Google Ads Jargon Buster

Adwords Jargon Buster

You may be hampered by the existing terminology when you are new to Google Ads and trying to learn all you can.

What we have done underneath is go through some common terms and abbreviations and try to explain what they all mean. You will have a handy guide to help you understand when you encounter these.

If you encounter any other terminology or abbreviations relating to Google Adwords, please let us know what they are so we can update this post!

Ad – An advert that appears when a search is performed.

Ad Group – A grouping of ads and keywords. You can have multiple ad groups per campaign.

Ad Scheduling – Setting your adverts to appear on certain days and times.

AdWords – The advertising platform that allows you to display your website adverts based on people's searches and pay for the clicks that the website receives.

Analytics – A data collection tool to monitor traffic to the website. Therefore, there is lots of information that is collected in Analytics.

Average Position – This is the average position that an Ad appears from the top position of Google.

Bid – The maximum price you are willing to pay for a click to your website from that particular keyword.

Broad Match – Broad match is one of the different keyword types. Due to this, broad match keywords will show your ad for a broad range of searches related to your keywords.

Campaign – A campaign is the top-level grouping of ad groups. In campaign settings, you can select your budgets, bidding, and geographic targeting options.

Click-Through Rate (CTR) – This is the percentage of people who click through to your website from your ad.

Conversion is when someone performs a desirable action on your website, such as purchasing or filling in a contact form.

Conversion Rate – This is the percentage of people who have clicked on your website and then performed a conversion.

Conversion Tracking – Installing the code or steps involved in monitoring how many conversions the site is getting.

Cost Per Conversion – The average cost each conversion costs you, set against the amount of money the keyword or ad has cost in the selected time frame.

Clicks – The number of clicks your advert has had in the given time frame.

Cost Per Click (CPC) – How much each click has cost on average.

Cost Per Thousand (CPM) – How much it has cost you for the advert to be seen 1000 times.

Daily Budget – How much you will spend per day on your Adwords account.

Display URL – The web address that people will see in the advert on Google. However, this doesn't have to be the same URL that people will visit when they click on the ad.

Exact match – Exact match keywords will only display your ad for the exact keyword search or very close matches (plural, for example).

Geo-Targeting – This is to target a specific region. Only trade locally? Why would you target nationwide?

Google Display Network – Google's advertising network allows you to display image and text ads on various websites.

Google Shopping – These ads run on the Google advertising platform. But, again, this is for e-commerce sites only.

Impressions – The amount of times your advert has been seen on Google within the selected time frame.

Impression Share – This is the number of times your ad has been seen compared to the number of searches for the targeted keyword phrases.

Keyword – The words and phrases that you would like to have selected to pay per click.

Keyword Research – Research discovering the best keywords to generate business, how much each click will likely cost, and the competitiveness of each phrase.

Landing Page – The adverts are directed to the web page when someone clicks your advert.

Negative Keyword – Words that you select to not show your advert for. Therefore, examples could be searches that include 'free', 'job', or 'vacancy'.

Organic Search Results – The results from a search that are not paid advertisements or map listings.

Phrase Match – A keyword match type that only generates your advert when the phrase you target is typed into Google in the order you specify.

Pay Per Click (PPC) – This is the Google Adwords model. Therefore, you only pay Google when people click on your advert.

Product Listing Ads (PLAs) – This is for Google Shopping and displays a picture of a product and the price, allowing people to decide to buy on Google.

Quality Score – This is a ranking that Google gives to keywords based on how relevant that search phrase is compared to the advert displayed and the website landing page. Scores are based on ten, with ten being the best and one being the worst. The better the quality score, the lower your Cost Per Click will be or be cheaper for a higher position.

Reach – The number of people who are exposed to your ads.

Remarketing – An advertising method of targeting a select audience who have previously interacted with your website.

Return On Investment (ROI) – How much money did you make from your investment in Google Adwords? This metric can be used to determine success.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – A method of helping your website work better on Google organically (free).

Please download a copy of this jargon buster if you would like to use it as a reference. Also, if you want help or advice on any aspect of Google Adwords, please contact us today.