The Basic PPC Definitions Explained
The huge volume of terms, acronyms and lingo surrounding PPC is enough to confuse both beginners and those experienced in the field. Whether you’re new to PPC or you just need a refresher, use our list of beginners PPC definitions to help you keep up-to-date with the constantly-changing industry.
Ad Delivery: a setting that lets Google and other search engines know how to use your set budget each day. You can choose whether they spread it through the entire day or spend it quickly.
Ad Group: a collection of keywords, ads and bids that are crucial to how your account is organised. Each campaign feature one or more ad groups, each group includes around 5 – 10 keywords.
Ad Scheduling: how advertisers can control and specify which hours and days they want their ads to feature.
Average Cost-Per-Click: the average amount the advertiser will be charged when a searcher clicks on their ad. It’s decided by the total cost of your clicks by the total number of clicks.
AdWords Editor: a software application designed by Google that allows advertisers to make changes to their account without posting live until they’re ready. It’s free and allows you to make big changes, add new campaigns, ad groups, keywords along with much more.
Bid: the amount of money the advertiser is prepared to pay for a search keyword click.
Bounce Rate: a % of people who visit your site but exit without visiting another page.
Click: when someone clicks on your ad and through to your landing page
Click-Through-Rate (CTR): a way to analyse the success of a PPC campaign, A CTR is calculated by dividing the number of users who clicks on the ad by the number of times the ad was seen (impressions).
Conversion: when a user completes a specific task, whether it be completing a signup form, buying a product or downloading an eBook.
Cost-Per-Click (CPC): the amount of money the advertiser pays the search engine each time their ad is clicked on.
Cost-Per-Lead (CPL): the amount of money the advertiser pays for every lead generated through their ad.
Geotargeting: also called location targeting, this setting allows advertisers to target geographical countries, regions, towns and so on.
Impressions: the number of searchers who see your ad on search engines.
Invalid Click: also referred to as click fraud, is when the clicks on ads are flagged as illegitimate, like clicks made by mistake or for malicious reasons.
Keyword: is a single word or a string of worst that advertises use to display their ads in SERPs.
Landing Page: the webpage that searchers are directed to after they click on your ad, it’s specified by the destination URL.
Lead: (the same as a conversion) the completion of a specific action by a searcher that the advertiser intended for them to do.
Match Types: are parameters that can be set on your keywords to determine when they appear. Learn more here: Choosing the Right Keyword Matches for Your PPC Campaign.
Negative Keywords: ensures ads do not display when customers users a certain keyword in their query. Learn more here: How to Build a Negative Keyword List
Pay-Per-Click (PPC): is a form of marketing where an advertiser pays the search engine a fee every time their ad is clicked on SERPs.
Quality Score: is the search engines rating of the quality and relevance of your keywords and PPC ads – it’s used to decide bid price.
Return on Investment (ROI): usually a percentage that measures the efficiency of an investment. It measures the amount of return on a certain investment, relative to the investment cost.
Have we missed any crucial PPC definitions? Let us know in the comments.