Per-Thousand /
Cost-Per-Mille (CPM)
The cost for 1000 impressions. As an alternative to CPC
bidding, you can bid by CPM. CPM bidding can provide different results than CPC
bidding when using display advertising. CPM is universally used in digital
media buys as a cost metric.
Display Ad or Banner
Ad
Image ads, displayed on different websites that are a part
of the Google Display Network (or other ad distribution networks). They come in
various sizes, and can be static or animated.
Display Ad Placement
A website on the Google Display Network where your ad
appears. Can also refer to where physically on a page an ad is placed.
Dynamic Remarketing
Based on your interactions with a website or app,
advertisers may target you with content specific to your behaviour. This is
commonly used with eCommerce websites with a large product inventory.
Exact Match Keyword
The user must enter the exact keyword phrase when searching
in order to trigger the ad. This keyword match type offers the highest level of
control for the advertiser. In Adwords these are entered as [keyword].
Frequency
For display advertising, frequency will tell you how many
times a user has seen your ad on average.
Frequency Capping
A function that allows you to control the maximum number of
times you want your audience to see your ad.
Google Display
Network (GDN)
A network of websites
that monetize their traffic by allowing Google to place display ads in
different formats on them.
Google Shopping
Campaign
This ad format is set up with a linked Google Merchant
Center feed that allow ecommerce products (not services) to be shown with
pictures in Google search results on the search network. Also known as Product
Listing Ads (PLA).
Google Tag Manager
(GTM)
If your website contains a number of tracking tags. Google
Tag Manager allows multiple tags and tracking to be managed through one
“container” tag. Once installed, tags can be managed from the user interface
rather than having to update code manually. Impression: Any time an ad is
loaded on a page is considered an impression. This applies to search, display
or video ads.
Impression Share (IS)
The percentage of auctions your ad was qualified for and was
displayed. If your ad has less than 100% impression share, it is because it
didn’t rank high enough or your campaign didn’t have enough available budget.
Search Lost (Rank) and Search Lost (Budget) breaks this metric down into 2
groups.
In-Stream Ads
YouTube video ads that appear before a selected video.
Cost-Per-View (CPV) billing is used, but the advertiser only pays if more than
30 seconds of the ad is watched.
Invalid Clicks
Fraudulent, suspicious, or inadvertent clicks. Google
credits invalid click activity back to your account.
Keyword
A word or phrase that is selected and bid on within a
campaign.
Landing Page
The page a user lands on after clicking an ad. The landing
page’s relevance to the ad plays an important role in campaign effectiveness.
Lead
A communication received to a business from a prospective
customer. Usually the person who calls or submits a form on a marketing landing
page.
Location Extension
This ad enhancement allows the user to see the location of
your business right from search. This can be added manually or by linking your
Google My Business page.
Negative Keyword
A keyword you choose to prevent your ad from firing on
specifically. Used to increase relevance by excluding your ads from showing on
irreverent searches.
New Visitors
Visitors to your site who previously did not have a browser
cookie from your website.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
Any form of advertising that refers to the PPC model for
bidding.
Phrase Match Keyword
This match type must be present exactly as typed in a search
query to trigger an ad. In Adwords these appear as “keyword”. For example, the
Phrase Match Keyword “vancouver lawyer” would work for the search ‘How to hire
a Vancouver lawyer today’. It would not be eligible for the search ‘Vancouver
injury lawyer’.
Placement
These are specific website placements where your ads have or
where you want your ads to appear within the Google Display Network. Of
Price Extension
Shows prices of goods or services as an extension to the
main body of a search ad. See here for more details
Quality Score
Each keyword will have a quality score between 1 – 10 that
acts as an indicator for relevance. Quality score plays an important role in
campaign performance. Quality scores can be improved on, and will allow you to
be more competitive in ad auctions.
Relevance: The
number one driving force to the success of any campaign. Relevance is the
extent of which we can match the user needs with the product or service.
Remarketing
A strategy used to target users who have previously been on
your website. Within AdWords you can remarket to users with the search network,
display network, and Youtube. Learn how to set up remarketing here.
Remarketing List
When you define an audience of users in Google Analytics
(ex. All Users from the past 365 days, Users who visited a specific page within
the last 30 days, Users who completed a conversion) they are automatically
added to a remarketing list in AdWords if the two accounts are linked. You can
then choose a list of users you’d like to advertise to specifically.
Search Engine Results
Page (SERP)
The first page of results provided by a search engine (Google,
Bing, Yahoo, etc) for a given search query.
Search Query
A user-defined phrase entered into a search engine to begin
a search.
Sitelink Extension
An ad extension consisting of links to (ideally) relevant
pages of your website. They can have accompanying text, although they won’t
show the text every time due to Google’s automated ad formatting.
Search Volume
Total amount of search queries (or specific search queries)
made on a search engine within a set time period.
Structured Snippet
Extension
An ad extension where similar items of non-clickable text
are listed together. For example Locations, Types, Styles, Featured Locations.
Categories available to use are set by Google.
Viewability and
Viewable CPM (vCPM)
Viewability refers to whether online ads are in the visible
part of a user’s screen for a minimum period of time. These measurement
standards are designed to provide more transparency to advertisers. A
‘viewable’ banner ad has at least 50% of the ad appear on a user’s screen for
at least 1 second. For large format ads, it’s 30% for 1 second.
When bidding on display ad placements, all CPM-based bids
now use vCPM. This means advertisers don’t pay for an impression unless their
ad is actually viewable by the user.
