Google Ads: 25+ Glossary Terms You Need to Know
When it comes to learning Google Ads, it’s important to have a glossary of all the possible terms you need to know and that you can easily reference.
Whether you’re just getting started on your Google Ad journey or are ready to get started with us and just want a little refresher before we dive in, this Google Ads glossary guide should be just what you need!
First things first, let’s start from the very beginning…
What is Google Ads?
Google Ads can be an important part of your multichannel marketing campaign. You can use this tool to develop online advertising campaigns that can provide powerful results for your business. You can quickly and effectively reach out to your target market by using Google, the most popular search engine in the world. You can reach people on Google Maps, YouTube, search results pages, and Google Play by using a strong Google Ads strategy.
With Google Ads, you can also automate a lot of your digital marketing strategies. For example, you can tailor your ad campaign to match the goals of your business. Do you want to generate more phone calls? Do you want to drive more traffic to your website? Do you want to bring more people to a physical storefront? There are different ways you can structure your campaign, and you can target your advertising strategy to your desired results.
You can use Google Ads along with Google Analytics to launch campaigns and measure results. Then, you can focus on running your business as your digital marketing campaign takes care of itself. From time to time, you may want to take a look at the dashboard to see which advertisements are performing the best and adjust your strategy accordingly. That way, you can maximize what is working well while also correcting any issues that need to be addressed.
How does Google Ads work?
If you're wondering how to run campaigns using Google Ads, here are a few things to keep in mind. To make the most of your data-tracking capabilities, you need to understand how to use Google Ads. Below are some of the key features and terms you should know to effectively use Google Ads:
The Glossary
Ad copy
Your ad copy refers to the information contained in your advertisement. You need to think carefully about what goes into your ad copy. Your digital marketing budget is valuable, and you need to get as much use out of it as possible. You may even want to test different types of advertisements targeting the same market. That way, you can figure out which ad strategy is most effective for your needs.
Ad extensions
Extensions allow you to provide more information to a prospective client while also increasing your visibility on the search engine results page (SERPs).
By using Ad Extensions, you can provide additional valuable information and increase the footprint of your ad on Google’s results pages. See the full list of Ad extensions here.
AdRank
This determines your Google Ads’ placement. The higher your AdRank, the higher you will appear on Google’s search pages and the more people will see your ads. This is determined by your maximum bid (the maximum amount advertisers are willing to pay for users to click your ads) and your Quality Score.
Bidding
Every ad created goes through a process called the ad auction that decides which ads will appear on Google’s SERP, and in what order they will appear based on the ad’s Ad Rank.
There are many bidding strategies within Google Ads, both manual and automated, but they can all be grouped into these five categories based on your goals:
Conversion-Focused: When you want customers to take a specific, measurable action on your site.
Increased Website-Traffic: When you want more traffic to your site.
Brand Awareness: When you want to increase awareness and get in front of as many eyes as possible, clicks and conversions are an afterthought.
Interaction Strategies [Video]: When you want to increase views or interactions on your video ads.
Product Awareness [Video]: When you want to increase awareness through video ads.
Campaign type
Even though you are probably eager to get started, you need to select your campaign type. There are several options available, and all of them are important for website analytics and engagement. These campaign options include:
Search ads are displayed next to search results.
Display ads are typically an image that shows up on web pages.
Video ads appear before or during YouTube videos.
App campaigns use app information to optimize your ads on websites.
Shopping ads show up when people shop on Google.
Smart campaigns will help you target a specific market.
Performance max allows advertisers to access all ad types.
Make sure you think about which campaign type is right for your needs.
Click-through-rate
Click-through rate (or “CTR”) is a vital metric to the success of your PPC campaign and measures the rate at which users click your ads compared to the number of times the ad is viewed. CTR is calculated by dividing the number of people who click your ad by the number of people who view your ad–so the higher your CTR, the better.
CTR = (Clicks on ad) / (Total Impressions)
Conversions
A conversion within Google ads happens when a user performs a specific action after clicking on one of your ads. While actions like page views and page scrolls can be counted as conversions, these are considered “micro-conversions” and are much less indicative of your account’s true success. Instead, focus on “macro conversions” that measure more tangible actions like product purchases, document downloads, or lead form fills. Conversions can be tricky to set up properly, so make sure to do some research before diving in.
Display Network
The Google Display Network (or GDN) is a network of websites that allow Google Ads to be featured on their webpages; these can be text or image ads, and are shown on the same page as content that is relevant to your keywords. This is an optional setting for Google Ads users, just be sure to consider all the pros and cons of this feature before checking the GDN box.
Impressions
Impressions represent the number of times your ad is shown on a search result page or within the Google Network; each time your ad is shown, it is counted as one impression, regardless of whether someone clicks on it or not
Keywords
Keywords in Google Ads are words or phrases chosen to match your ads with the terms users are searching for. Keywords are divided into the four match types below:
Broad match: Your keyword will match your exact keyword, close variants, as well as related topics, and in any order. This match type should be used with caution and monitored closely to ensure you’re not spending your budget on searches that are irrelevant to your business.
Exact match: Your keyword only matches searches identical to your exact keyword or phrase, or very close variants, and is designated with brackets.
Phrase match: Your keyword will match searches with the exact same word order, but can include words before or after. They will also include searches where the “intent” is the same. For example, searching for “cooking classes near me” would also apply to “cooking courses near me” as the intent behind those words is the same. Phrase match is designated with quotation marks.
Learn even more about keywords in one of our other blogs, Keyword Match Types: How & When To Use Them.
Quality Score
Your Quality Score is essentially Google’s way of “grading” your ads to determine how they should rank on the search engine. The higher your rank, the higher your ad placement will be; while low Quality Score leads to fewer impressions and fewer chances to gain conversions.
This is important! You can appear higher than another advertiser paying more than you if your Quality Score is better than theirs!
Quality Score is based on several factors listed below, and while Google will not reveal how much each factor influences Quality Score, it has been confirmed that click-through rate is the most important.
Click-through-rate
How relevant your keywords are to the ad groups they appear in
Landing page relevance and quality (make sure the page you send people to is relevant to the ad and of high quality)
Ad text relevance (your ad should be relevant to the search just performed)
Your historical Google Ads account performance
To learn more check out our 3 part series that takes a deep dive into everything Quality Score.
Additional Quick terms good for you to know:
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A type of advertising campaign which tries to drive new installs to your mobile app.
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A solution that helps advertisers automatically set bids based on performance goals.
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A solution that allows you to add audience suggestions that help Google's AI optimize for your selected goals. Although adding audience signals is optional, using audience signals can help you guide machine learning models on the ideal way to optimize your campaign.
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An action that’s counted when someone interacts with your ad or free product listing and then takes an action that you’ve defined as valuable to your business.
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The values you assign to certain actions that matter to your business, for example $5 for calls and $20 for sign-ups.
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Cost-per-action, calculated as total cost divided by total conversions.
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An attribution model which gives credit for conversions based on how people engage with your various ads and decide to become your customers. It uses data from your account to determine which keywords, ads, and campaigns have the greatest impact on your business goals.
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A system that trains a predictive model from input data.
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The cost of additional conversions, calculated as cost divided by increase in conversions.
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The additional return you get for additional spend, calculated as increase in conversion value divided by increase in spend.
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A goal that allows you to value and then bid for new customers compared to existing customers or focus on new customers only, while maximizing conversions.
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A cross-channel, AI-powered campaign that features the greatest channel coverage of any Google Ads campaign type.
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An automated, goal-driven bid strategy that groups together multiple campaigns, ad groups, and keywords.
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A set of product initiatives that aim to rethink Ads measurement in a cookieless world.
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Return-on-ad-spend, represented as a percentage, calculated as total conversion value divided by total spend.
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Return on investment, calculated as total profit divided by total spend.
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Automated bid strategies that use machine learning to optimize for conversions or conversion value.
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Smart Bidding strategies that specifically optimize to your conversion values. Maximize conversion value is a value based bidding strategy.
So, What Next?
If you feel like you’ve got a solid grasp on PPC's realm, go ahead and dive in!
Looking for some additional guidance before getting started? Check out some of our resources:
Google Search vs. Performance Max Campaigns
Advantages of Using Google Ads
Keyword Match Types: How & When To Use Them
If you’re still feeling like this info is going over your head or simply don’t have time to manage an entire Google Ads account, it may make sense to bring in a professional–even just to set up your account and get you started. We are Google Ad fanatics and would love to talk with you about your goals and objectives. If you’re interested, let’s set up a time to chat!
