The Ultimate PPC Glossary for Google Ads, Facebook Ads, And More

This PPC Glossary was written to be bookmarked.

Back when I was starting out in the world of PPC, I had one wish. I longed for a comprehensive list of terms.

Well wish no more, here is your complete glossary of PPC terms. Written in 2019 and it will continue to be updated with new terms, scouts honor.

The purpose of this PPC Glossary is to ensure that you’re up to date on all of our jargon. If you’re a noob to the world of PPC, this will be a good starting place. And if you’re an expert, well, it never hurts to brush up on your terms. Heaven forbid you hear a new term that the kids these days are using, and you don’t know what it means. This will help avoid that embarrassment and keep you as cool as Garfield.

Like the dictionary, you’ll notice this was written in easy-to-navigate alphabetical order. Unlike the dictionary though, this glossary won’t be a 41 hour read.

This PPC Glossary covers terms for your everyday PPC as well as other platforms. The most common platforms that we’ve included are Google Ads and Facebook.

Some keywords are applicable to one platform only; this information will be in the definition.

Without further ado, let’s sing our ABCs and become experts at PPC.

A

A/B Split Testing – When you compare two versions of a webpage, an app, an ad, etc. against each other to see which gets better results. Each version gets an equal opportunity to perform; traditionally, only one aspect is changed in the variation.

Above the Fold – When you load a webpage, everything you see without having to scroll down is above the fold.

Account – Where you manage everything in your Google, Facebook, or other PPC platform. This contains all information such as settings, billing information, campaigns, ad groups, and ads (or their platform equivalent).

Account Overview – This is your account dashboard, or this is a web page where you have a thousand-foot view of the account performance.

Account Spending Limit – In Facebook, you can set a total amount that you approve your entire account to spend. This is found in Payment Settings and can be changed at any time.

Ad Auction – The process that happens when someone searches anything at all in Google Search. In a moment, Google determines if ads should display, what ads are relevant, and where the ads go.

Ad Copy – The written part of an ad. In Google Ads, it’s composed of three headlines, a display path, and two descriptions:

In Facebook, Ad Copy is composed of text that goes above the media, a display link, a headline, and a news feed link description:

Ad Delivery – The setting for how quickly you want your ads to show. There are generally two settings: standard and accelerated. Standard attempts to spend your ad budget and show your ads evenly throughout the day. Using standard means your ads won’t show every time there’s an opportunity. Accelerated runs your ads as often as possible.

Ad Extensions – Extra text that you can have displayed with your Google Ads. This extra information you can add in includes your address, phone number, prices, promotions, site links, etc.

Ad Group – In Google Ads, your ad groups contain your keywords, ads, placement and targeting settings, bids, and bid adjustments. Your ad groups are in your campaigns.

Ad Placement – In Google Ads, you can choose where you want your display ads to appear. You can choose to have your ad appear on an entire website, a single page of the website, or on websites with keywords that you’d like to target.

Ad Preview & Diagnosis – This is a tool in Google Ads that allows you to test your ads. You access it through Tools > Planning > Ad Preview and Diagnosis. You can search for a keyword that you’re bidding on, change your location, language, device, and audience to see how it performs.

Ad Position – This is where your ad appears on the page of search results. Factors for ad position include your bid, quality score, and ad extensions. This is a metric you can check in Google Ads to see what position your ad usually lands in and how that affects your performance.

Ad Rank – The equation that Google uses to determine your ad position. The equation assigns a value to your ad based on your bid, quality score, and ad extension availability.

Ad Rotation – The setting in Google Ads for which ad should be shown the most. There are four settings.

1. Optimize (for clicks) –  Your default setting where Google chooses to show the ad that receives the most clicks and performs the best.
2. Do not optimize – Google will rotate the ads evenly forever.
3. Optimize for conversions – Google will show the ad that has the highest conversion rate.
4. Rotate evenly – Google will show the ads evenly for 90 days to gather data before optimizing it as normal.

Ad Scheduling – On all PPC platforms, you have the option to schedule when your ads can be shown. You can choose to show on certain days or certain hours.

Ad Set – The Facebook equivalent of Google’s ad groups. Your ad set contains your ads, and you can edit targeting, ad scheduling, budgets, placement, and bidding from here.

Ad Variations – All PPC platforms have multiple ways of displaying your ad. You can choose your media, your text, and your designs. You can mix and match as you like, and you can test these variations to see which gets the best results.

Ads – An ad is the end product of your work; it is the only thing a customer sees.

AdSense – AdSense is the program that a company can apply to allow Google to show ads on their website.

Advanced Bid Adjustments – Found in your Google Ads navigation bar, advanced bid adj. allow you to adjust bids for advanced settings such as interaction types.

Advertising Policies – Guidelines for what PPC companies allow in your ads. Here are the ones for Google, Facebook, Twitter, Bing, and LinkedIn.

AdWords – The old name for Google Ads. Google Ads is one and the same as AdWords, but the name (and interface) was still changed in 2018.

AdWords Editor – A downloadable software from Google that allows you to make bulk changes to your account. It’s offline, so there’s no internet delay. You can edit campaigns, ad groups, keywords, bids, etc. The only thing you cannot do is see the performance of your account.

AdWords Express – Is the simplified version of Google Ads that requires minimal effort.

Age – A targeting option that’s pretty universal across PPC platforms. Google’s age targeting is broken into segments, and Facebook’s age targeting is very specific by year after 18 and up to 65. Generally, you can pair age and gender when selecting your target on Facebook and Google.

All Conversions – A metric you can view in Google Ads to show you the total amount of conversions that a keyword, ad group, or campaign has gotten.

All Time – An option in most PPC platforms that allow you to view your data from the start to present of running your ads.

Amount Spent – Facebook’s metric for showing you the total amount spent on a campaign, ad set, or ad for a period of time.

Application Program Interface (API) – A program in Google Ads that allows people to manage ads from external applications.

Assists – When a keyword, click, or impression contributes to a conversion. Sometimes certain keywords help other keywords get conversions, etc.

Attribution Modeling – How a customer converted, the journey they took and knowing which parts of the journey are most important. This can be found by going to Google Ads > Tools > Measurement > Search attribution > Attribution Modeling

Auction Insights – A comparison tool in Google Ads that shows your ranking against your competitors.

Audience – Generally, it’s the term for who is seeing your ads. In Google, everyone who makes a search that’s relevant and qualified can be shown your ads. However, you can also create audiences based off of interests and goals set up in Analytics. In Facebook, you can target people based off of a huge plethora of factors.

Audience Network – On Facebook, you can opt into the audience network. This will allow your ads to be shown on apps and websites that have partnered with Facebook.

Automated Rules – Rules you can set up in PPC platforms that automatically perform actions in your account such as pausing/activating ads and raising/lowering bids. You set the action, and you set the criteria that must be met for the action to happen.

Automatic Placements – Where Google places your display network ads. These are websites it chooses based on how you’ve set up your targeting; they’re located in your dimensions tab.

Auto Tagging – When you combine tracking programs like Google Analytics with Google Ads, you’ll be able to add a code to your URLs and track the ad performance.

Average Cost Per Click (Avg. CPC) – The overall average amount that you’re paying for a click on a keyword. You can check what search terms triggered the keyword and contributed to the bill in your search term report. Avg. CPC is the total cost of your clicks divided by the total number of clicks.

Average Position (Avg. Pos.) – The average position your ad landed in the search results.

B

Below the Fold – When you load a webpage, everything you see after scrolling down is below the fold.

Bid – How much you’re willing to pay for a click on your keyword in Google Ads.

Bid Adjustment – In Google Ads, you’re able to adjust how much you’d like to bid on keywords depending on certain criteria such as locations, times, and devices. For example, you can lower bids for Salt Lake City by 20% and raise bids for mobile devices by 10%.

Bid Strategy –  How you want Facebook to allocate your budget. You can aim for the lowest cost per conversion or a target cost per conversion. If you set a bid cap here, you can turn on accelerated delivery to show your ads as fast as possible on Facebook.

Billing Threshold – On a PPC platform, this is when you’ll get charged for your ads. For example, Google will charge you every $500 racked up in your account instead of charging you for every click as it comes through.

Broad Match – The broad match type is the most general of keyword match types. By not including anything with the keyword that you’re bidding on, you tell Google that you’re okay with anything and everything to come through. Google will try to find search terms that are relevant, but your ads will show for things that you generally don’t want them to show for.

Broad Match Modified (BMM) – This is the preferred broad match type. It’s simply putting a + before your keyword. It tells Google to only show your ads for search terms that include your =

Boost Post – Facebook offers the option to promote a post that you make from your business page.

Bounce – When someone clicks on your ad, reaches your landing page, and immediately leaves.

Bounce Rate – The percentage of people who bounce off your page without visiting any other webpage.

Budget – Your predetermined amount that you want to spend on ads. On Facebook, you can give lifetime budgets, daily budgets, and account budgets. On Google, you’ll set a daily budget for a campaign.

Bulk Editing – When you make a large number of changes to your Google Ads account; this is generally done in AdWords Editor.

Bulk Uploading – When you upload CSV files to make a large number of changes to your account.

C

Call Details – A category of columns you can apply in Google Ads to view the number of phone calls, impressions, and the phone through rate that a campaign, ad group, or keyword triggered.

Call Extension – An option you can add to your Google text ads to show your phone number and allow people to click to call you from the ad.

Call to Action (CTA) – A term in marketing for a button, phrase, or device that encourages immediate action such as a response or a sale. In ads, your call to action is generally phrasing such as “Get Your Free Consultation” or “Call Today To Get Your Deal”.

Callout Extensions – Additional text you can add to your Google Ads that appear below the ad itself. These aren’t clickable, but they just highlight additional perks, etc.

Call Only Campaign – A Google Ads campaign that doesn’t send customers to a landing page; their only option is giving you a call from your ad.

Call Tracking – Tracking your phone calls from PPC campaigns to see what specifically is getting you high-quality phone calls.

Campaign – In a PPC account, your campaigns hold the ad groups or ad sets. In Google Ads, your campaign settings include goals, networks, locations, budgeting, bidding strategy, ad rotation settings, etc. In Facebook, the campaign is where you set the objective, buying type, spending limit, and budget optimization option.

Campaign Experiments – In Google, you can test a new strategy against your current campaign strategy. You’ll duplicate a campaign, make changes to the new campaign, and test the two against each other.

Campaign ID – In Facebook, each campaign has a unique ID.

Campaign Placement Exclusions – Similar to negative keywords for the Google Search Network, placement exclusions are websites that you don’t want your display ads to show on.

Campaign Spending Limit – Facebook allows you to set a spending limit for a campaign that it will not go over.

Campaign Type – The type of campaign that you’re running; whether that’s a search only campaign, a display campaign, a search with display opt-in campaign, a video campaign, etc.

Carousel Ad – A type of ad on Facebook that allows you to organize a series of pictures or videos in a specific order for people to swipe through.

Change History – In Google Ads, you have the option to see changes made to the account in the navigation bar.

Click – When someone clicks on your ads…

Click Fraud – When you or a competitor clicks on an ad with the intent of charging them or you money.

Click Through Rate (CTR) – Clicks divided by impressions; this is how often your ad has been clicked on out the number of opportunities it’s had to be clicked.

Click to Call – Another word for call extensions; this just gives the opportunity for a customer to click on part of your ad to call you.

Client ID – In PPC platforms, each account is assigned a client ID of 10 or more numbers to identify their account.

Competitive Metrics – Any metric that shows how you rank against your competitor.

Contextual Targeting – When you tell Google to display your ads on websites that are related to content as opposed to targeting specific websites by URL. You can target by keywords, topics, or interests.

Conversion – An action that you want someone to take. This is the end goal that you track in PPC; it is generally a form submission, a phone call, a chat, download, landing page visit, etc. This is often used interchangeably with a lead.

Conversion Rate – The percentage of people who converted out of the number of people who visited your website.

Conversion Rate Optimization – The science of making changes to your landing page to improve the number of people who convert on it.

Conversion Tracking – When you track conversions; this measures the success of your PPC campaigns.

Conversion Value – Generally used in eCommerce, a conversion value is when you can determine a value for each conversion. For example, if each conversion is a purchase of a $5.00 product, then your conversion value is $5.00

Conversion Window – In Facebook, the conversion window is how long it takes for someone to complete a conversion after viewing your ad. You can choose 1 day or 7 days.

Converted Clicks – Understanding that one ad click can result in one conversion; converted clicks doesn’t count multiple conversions from one click. For example, if one person fills out multiple forms on your website because they forgot something, it only counts as one conversion.

Cookies – Delicious baked goods…wait, sorry. Bits of code that you add onto your website to track a person who visits it. You can use this data to retarget those website visitors.

Cost/Conversion – The amount of money you spent to get a conversion.

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) – Another term for cost per conversion and a bidding strategy.

Cost Per Acquisition Bid Strategy – CPA bidding is where you tell Google how much you’re willing to spend to get a conversion, and Google tries to get you conversions for that amount.

Cost Per Lead (CPL) – Another term for cost per conversion.

Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM) – In Google Ads, CPM is where you pay for every 1000 impressions on your ad; this is used to brand awareness. In Facebook, this is a metric of measuring how much you’re paying for one thousand impressions. It can be used as a metric of ad success, especially if your goal is to get your ad in front of as many people as possible.

Cost Per View (CPV) – How much you’re paying for someone to view your video ad. This is applicable to the Google Display Network, YouTube Ads, and Facebook video ads.

Countdown Timer – A feature you can add to your text ad in Google to countdown to the end of a certain date. This is generally used when you have a sale that you’re counting down to.

CTR (All) – Specifically referring to Facebook metrics, the CTR (All) is the click-through rate of everyone who interacted with your ad. This includes likes, shares, click to expands, etc.

CTR (Link Click Through Rate) – This is the Facebook CTR that you want to focus on; this metric only counts people who’ve clicked your ads and visited your landing page.

Custom Audiences – An audience that you create on Facebook that’s custom-built from a variety of demographics, interests, and other factors. This does not include anyone who has been on your webpage or anyone who is in a Lookalike audience.

Customer Journey – The full experience that a person has with your company. This starts at becoming aware of your brand, to following the marketing funnel, to their continued interaction with your company.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) – The total value a customer gives a company over a period of time. For example, if a customer generally signs up for a $5/mo. subscription for 12 months, their CLV is $60.

D

Daily Budget – The amount of money you want to spend per day.

Data Filters – Filters you can apply to your data to sort and view metrics that you want to see. These generally include performance filters, conversion filters, attribution filters, and more.

Default Max. CPC – This is the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for a click for all the keywords in one ad group. Setting max CPCs on a keyword level overrides this feature.

Demographics – This refers to the age and gender of your audience. In Google, you can set bid adjustments for these, and on Facebook, you can specifically target a choice demographic.

Description Lines – In a Google text ad, you have two lines of text you can fill. These lines will have smaller font than your headlines, but they offer more character space.

Destination URL – The URL of the landing page you’re actually sending people to when they click on your ad. Unless you specify it to, this won’t appear visibly in your ads.

Devices – The medium a customer is using to view your ads – generally separated into computers, tablets, and phones.

Dimensions Tab – A way of pulling quick reports in Google Ads. Under Reports, there’s a tab labeled Predefined reports (Dimensions) that gives you a variety of metrics to build quick reports out of.

Display Bid –The amount you’re willing to pay for someone to click on your ad on the display network.

Display URL – The URL that you show with your ad. Although your ad still goes to the destination URL, you can control what URL users actually see.

Display Ad – Images or gifs that appear on the Google display network.

Display Network – A group of websites that partnered with Google to show ads on them. This reaches over 90% of internet users.

Double Serving – When more than one ad from the same company appears on one website at the same time on the display network.

Dynamic Ad Targeting – Text ads where the headline is generated by Google to match customer search terms with information found on your landing page. It’s designed to make your ads even more relevant to the customer.

Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) – A bit of coding you can add to your text ad to dynamically insert a keyword when the keyword is triggered by a search term.

E

Editorial Review – The process in which you submit your ad or keyword to the PPC platform to review to ensure it meets their policies and standards.

End Date – The last day that you want your campaign, ad, or ad extension to run.

Enhanced Campaigns – The campaigns that you see in Google Ads today are considered enhanced campaigns due to the ability you now have to edit bid adjustments for many options.

Enhanced CPC (ECPC) – This is a bidding strategy you can set with Google Ads where you set the max CPC, but Google can increase it by 30% if they think a conversion will happen.

Events – A meeting of sorts that you can organize and promote on Facebook.

Exact Match – A keyword type that is specified by brackets and will only show your ads for a search term that matches that keyword exactly. For example, the exact match keyword [diamond climbing shoes] will only show ads for the search term, diamond climbing shoes.

F

Facebook Ad Manager – The PPC platform where you can create, manage, and display ads on Facebook.

Facebook Ads – Ads that you show on Facebook.

Facebook Dynamic Ads – A type of ad on Facebook that allows you to show a variety of ads from your website’s catalog. This is popular with eCommerce stores that show ads for products that you looked at previously.

First & Last Click Analysis – A report in Google Ads that shows the difference between counting conversions as the first click and the last click.

Form – An online field that you place on your landing page to gather customer information. Generally, a form submission is a conversion or a lead.

Free Clicks – Clicks on your ad that aren’t billable. If you have an interactive or expandable ad, the clicks on those won’t be billed. If someone clicks on the ad to visit your landing page, that’s when the clicks will be billed.

Frequency – How often your ad is shown, on average, to a person. This is for image ads such as display ads and Facebook ads.

Frequency Capping – A limit you can set on your image ads to limit the number of times a person will see them per day.

G

Gated Content – Gated content is content that someone has to exchange information – such as their email address for. These are generally free offers you’re giving to someone such as an eBook to build your list of potential clients.

Geotargeting – Deciding where in the world you want your ads to show.

Google Ads – The PPC ad platform for Google and the Google network.

Google Analytics – The tracking platform you can integrate with Google Ads to track your ads and website performance.

Google Checkout – Google’s service for buying and selling. Companies that integrate with this can display an icon with their ads to increase user appreciation.

Google Forwarding Number – A phone number you can generate through Google to track your calls and performance.

Google Merchant Center – A place for eCommerce advertisers to upload their products to so they can participate in Google Shopping, run product ads, and use Google Commerce Search.

Google Tag Manager – A tool that allows you to organize all of your tracking codes in one place. Using Google Tag Manager allows you to only insert one code into your website, landing page, or app instead of dozens. This also makes it easy to add or remove codes without making changes to each individual source.

H

Headline – The very first part of your text ad; this will be the largest and most visible part of your ad.

Headline, Extended – When you add a period to your first headline on Google Ads, it will extend your character count and display your headline as a hyperlink.

Hits – Another term for when someone visits your landing page.

Home Tab – Your dashboard on PPC platforms for viewing your entire account performance at a glance.

I

Image Ad – Ads that are…images, and gifs. These display on display networks and on visual platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Impressions – When your ad appears on a page. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the person saw your ad.

Impression Share (IS) – The number of impressions you had out of the number of impressions you could’ve gotten for that specific keyword.

Instagram Ad – Ads that appear on Instagram; these are created in the Facebook Ads Manager.

Interaction – On Facebook, interaction is counted when someone performs any action on your ad such as liking it, sharing it, or clicking to watch it.

Interaction Rate – The percentage of people who interacted with your ad out of the total number of impressions.

Interest Category – On the Google Display Network, you can target people based on their interests such as sports, shopping, childcare, etc.

Invalid Clicks – Another word for click fraud. Where someone clicks on your ad with the intent of charging you money.

J

Jargon – Perhaps this is less PPC specific, but jargon refers to industry-specific language. This entire PPC glossary is going over the jargon of our industry.

K

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – Metrics that you track that are important. These metrics specifically track how your account is actually doing based on ROI, cost per conversion, etc.

Keyword – The word or set of words that you’d like your ads to show for; these are the words  you’re bidding on.

Keyword Bid – The amount of money you tell the PPC platform that you’re willing to pay for a click on an ad triggered by that keyword.

Keyword Match Type – The way you tell Google how close the search terms need to be to your keyword. In order from least to most restrictive, you have broad match, broad match modifier, phrase match, and exact match.

Keyword Mining – When you’re looking for new keywords to bid on or exclude.

Keyword Mining by Broad Match – When you use broad match keywords to see what search terms come through and if you want to add them to your account later.

Keyword Planner – A feature that Google Ads offers to let you find new keywords based on existing ones, words on your website, and a description of your business. You can also use this tool to see forecasts for how much traffic a keyword might get, the competitive level, and how much it costs.

L

Labels – These are labels you can apply to campaigns, ad groups, ads, and keywords to group, label, and track them.

Landing Page – A webpage that you send the people who click on your ads to; a landing page is designed to have someone convert.

Landing Page Views (FB) – Facebook’s click metric that you want to track; this is when someone clicks on your ad and visits your landing page.

Languages – A targeting option you have for showing your ads to people who speak a certain language.

Lead – These are generally sales leads, or conversions, which a sales team can follow up on.

Lifetime Budget (FB) – For any campaign, ad set, or ad in Facebook, you can set a lifetime budget that Facebook won’t go over. This must be paired with a start and end date.

Limited By Budget – One of the worst notices you can get in Google Ads; this means your ads aren’t available to show all day because there’s not enough money to keep showing them.

Link Clicks – The click metric on Facebook that you generally don’t want to track. Link clicks are when someone clicks on your ad link, your CTA, etc. When it comes to accuracy, you want to look at the landing page view stat.

LinkedIn Ad – Ads that are run on the PPC platform side of LinkedIn.

Location Extension – In Google Ads, you can put an extension that shows the address to your brick-and-mortar location.

Locations – Also known as Geo-targeting, your location settings include where you want to show your ads.

Longtail Keyword – These are your longer keywords that have two or more words in them. There are generally specific keywords that match closely to search terms and have high conversion intent.

Lookalike Audiences – On Facebook, you can upload or give Facebook an audience whose information you already have – such as your email list or your remarketing audience. Then you can tell Facebook to target a group of users who have similarities to your existing list.

Low Search Volume – This is a status Google Ads can put on keywords; this means that keyword doesn’t get searched very often and might not be relevant to many search terms at all.

M

Manual Bidding – The bidding strategy that gives you the most control in Google Ads; you choose the bids and Google can’t adjust or go over them.

Manual Tagging – Where you tag your landing pages manually instead of allowing auto-tagging. You set up your own “_utm” information which will appear in hidden form fields so you or Google Analytics can track what you want to track.

Maximize Clicks – The bidding strategy where you give the PPC platform your budget and they try to get you the most clicks for that budget.

Message Extensions – A new ad extension in Google Ads that encourages your customers to send you a text message instead of calling or visiting your landing page.

Messenger Ad (FB) – A type of ad on Facebook where the tracked conversion is a messenger conversation starter.

Microsoft Ads (Formerly Bing Ads) – Microsoft’s PPC advertising service.

Microsoft Ads Editor – A downloadable software that allows you to make mass changes to your Microsoft Ads account.

Microsoft Campaign Analytics – Microsoft’s version of Google Analytics; this lets you track how your ads are performing.

Multivariate Testing – When you compare versions of a webpage, an app, an ad, etc. against each other to see which gets better results. However, unlike A/B testing, multiple aspects are changed.

My Client Center (MCC) – For anyone who manages more than one Google Ads account, having an MCC allows you to quickly toggle between all your accounts.

N

Negative Keyword –  Words that you don’t want your ad to show for. You can add these words on a campaign, ad group, or account level. Generally, these are search terms that previously triggered your ad that you don’t want to see again.

Negative Keyword List – A list you can put negative keywords on to easily add them to new campaigns, ad groups, etc.

Negative Placement – Negative keyword list for display ads on Google. You can tell Google what websites or topics you don’t want your display ads to show on/for.

Networks – Places where your ads can show. There’s the search network for your text ad, which composes of Google searches and partner search engines. Then there’s the display network which is a whole slew of websites that have partnered with Google to show ads on them.

O

Objective – On Facebook, you choose an objective for your campaign. You tell Facebook what you want your campaign to achieve and what you want it to track.

Offer – When you run ads, your offer is what you’re giving to customers in hopes of getting them to convert and eventually buy.

Optimization – The process of making changes to an account, a landing page, or strategy to continually improve your results.

Optimization for Ad Delivery – This is an option where you tell Facebook to show your ads to people it thinks are most likely to perform a certain action. Your default is generally aligned with your goal (conversions for conversions, etc.), but you can set the optimization for other goals.

Organic Search Results – These are all the search results that appear under the ads.

P

Page Engagement –  When someone interacts with your business page due to your Facebook ads, it’s counted as a page engagement.

Path Length – Or known as Top Conversion Paths, is your way of seeing what prompted the customer to complete their conversion. Generally, you can track patterns between webpage and ad views before the conversion was complete.

Pay Per Action – The pay per conversion pricing that is offered by some PPC platforms; the advertiser pays each time a conversion or action is taken, but the pricing for the action is higher.

Pay Per Click (PPC) – An model for advertising where the advertiser pays when their ad is clicked.

Pay Per Click Management – An agency or person that will manage the ads and ad strategy for a client wishing to run PPC.

Persona Research – The process of understanding who your clients and ideal clients are, drafting up a persona of who they are, so you can target them with ads to gain more customers.

Phrase Match – A keyword match type in Google that is identified with quotation marks. It tells Google that you only want your ads to show for search terms that contain those keywords in that exact order. Words can come before or after a phrase match keyword, but the order of words can’t be switched up or interrupted.

Placement Targeting – Where you want your ads to show. Generally, this is in reference to the Google Display Network.

Post – On Facebook, a post is an image or text that you share on your page; you can boost posts to turn them into ads as well.

Post Engagement – Any action someone takes on your Facebook post ad is considered a post engagement.

Price Extension – In Google Ads, you can create an extension to show your prices.

Product Listing Ads (PLA) – The old name for Google Shopping Ads, these are ads that display the physical products that you’d like to sell. They can display on the Google Search Network next to other ads.

Promotion Extension – A Google Ad extension that you can add to display promotions and deals that you’re offering.

Q

Quality Score – In a nutshell, the Google Ads Quality Score is a number from 1-10 that ranks how relevant your keyword, ad, and landing page is to each other.

R

Reach – On Facebook, your reach is how many people saw your ads at least once. This is different from impressions, which counts the total number of times your ad was seen.

Recommended Daily Budget – PPC platforms will recommend how much you should spend each day based off of your keywords.

Relevance Score – Similar to Google Ads’ Quality Score, this is the rating from 1-10 of how well users are reacting to your Facebook ad.

Remarketing – A strategy where you show your ads specifically to people who’ve visited your website or interacted with your brand before.

Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) – In Google Ads, this is where you make ads and show them only to your remarketing audience.

Results – In Facebook specifically, your results refer to how often your ads get the action specified in your campaign objective. Basically another word for conversions.

Retargeting – The remarketing strategy on Facebook.

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) – For campaigns where you can determine an exact dollar amount that each conversion gets you (like eCommerce), you can set a bid strategy to specifically target for a percentage of return.

Return on Investment (ROI) – The term for making sure the money you’re putting into ads, marketing, etc. is making you more money than you’re spending.

S

Scripts – A way to automate your Google Ads by adding programming into your account. You can use scripts to A/B test your account, pause overspending campaigns, and/or track which keywords are increasing or decreasing in traffic.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – Online marketing where you can promote your website by paying search engines like Google to improve your visibility in search results.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – A process for improving your website to raise the ranking it gets organically in search engine results. The higher you organically appear in search results, the more relevant your page is to the search term, and the more traffic you’ll get.

Search Engine Results Page (SERP) – What you see after you type a search into your browser and hit enter.

Search Funnel – A report in Google Ads that shows assisted keywords and steps that led up to your conversions.

Search Network – A place on the internet where you can show your ads when people search for something.

Search Partner – These are websites that partnered with Google to show ads in their search results. You can’t target specific websites, but you can choose whether or not you want to have your ads show on the partners.

Search Term – A search term or a search query is the words that someone typed into the search network to trigger your ad. The search term will include your keywords.

Search Term Report – This is where you can see the list of search terms that triggered your ads.

Shared Budget – When you have a set amount of money that you share between multiple campaigns.

Shopping Campaigns – How you sell your physical products on Google Ads; this is for eCommerce and retail companies.

Sitelink Extension – An extension you can add to your Google ad to allow users to visit another part of your website for more information.

Smart Bidding – The automated bidding strategies that Google offers; these include CPA, ROAS, max conversions, and Enhanced CPC.

Smoke Test – A strategy to see which offer your audience responds to best by testing a set of fake offers that give an error when it’s accepted.

Social Extension – An extension you add to Google Ads to show your social ratings.

Split Testing – Showing your audiences different ads and landing pages to see which works best so you can continually improve your strategy.

Status – An important column in your PPC platform to notice. This will show you if your ad has been approved.

Structured Snippet Extension – An extension you can add to your Google ad that covers the variety of types, brands, models, etc. of what you offer.

T

Targeting – Who you want to see your ads. When you target a group of people, you’re telling the PPC platform that you only want the people who meet a set of criteria to see your ads.

Target Cost Per Acquisition – A bid strategy where you tell Google what you want to pay per conversion, and Google adjusts bids to get you the most conversions for your budget.

Target Search Page Location – A bid strategy you can set up to simply have your ads appear at the top of the page or on the first page of search results.

Text Ad – An ad that’s composed 100% of text, and it only shows up on the search networks.

Thank You Page – The webpage you send your converters to; this confirms their conversion.

Time Lag Path – How long it takes for a person to see your ad and then convert.

Top Path – A report you can access that shows you the most used ways people are navigating your ads and website to finally convert.

Topic Targeting – When you tell Google to put your display ads on websites based on the topics they cover.

Tracking Code – A bit of code you can add to your websites to view where the visitor came from and what they did after they converted. Here’s an example of what they look like:

Trial – An offer where you give away your service for free for a period of time to entice someone into buying the full product or service.

TrueView Video Ads – A video ad format for YouTube that is designed to be easy to make and use.

U

Universal Resource Locator (URL) – Fancy word for a web address.

Upgraded URL – Separate from a final URL in the fact that it can track your visitor without changing the website address’ appearance.

V

View Through Conversion – In the Google Display Network, this refers to when someone views your video, doesn’t click, but converts later.

Visitor – Someone who clicks on your ad and visits your website.

W

Website Call Conversions – When a customer makes a call from your landing page, you can track it in Google Ads or with a call tracking software. When you track the calls like this, you can see what keywords led to that call.

Website Conversion – A conversion that happens on your landing page; this includes calls, form submissions, and purchases.

Website Conversion Value – If you can assign a value to the conversion that happens on your website, then you have a conversion value. Generally, this is for eCommerce and online retailers.

Website Optimizer – A tool you can use to run tests on your website and determine what will get you the better results and conversions.

My Ask of You

I hope you find this compilation useful. I do, however, have a favor to beg of you:

If there are any important terms we missed, please leave us a comment below!

As time goes on, we hope to keep this list updated, and you can help!