With Google and other PPC networks continually updating and evolving their platforms, even professional PPC managers can be confused by some of the new paid search terms they introduce.

To help you get a good understanding of the PPC terminology, we've put together a detailed PPC glossary of over 100 common PPC terms and acronyms.

From PPC to CPA, by the end of this list, you'll know all the important terms that PPC marketers like to use.

Also visit our Performance Marketing Glossary.

PPC Terms & Acronyms Glossary

A B C D E F G H I K L M N P Q R S U

A/B Testing

The testing of two different landing pages(landing page A and landing page B) to determine which converts better. Changesare usually anything from different content and text to different colouredbuttons.

Ad Campaign

An advertising campaign with a PPC network that contains advertisements that share the same theme or goal. For example, a set of advertisements that focus on driving traffic to a Black Friday landing page.

Ad Delivery

A setting in various PPC networks whichdetermines how fast or slow ads are shown to users. The default setting inGoogle Ads is standard, which optimizes the budget by spending it throughout the day at a constant rate.

Ad Extensions

Google Ads features that show extra businessinformation on an ad, such as their address, phone number, shop rating orwebpage links. These additional pieces of information helps increase the ad'sclickthrough rate.

Ad Group

Found in PPC ad campaigns, ad groups are used to keep campaigns organized and contain a set of related keywords. Each PPC campaign contains at least one ad group but can have multiple.

Ad Position

A metric that tells advertisers the position in which an ad appears on a page in relation to other PPC ads, with position one being the highest possible.

Ad Rank

Not to be confused with Ad Position, Ad Rankis a value that's used to determine in what position an ad will show based onthe bid amount and quality score metrics.

Ad Relevance

A keyword status that measures how closelyrelated a keyword is to an ad. The three statuses are below average, average,and above average. Having average or above-average means there are no majorproblems with ad relevance.

Ad Scheduling

A setting in many PPC networks which allowsadvertisers to run ads during specific times and days of the week. This settingallows advertisers to increase or decrease bids for specific days and times.

AdSense

Google's publishing network which allows third parties to publish advertisements on their website in exchange for ad revenue. PPC ads can be run on these websites using a display network campaign.

AdWords

The original name for Google's pay per clickadvertising network. As of July 24th 2018, Google rebranded its network toGoogle Ads. The names are still used interchangeably today.

AdWords API

An application programming interface (API)used by developers to create third-party applications for Google Ads. TheAdWords API will be replaced with the new Google Ads API in the future.

AdWords Editor

Now known as the Google Ads Editor, thisdownloadable application allows advertisers to manage their Google Adscampaigns offline and offers many bulk editing features and options.

AdWords Express

A simple Google Ads interface aimed at newadvertisers with zero PPC experience. The heavy use of automation and AI meansthis type of campaign is much faster to set up.

API

An application programming interface (API)allows developers to create applications that interact directly with theirGoogle account. Currently, Google has two main APIs, Google AdWords API and thenew Google Ads API.

Audience

Also called the target audience, these are the people advertisers target with their PPC ads. There are many audience targeting options including demographics, interests, remarketing, life events and similar audiences.

Auto-tagging

A feature that automatically adds a trackingparameter called the GCLID to Google ads URLs in order to help report on adperformance within Google Analytics.

Automatic Bidding

A feature found in many PPC networks thatallows the network to automatically adjust bidding on keywords in order to meetcertain performance goals e.g. increase traffic, conversions, visibility.

Automatic Placements

When Google automatically chooses relevant websites on their Google Display network to display an advertiser's ads. Advertisers can also select specific websites by adding management placements.

Average Position

A metric that describes the average position of an ad on the results page. Since September 30th 2019, this metric has been removed from Google Ads and replaced with impression rate.

B2B

An acronym for business to business which is often used in the digital marketing space when describing businesses who primarily sell to other businesses. Similar to the B2C acronym.

B2C

An acronym for business to consumer which is often used in the digital marketing space when describing businesses that primarily sell to individuals. Similar to the B2B acronym.

Bid

How much an advertiser is willing to pay for a click on their ad. Many PPC networks offer different bidding strategies such as a focus on clicks, impressions, conversions or views.

Bid Management

Advertisers can get the most out of theiradvertising budget by optimizing their bids through ad scheduling, bidadjustments and keyword grouping.

Bid Optimization

Similar to bid management, bid optimizationinvolves getting the most clicks for the lowest cost. This can involve bidadjustment, landing page optimization, and ad scheduling to lower the cost perclick.

Bidding Types

On most PPC networks, there are differentbidding types advertisers can use depending on their goals. The most commonbidding types are a focus on clicks, impressions or conversions.

Bounce

A bounce is when a user only sees one pagebefore leaving. Often measured as the bounce rate, a high bounce rate can meana landing page has problems with ad relevance, speed, or call to action.

Broad Match

A keyword match type that will trigger an adwhenever someone searches for the phrase, similar phrase, close variation, orother relevant variations. The broad match type is displayed with a + in frontof the keyword.

Broad Match Modifier

A type of modifier that ensures ads will only show for searches that include words that have been marked with a plus symbol (+). This gives advertisers more control over their keyword targeting.

Call Extensions

An ad extension that lets advertisers addphone numbers which can significantly increase clickthrough rates. Callextensions are tap to call on mobile, which greatly increases engagement.

Call Only Campaigns

A type of ad campaign that only shows onmobile and allows users to call the business by tapping the ad. Unlike callextensions on search ads, call-only campaigns have no landing page and are onlyon mobile devices.

Callout Extensions

Callouts are additional information that helppromote unique offers on text ads with two to six showing per ad. These areusually used to emphasize offers such as free shipping and 24/7 support.

Click Fraud

The fraudulent clicking of pay per click adsin order to waste an advertiser's advertising budget. Often caused bycompetitors, botnets and webmasters, click fraud can also be used to make moneyfor criminal gangs.

Click to Call

Found on text ads and created using callextensions, phone numbers can be clicked and tapped to call the business, whichcan significantly increase customer engagement and conversions.

Conversion

A conversion can be viewed as a goalcompletion depending on the pay per click strategy. Sometimes a conversion is asale, sometimes it's an account registration, depending on the strategy's goal.

Conversion Optimizer

A Google Ads feature that helps adjust biddingon individual keywords depending on which clicks are likely to result in aconversion.

Conversion Rate

The total number of conversions per adinteractions displayed as a percentage. Conversion rates are calculated bytaking the number of conversions and dividing by the number of ad interactions.

CPA (Cost Per Action)

Sometimes called cost per acquisition, costper action is the amount an advertiser is charged per conversion. It iscalculated by dividing the total cost of conversions by the total number ofconversions.

CPC (Cost Per Click)

Cost per click is the amount an advertiserpays for every click on their advert. Commonly found on PPC networks such asGoogle Ads and Facebook Ads.

CPL (Cost Per Lead)

The same as CPA (cost per action) just adifferent name. The term cost per lead is usually used when a PPC campaign isfocusing on registrations or email sign-ups.

CPM (Cost Per Mile)

A metric that measures ads per 1,000impressions. Often used as a bidding strategy on ad networks that allow usersto pay per thousand impressions instead of for every click.

CPV (Cost Per View)

How much an advertiser pays for a view oftheir ad. Often used for video ads on YouTube with a view being anyone whowatches 30 seconds of the video or the entire ad.

CTR (Clickthrough Rate)

A percentage showing how often users click anad. A higher clickthrough rate is better as it shows an ad is getting moreclicks based on the same number of impressions.

Customer Lifetime Value

A monetary metric that shows how much a conversion is worth to a business. Knowing this metric allows advertisers to set CPA and CPL targets to ensure PPC campaigns profitable.

Daily Budget

A feature found in various ad networks whichallows advertisers to set the maximum amount of money they are willing to spendper day for a given ad or campaign.

Description Line 1

The first of two descriptions on a Googleexpanded text ad. The character limit of the first description is 90 characterswhich allows more text than a regular ad.

Description Line 2

The second of two descriptions on a Googleexpanded text ad. The character limit of the second description is also 90 characterswhich allows more text than a regular ad.

Destination URL

The URL address of the webpage that peoplewill land on when they click an ad. The domain of the destination URL needs tomatch the domain of the display URL.

Display Campaigns

A type of advertising campaign in Google Ads that displays banner ads on the Google display network. This type of ad campaign uses Google vast third party publisher network.

Display Network

Also called the Google Display Network, this network contains millions of third party publisher websites which advertisers can run their paid ads on. These publishers receive a commission for every click on their ads.

Display URL

The URL that appears on the ad that users see.This will be the same domain as the destination URL but will point to aspecific landing page URL instead.

Dynamic Keyword Insertion

A Google Ads feature that dynamically updates the text in an ad to include a keyword that matches a user's search term. This helps make the ad more relevant without having to manually create ads.

Enhanced CPC

A type of bidding strategy that aims to get moreconversions by automatically adjusting bids for users that seem more or lesslikely to lead to a conversion.

Exact Match

One of the many match types that will triggerads when the exact keyword or a close variation of the keyword are used. Exactmatch keywords are displayed in square brackets [].

Expanded Text Ads

A type of ad on the Google Ad network whichincludes more fields compared to a standard ad. Expanded text ads have threeheadline fields and two 90 character description fields.

Final URL

The URL address of the webpage that users willbe redirected to when they click an ad. The final URL must always match the URLshown on the ad.

Frequency Capping

A feature that limits the number of times anadvertiser's ads are shown to the same person. Often used with display andvideo ads on the Google Ads network.

GCLID

The Google Click Identifier which isautomatically added onto the end of destination URLs with Google's auto-taggingfeature. Used to record and display ad performance in Google Analytics.

Geotargeting

Many PPC networks allow advertisers to targetspecific locations and countries for their ads. Also known as locationtargeting, this allows advertisers to maximize their ad spend.

Google AdWords Express

A type of Google Ad campaign aimed at newusers that utilizes AI and automation to make setting up ads easier and faster.

Google Analytics

A free analytics suite provided by Googlewhich is commonly used for data analysis on both websites and PPC ads.

Google Forwarding Phone Number

This is a unique phone number from Google thatcan be used in ads to help track calls to businesses. This helps with analyticsand reporting for ads.

Headline

The first line on a text advert which consistsof 30 characters and usually includes the target keyword. Each advert can haveup to 3 different headlines.

Hits

A term used to describe how many users landedon a page. The more clicks on an ad, the more hits on a webpage or website.

Impression Share

The percentage of impressions that an adreceives compared to the total number of impressions the ad could receive. Thismetric is a good way to understand if an advertiser should increase their bidor budget.

Impressions

This metric tells advertisers how often their ad is shown. An impression is each time their ad is shown on a search results page or via the Google display network.

Keyword Match Type

Keyword match types control which searches onGoogle trigger certain ads. Match types include: broad match, phrase match,exact match, and the broad match modifier.

Keyword Mining

Keyword mining is the process of finding andidentifying keywords that are relevant to the services or products a businessoffers. These are then usually added to PPC ad campaigns.

Keywords

Keywords are the words and phrases that people are searching for and are used to trigger paid ads based on the different keyword match types used.

KPI (Key Performance Indicator)

Important metrics that many advertisers trackand monitor to judge how well their PPC campaigns and digital campaigns, ingeneral, are performing. Example metrics are CTR, CPA and conversion rate.

Landing Page

The ad's destination URL on a website thatusers will reach when they click an ad. The aim of this page is to turn usersinto converting users via sign ups, purchases, or lead generation.

Landing Page Experience

Google's measure of how well a landing pagegives people what they are looking for. This experience measurement affects thead's cost per click and ad position.

Location Targeting

A setting that allows advertisers to choosethe location or locations in which they want to advertise. This type oftargeting can help advertisers get the most out of their budgets.

Longtail Keyword

A keyword phrase that includes numerous words,making it more specific and less competitive to target. For example "brownleather shoes size 11".

Low Search Volume

A warning status that is given to a keywordwith little to no monthly searches. Google will make the keyword inactive so itwon't trigger ads until it has more search volume.

Managed Placement

A targeting method advertisers can use to specifically target certain websites and videos on the Google Display Network. This is the opposite of the automatic placements targeting option.

Manual Bidding

A type of bidding method that allowsadvertisers to set their own maximum cost per click for their ads. This gives advertisersmuch more control over their ad spend and budget.

Match Types

Another term for keyword match types whichhelp decide what keywords can trigger an advertiser's ads on search engines.Match types include exact, broad, phrase, broad match modifier.

Negative Keywords

Keywords that advertisers don't wanttriggering their ads. Common examples are words such as free, download, cheap,discount. These words have low buyer intent, so are excluded to maximizebudgets.

Negative Match

Similar to keyword match types but used fornegative keywords to stop them from triggering ads. Negative match typesinclude phrase match, broad match and exact match.

Negative Placement

Similar to negative keywords but used on theGoogle Display Network. Negative placements tell Google which websites andvideos ads shouldn't appear on.

Phrase Match

A keyword match type that allows ads to betriggered only when a user's search includes the exact phrase or closevariation of the keyword.

PLA (Product Listing Ads)

Also known as Google Shopping Ads, ProductListing Ads are listings that appear on Google's shopping network and allowadvertisers to include images, prices and business name in their ad.

Placement Exclusion

Similar to negative placements, a placementexclusion is a list of websites an advertiser doesn't want their ads to bedisplayed on. This list can then be set across multiple advertising accounts.

Placement Tool

A tool made for the Google Display Network which gives advertisers detailed information about reach and impression estimates for display campaigns.

PPC (Pay Per Click)

An acronym for pay per click. Can often referto various different pay per click networks including Bing Ads, Facebook Ads,Instagram Ads and LinkedIn Ads.

Price Extensions

A type of ad extension which displays priceoptions for products below the ad. Available on mobile and desktop they giveadvertisers more space to highlight products and services that they offer.

Promotion Extensions

A type of ad extension which is used whenpromoting special sales and offers. Using these type of promotion extensionsincrease the chances of users clicking an ad.

Quality Score

A metric found in Google Ads which givesadvertisers a sense of the quality of their ads. Ranging from 1 to 10, thethree factors that determine quality score are expected clickthrough rate, adrelevance and landing page experience.

Remarketing

A remarketing campaign helps advertisers target visitors who have already visited their website. Previous visitors will see ads when they visit websites that are part of the Google Display Network.

ROAS (Return On Ad Spend)

A metric that advertisers use to measure theperformance of their ads. It is also a bidding option in Google Ads thatadjusts bids depending on the conversion value.

ROI (Return On Investment)

A key performance indicator that measures howmuch profit has been made from advertising compared to how much has been spenton ads.

Search Network

A group of search-related websites where ads from a search campaign can appear. On the Google network this includes maps, shopping, images, and any other search partner websites.

Search Query

A query that a user types into a searchengine. Depending on the campaign's keyword match types, this will determinewhether an ad is triggered or not.

Seller Ratings Extensions

A type of ad extension that displays ratingstars below an ad. Selling ratings help advertisers improve ad performance andreceive more clicks.

SERP (Search Engine Results Page)

The page that users see after doing a searchon a search engine such as Google or Bing. This is also the page where searchads will be displayed.

Shopping Campaigns

A type of advertising campaign that will bedisplayed on Google's shopping section. Unlike search ads, shopping ads cancontain images, prices and more.

Sitelink Extensions

A type of ad extension that displays links tothe important pages of a businesses website. This is used to increaseclickthrough rates and user engagement.

Smart Campaigns

A type of smart campaign that simplifiesdisplay advertising. This campaign type automates bidding, targeting and adcreation for the advertiser.

Split Test

When an advertiser tests different campaignsor ad variations to see how they perform over time. These can be setup usingcampaign experiments in Google Ads.

SQR (Search Query Report)

A report that highlights all the different search queries that triggered a specific ad. This is very helpful for advertisers to ensure their ads are triggering for the correct keywords and search queries.

SV (Search Volume)

The amount of searches a specific keyword gets per month in terms of monthly traffic. A search volume of 100 would indicate 100 people search for the specific term every single month.

Universal App Campaigns

Since February 20th 2019, these are now known as app campaigns. This type of campaign allows advertisers to target users in apps as well as YouTube and the Google Play store.