Glossary

PPC Glossary

Every PPC term you need to know, defined without jargon.

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

A

A/B Test: An experiment comparing two versions of an ad, landing page, or other element to determine which performs better.
Ad Extensions: Additional pieces of information (sitelinks, callouts, phone numbers) that expand your ad to make it more useful.
Ad Group: A container within a Google Ads campaign that holds a set of related keywords and ads.
Ad Rank: A value that determines your ad position on the page. Calculated from bid, Quality Score, and extension impact.
Attribution Model: The rule or set of rules that determines how credit for conversions is assigned to touchpoints in the customer journey.
Audience Segmentation: Dividing your target audience into distinct groups based on shared characteristics for more targeted messaging.

Bid Strategy: The approach used to set bids for your ads. Can be manual or automated (smart bidding).
Broad Match: A keyword match type where your ad can show for searches related to your keyword, including synonyms and related queries.

CAC: Customer Acquisition Cost. The total cost to acquire one new customer, including all marketing and sales expenses.
CBO: Campaign Budget Optimization. A Meta Ads feature that distributes budget across ad sets to maximize results.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of people who click your ad after seeing it. Calculated as clicks divided by impressions.
Consent Mode: A Google framework that adjusts tag behavior based on user consent status, enabling modeled conversions without cookies.
Conversion: A completed desired action — purchase, form submission, phone call, signup — tracked by your advertising platform.
Conversion Rate: The percentage of visitors who complete a desired action. Calculated as conversions divided by clicks or sessions.
CPA: Cost Per Acquisition (or Cost Per Action). The average cost to generate one conversion.
CPC: Cost Per Click. The average amount you pay each time someone clicks your ad.
CPL: Cost Per Lead. The average cost to generate one lead through your advertising.
CPM: Cost Per Mille (Thousand Impressions). The cost to show your ad 1,000 times.
Creative: The visual and textual content of your ad — images, videos, headlines, descriptions.
Creative Fatigue: When an ad's performance declines because the target audience has seen it too many times.
Custom Audience: A targeting option on Meta that lets you reach people based on your existing customer data or website visitors.

Data-Driven Attribution: An attribution model that uses machine learning to assign conversion credit based on actual data patterns.
Display Network: A network of millions of websites, apps, and videos where your Display ads can appear.
DPA: Dynamic Product Ads. Ads that automatically show products from your catalog to people who expressed interest.

eCPC: Enhanced CPC. A bid strategy that adjusts manual bids based on conversion likelihood.
Enhanced Conversions: A feature that sends hashed first-party data to improve conversion measurement accuracy.
Exact Match: A keyword match type where your ad only shows for searches that match the exact meaning of your keyword.

Frequency: The average number of times a user sees your ad within a given period.
Frequency Capping: A setting that limits how many times your ad is shown to the same user.

GA4: Google Analytics 4. Google's current analytics platform, replacing Universal Analytics.
GCLID: Google Click Identifier. A unique parameter added to URLs that helps Google track conversions.
GTM: Google Tag Manager. A free tool for managing tracking tags on your website without editing code.

Hook Rate: The percentage of video viewers who watch past the first 3 seconds.

Impression: One instance of your ad being displayed to a user.
Impression Share: The percentage of total available impressions your ads received.

Keyword: A word or phrase that triggers your Search or Shopping ad to appear.

Landing Page: The specific web page a user arrives on after clicking your ad.
Lookalike Audience: A Meta targeting option that finds new people similar to your existing customers.
LSA: Local Services Ads. Google's pay-per-lead ad format for local service businesses.
LTV: Lifetime Value. The total revenue a customer generates over their entire relationship with your business.

Match Type: A setting that determines how closely a search query needs to match your keyword to trigger your ad.
MQL: Marketing Qualified Lead. A lead that meets predefined marketing criteria for quality.

Negative Keyword: A keyword that prevents your ad from showing for certain search queries.

Offline Conversion Import: Sending CRM data back to ad platforms so they can optimize for leads that become customers.

Performance Max: A Google Ads campaign type that uses AI to run ads across all Google channels from a single campaign.
Phrase Match: A keyword match type where your ad shows for searches that include the meaning of your keyword.
Pixel: A piece of tracking code placed on your website that sends data back to an ad platform.

Quality Score: Google's 1-10 rating of keyword/ad/landing page quality in Google Ads. Affects ad rank and CPC.

Retargeting: Showing ads to people who have previously visited your website or engaged with your content.
RLSA: Remarketing Lists for Search Ads. Adjusting Search bids for people who have already visited your website.
ROAS: Return On Ad Spend. Revenue generated per euro spent on ads. A ROAS of 4x means €4 revenue per €1 spent.
ROI: Return On Investment. Profit generated relative to total investment, including costs beyond ad spend.
RSA: Responsive Search Ad. A Google Ads format where you provide multiple headlines and descriptions for automated testing.

Search Term: The actual words a user types into Google. Distinct from 'keyword,' which is what you bid on.
Smart Bidding: Google's automated bid strategies that use machine learning to optimize for conversions or conversion value.
SQL: Sales Qualified Lead. A lead that sales has accepted as meeting their criteria for outreach.

tCPA: Target CPA. A smart bidding strategy that sets bids to achieve your target cost per acquisition.
tROAS: Target ROAS. A smart bidding strategy that sets bids to achieve your target return on ad spend.

UGC: User-Generated Content. Content created by real users or creators, often used in ads for authenticity.
UTM Parameters: Tags added to URLs that help analytics tools identify the source, medium, and campaign of traffic.

View-Through Conversion: A conversion that occurs after someone sees (but does not click) your ad.