Google Ads

The A to Z of Google AdWords

Google AdWords at times can be overwhelming! Some of the terminologies can be hard to get a grasp on especially when so many words and abbreviations are used.

As part of our comprehensive Adwords management services, including our reporting, we take time to explain some of these terms in plain, simple English.

Here’s a short glossary of just some of the more common Google AdWord terms you need to know, with your paid AdWord or PPC (that’s Pay Per Click) campaigns.

Google Ads (AdWords) Glossary

Ad Extensions: An AdWords feature that shows additional information in your ads like your business location, phone number, business ratings, and links to your webpage. We recommend adding at least a couple of ad extensions to your ads, as they take up more space on the SERP and add to your credibility.

Ad Group: The structure that contains one or more ads and a target set of keywords for Google Search, and a target set of placements for Google Display.

Ad Rank: The formula Google created to determine your ad’s position in the search results. The Formula is Ad Rank = Your Max CPC Bid x Your Quality Score. Sitelinks and use of other extensions are also factored into this equation.

Ad Relevance: An indicator that lets Google know how closely related your keywords are to your ads and website landing page. Google’s Quality Score values Ad Relevance above anything else.

Ad Scheduling: A setting within AdWords that allows you to select the time of day and days of the week you wish to serve your ads.

Analytics: A tool Google created to help you better understand the types of
customers that visit your website, how much time they spend there, where they come from, and other important metrics that AdWords can’t provide in as much detail.

Automatic Bidding: The bidding strategy that lets Google automatically adjust your maximum bids across keywords.

Average Cost-Per-Click (Avg. CPC): The average amount you are charged after a potential customer clicks on your ad. Average CPC is calculated by dividing the total cost of your clicks by the total number of clicks.
For example, if you saw 1,000 clicks and it cost you $1000, the Avg. CPC would be $1.00.

Average Position (Avg. Pos.): This shows you the position your ad ranks compared to other ads on average. The highest position is #1, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s showing on the top of the page, just that your ad is the first ad to show.

Below First Page Bid: The alert Google will apply to your keywords when your bid is not high enough to get your ad on the first page of the search results due to the competitive nature of that keyword.

Broad Match: The keyword setting that allows your ads to be triggered when any type of similar variation, synonym, or phrase is searched. It will have the largest reach (impressions) compared to all other match types but will be far less targeted. Let’s say you sell men’s shoes and only men’s shoes. If you selected “men’s shoes” as a broad match keyword, your ad could trigger anytime someone searches for men’s shoes, women’s shoes, kids shoes, men’s shoe photos, and more. Broad match keywords typically cause advertisers to spend money on irrelevant traffic.

Call Extensions: An AdWords feature that allows you to include your phone number in the ad text to increase phone calls to your business.

Call Only Campaigns: A campaign feature that allows you to make calling your business the only action your customers can take from viewing your ad. Call Only campaigns will not direct clicks to your website.

Call to Action: A word or phrase to promote an immediate response from your
customers. “Call Now!”, “Buy Today”, and “Save Now” are all example of calls to action.

Click: The act of clicking the link in your ad. A click most often leads to a website visit.

Click Through Rate (CTR): The percent of people that click on your ad after viewing it. The formula to determine your CTR is the total number of clicks divided by the total number of impressions.

Conversion: The action of your customer taking the desired action as a result of your marketing or advertising. Conversions are defined by the advertiser, but often include sales on your website, completion of a lead generation form, or phone call to your business.

Conversion Rate: The average number of conversions you will see per click on your ad.

Cost per Click (CPC): The price you pay Google each time someone clicks on your ad.

Daily Budget: The maximum amount of money you tell Google you want to spend across your campaigns per day. It’s important to note that Google can spend up to 20% over your daily budget on some days, so long as the average number of dollars spent over 30.4 days does not exceed your daily budget.

Exact Match: A keyword setting that makes it so your customers have to enter in the exact keyword phrase for your ad to show. You create exact match keywords by placing brackets around the keyword phrase, for example: [men’s shoes] or [bathroom renovations Melbourne].

First Page Bid Estimate: Google’s estimated bid you will need to set for your ad to appear on the first page of the search results. These are positions #1-10.

Impressions (Impr.): a core performance metric that tells you how many times your ad has been shown on the Search and Display networks.

Keywords: Words or phrases describing your product or service that you choose to trigger your ads. The keywords determine when your ads show. When your keyword matches what people search on Google, your ad will appear.

Keyword Planner: an essential tool that lets you test the search volume, bid estimate, and competition for certain keywords.

Landing Page: the web page your audience lands or ends up on when they click your ad. The result of the destination URL.

Limited by Budget: a Campaign Status that lets you know that your budget is lower than the Recommended Daily Budget. In other words, your ad is not reaching its full potential because your bid is not competitive enough. Your campaign can still be successful.

Location Targeting: target audiences based on where they are in the world.

Mobile Only: Ads that show only on mobile phones.

Negative Keywords: a type of keyword Match Type that prevents your ad from showing for certain search terms. This is a critical feature for your campaigns because negative keywords assure that your ads do not show for searches irrelevant to your offering.

Paused: Ad status that means your ad is not currently running or being seen and you will not be charged until you resume the ad.

Radius Targeting: Target an area on the map around a certain point, location, city, or area.

Remarketing: A tactic that allows you to reach people who have previously been on your site. It relies heavily on a user’s cookie data and shows them ads relevant to the last session they had on your site.

Search Term: the word or phrase that a person types into a search engine such as Google. You target these terms with keywords to show your ad for certain Search Terms.

Top of Page Bid Estimate: the bid you will need to set for your ad to appear on top of the search results page. Google will look at your keyword quality, ad quality, website quality, and existing competition and then estimate the bid you will need to reach the top.

URL: the location of a website, webpage, or file on the internet. It stands for Uniform Resource Locators.

We trust you have found this helpful and if so we would love to help you with your Google AdWords. Find out why you should choose us for Google Adwords Management Melbourne?