Google Ads (Google AdWords)

An ad optimization strategy that compares the performance of multiple variations of a single ad to see which one performs better.

A piece of technology on Google’s Display Network that lets AdWords know if your display ad is actually viewable by potential customers. This term might be found on display specific columns when you pull reports.

How quickly Google serves your ads. Or, we can say, how quickly you spend your daily allocated budget. AdWords offers two choices for Ad Delivery — Accelerated and Standard.

A form of Ad Delivery that serves your ads as quickly as possible. This method rapidly spends your daily allocated budget.

The default form of Ad Delivery that spaces out the serving of yours ads throughout the course of the day to balance your daily budget. This option is recommended if you want to create an even distribution of your ads throughout the day.

Ad extensions provide additional information to complement your ad text. They are designed to make your ad more relevant and engaging.Ad extensions are a factor in calculating Ad Rank.

“Visual enhancements” to help make your search ads more compelling to your customers. Ad Extensions are an example of Ad Formats.

The structure that contains one or more ads and a target set of keywords for Google Search, and a target set of placements for Google Display.

A specified bid that applies to all keywords and placements within a given Ad Group that do not have individual custom bids at a keyword or placement level.

The order in which your ad appears in Google’s search results. Ads 1-3 will appear on the top of the search results page, while ads 4-11 appear on the right.

A tool Google created to help you test what your ads look like and troubleshoot issues without artificially increasing the number of impressions your ads see (so you don’t have to go type your keywords into Google search to see what your ad looks like).

The formula Google created to determine your ad’s position in the search results.

An indicator that lets Google know how closely related your keywords are to your ads and website landing page. Google’s Quality Score values Ad Relevance above anything else. Make sure your keyword is featured in your ad text and is somewhere on your website landing page to increase Ad relevance and thus Quality score.

A feature in AdWords that allows you to determine which one of your ads within an Ad Group should be served the most. It’s important to note that no two ads are created equal. Some will perform better than others, which makes the Ad Rotation Settings so important. There are 2 settings to choose from: Optimize and Rotate Indefinitely.

A setting within AdWords that allows you to select the time of day and day of the week to serve your ads. This is a great option for businesses that only want to serve ads during their hours of operation.

A description that will inform you if your ads are eligible to run. If your ads are not eligible to run, the Ad Status will give you some information about the policy restrictions you violated. Ad Status can be found in the “Status” column in your AdWords campaign or ad group.

The different combinations of text and imagery you create as part of your “ad”. Multiple variations are a good way to test which photos, text elements, and designs resonate most with your customers.

The tool Google built to give publishers of all shapes and sizes the ability to host ads on their site to make money off ads. If you’re serving ads on Google’s Display Network, your ads are likely to show up as AdSense ads.

Rules that determine what your ads can say and advertise. Ads that violate these policies will be marked as “Disapproved” or “Suspended”, meaning they are not allowed to run.

The piece of technology that lets advanced AdWords users build software applications to interact and make changes to their campaigns. To use the AdWords API, you will need a My Client Center account and a developer token. API stands for Application Program Interface.

A free tool from Google that allows advertisers to make bulk changes to their account (bids, keywords, ads, and other settings changes).

A monetary “credit” that’s applied to your AdWords account after completing some sort of necessary action. Promo codes are usually given out by Google and their partners to help get new advertisers to spend on AdWords.

Directs people to nearby stores that stock particular products. They’re designed for manufacturers of consumer products to direct customers to stores.

The total number of conversions AdWords drives for your business. All Conversions take into account the data in your Conversion column, all “conversion” actions you may not have included in your Conversion column, and “advanced conversion sources” like specific types of phone calls, store visits, cross-device conversions and more.

Allows you to include a link to your app on Google Play and the Apple App Store. The headline of the ad will continue to link through to your website.

The status given to ads that adhere to Google’s policies, but are limited in where they are able to be shown. Common reasons why ads are given the “Approved (Limited)” status include mobile rendering issues, gambling content, healthcare offers, and more.

The status given to ads that are allowed to run on the AdWords network.

A feature that helps AdWords “talk” to Google Analytics through dynamically generated URL parameters.

A feature that helps you spend less time monitoring your campaigns by allowing AdWords to automatically change your bids, budgets, and statuses.

The bidding strategy that lets Google automatically adjust your maximum bids across keywords.

The AdWords billing feature that allows Google to automatically bill you after accruing costs in your AdWords account. You are billed after one of 2 things happen:
1. 30 days after your last payment
2. When your costs reach the set amount that triggers your bill (bill threshold)

The website placements that Google will serve your ads on based on the targeting you set in your Display campaign. You can find these placements by drilling into the “Dimensions” tab in your display campaign.

The average amount you are charged after a potential customer clicks on your ad. Average CPC is calculated by dividing the total cost of your clicks by the total number of clicks.

This statistic will show you the position your ad ranks compared to other ads on average. The highest position is #1, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s showing on the top of the page, just that your ad is the first ad to show. Note: Google used to display ads on the right side of the SERP but has since changed and now ads only show at the top and the bottom of the results page.

The alert Google will apply to your keywords when the bid you have selected is not high enough to get your ad on the first page of the search results due to the competitive nature of that keyword.

Refers to the content, ads, etc. that are only seen after you begin scrolling down the page. The term was taken from print newspapers where stories “below the fold” were actually below the physical fold on the front page of the paper. In the digital context, this is also known as “below the scroll”.

A specific percentage increase or decrease on your bids across keywords, locations, devices, schedules, and more. They give you more control over the circumstances in which your ads are served by Google.

The amount of money or time that, when crossed, will trigger Google to charge you for your accrued costs. This applies to automatic payments only.

The rate of visitors to your website that leaves without visiting more than one page of your site.

The keyword setting that allows your ads to be triggered when any type of similar variation, synonym, or phrase is searched. It will have the largest reach (impressions) compared to all other match types but will be far less targeted.

The keyword setting that will give you reach (impressions) similar to broad match keywords, but also give you more control over who you’re serving your ads to. They tell Google certain words in your keywords phrase need to be present in the search term of your customers. Broad match keywords are indicated by a " " sign. The broad match modified keyword "women’s hats" will only cause your ads to trigger if the term "women’s" is in the search phrase. The order of the words does not matter.

A payment feature that allows you to tell Google how much money you want to spend over a specific period of time. This feature is only available to advertisers that have set up monthly invoicing.

The feature that allows you to make edits to campaigns across your account all at once.

Data that is stored temporarily on your computer by your internet browser as you visit different websites.

Adds a phone number to your ad which is displayed across mobile, tablet and desktop devices.

A campaign feature that allows you to make calling your business the only action your customers can take from viewing your ad. Call Only campaigns will not direct clicks to your website.

A word or phrase to promote an immediate response from your customers. “Call Now!”, “Shop Today”, and “Subscribe” are all example of calls to action.

The ability to track how many calls your business received as a result of your AdWords campaigns. You need to enable a Google Forwarding Phone Number in order to effectively leverage Call Tracking.

Shows short snippets of additional text with your ad. Ideally, call-outs should include additional features, benefits and selling points that aren’t included in the main ad text.

The structure within AdWords that holds your keywords and ad groups. All ad groups within a Campaign share a budget and similar settings around targeting. You can have one or many campaigns as part of your AdWords account.

An indicator to let you know where or not your ads can run or are running at that moment. A few examples of Campaign Status’ include: Eligible, Paused, Removed, and Ended.

The 3-digit security number that most often located on the back of your credit card. CVN is needed to complete the AdWords billing requirements.

A report that allows you to look back at all the changes you made to your account and campaigns. All changes are time stamped and include the person that was signed in to make the changes.

The act of clicking the link in your ad. A click most often leads to a website visit.

The percent of people that click on your ad after viewing it. The formula to determine your CTR is the total number of clicks divided by the total number of impressions.

A feature that allows you to receive one bill for the costs accrued across multiple AdWords accounts.

The method Google uses to target specific websites on Google’s Display Network by leveraging your keywords and topics. If one of your keywords is “ski gear”, Google will find all the websites that include that keyword and serve your ads on those sites.

The action of your customer taking the desired action as a result of your marketing/advertising. Conversions are defined by the advertiser, but often include sales on your website, sign-ups on a lead gen form, or phone call to your business.

An AdWords tool that predicts which types of clicks are the most valuable to your business, and then automatically adjusts your bids to attract the clicks that are most likely to drive conversions.

The average number of conversions you will see per click on your ad.

The method of tracking the important actions your customers make (sales, sign-ups, etc.) that come as a result of Google AdWords ads.

The number of days after a click that a conversion can still be recorded. You can set the conversion window to be more or less than the default (30 days).

A small file that’s saved on your computer by the websites you visit. Cookies are used by websites to recognize your preferences.

The price you pay Google each time someone clicks on your ad.

The price you pay Google every time your Display ad sees 1,000 impressions.

The price you pay Google every time someone views one of your video ads.

The unique number that’s assigned to your Google Adwords account. It’s a 3-part number that can be found on the top right corner of your AdWords dashboard.

The maximum amount of money you tell Google you want to spend across your campaigns per day. It’s important to note that Google can spend up to 20% over your daily budget on some days, so long as the average number of dollars spent over 30 days does not exceed your daily budget.

A setting within AdWords that allows you to select the time of day and day of the week to serve your ads. This is a great option for businesses that only want to serve ads during their hours of operation. Dayparting is also known as “Ad Scheduling”.

A specific type of URL that takes your customers to a specific page in your app.

The “real” URL that will take your customers to your website after click on your ad. The Destination URL often looks a little different than the Display URL. Note: Google announced that the Final URL was replacing the Destination URL in a “URL Upgrade.”

One of the internet’s largest content networks. It contains more than a million websites and apps that can serve your ads.

The websites that partner will Google to serve Display ads.

A tool that helps you determine which display placements would be the best fit for your business goals.

What the URL looks like as it’s displayed on your ad. The display URL can look different than the destination URL to keep your ad looking tidy. Your display URL can look like this:
www.tryadhawk.com/signup
while your destination looks like this https://tryadhawk.com/ads/help/sign-up/letsgo.

The status your ad receives before it’s officially reviewed by Google. Eligible ads can still be served and will be seen on Google’s search results page.

A feature that allows you to select the length of time you want your campaigns to run. After that date, your ads will stop running.

A bidding feature that allows Google to automatically bid up 30% when it thinks a click will lead to a conversion. You want between 50-100 conversions before you enable eCPC.

A keyword setting that makes it so your customers have to enter in the exact keyword phrase in order for your ad to show. You create exact match keywords by placing brackets around the keyword phrase: [women’s hats]

Launched in early 2017, this is now the primary form of text ad in Google AdWord and standard text ads will no longer be supported. They have 3 main parts: 1. Two headline fields that can hold up to 30 characters each. 2. One descriptive line, with up to 80 characters. 3. The Display URL based off of your final URL.

Expected click-through rate is a measure of how likely your ad will get clicked on using a particular keyword. It is one of the three major factors in determining your quality score.

The trick that allows you to create a larger headline by including a period after the last word in the first description line. This feature has become outdated ever since Expanded Text Ads have gone live.

A basic capability in AdWords that lets you restrict the type of data that you see in your tables and charts.

Google’s estimated bid you will need to set in order for your ad to appear on the first page of the search results. These are positions #1-10.

One of the core bid strategies that automate your budget allocation across multiple campaigns, ad groups and keywords. Google allocates your budget to maximize performance. You can create and store a flexible strategy in the Shared Library. You can then apply your strategy from the Campaign, Ad group, or Keyword level.

Definition from Google – “the average number of times a unique user sees your ad in a position of “1” over a given time period”. Google will, by default, continue to show your ad even if a user has seen it before.

A feature that lets you control the number of times your ad appears to the same person on the Display Network.

Target audiences based on where they are in the world. You can also choose areas to avoid.

Adds visitors to your basic remarketing lists and sets new cookies on your domain, which will store information about the ad click that brought the user to your website. You must install this tag on every page of your website.

The first line of your image, text, and search ads. This is the first thing people will see, so make sure it not only draws people in but also gives people an idea of what you are promoting/offering.

A feature in Google AdWords that allows you to compare the quality score of different keywords based on historical data. Prior to this update, you could only see the current quality score but could not compare it to past ones. Similar to a regular quality score, the historical one is based off: 1. Historical Ad Relevance 2. Historical CTR 3. Historical Landing Page Experience.

A type of display ad that includes an image, title, description, and link to your Landing Page.

A core performance metric that tells you how many times your ad has been shown on the Search and Display networks.

Video ads that appear on the side of the YouTube stream and as an optional video to play on the Display Network.

The ability to change your ads, keywords, placements, bids, and other information about your campaigns from the performance table & dashboard within AdWords.

Video ads that place before, mid-roll, or after another YouTube video or display network video. The viewer is required to watch 5 seconds of the in-stream ads before they can skip.

A core performance metric that tells you how many times users performed the main action for the specific ad format. More simply, an interaction can be: 1. Click for Text Ads 2. Click for Image Ads 3. Video Views for TrueView video ads 4. Engagements for Lightbox ads

Clicks on ads that Google marks as illegitimate. Google claims to examine every single click. There are a number of qualifications for an invalid click: 1. unintentional clicks 2. software generated clicks (crawling, malicious software) 3. clicks from owners of the site your display ad shows on 4. robot clicks 5. a double click

A tool to exclude certain products in your Merchant Center from appearing in your Product Listing Ads.

An ID number for every computer or device connected to the internet. You can exclude certain IP addresses from seeing your ads like your co-workers, family, and friends.

Also known as Keyword Match Types, these are the different setting for each keyword to control how closely the search term must be to the keyword in order to trigger your ad.

The gathering of keywords for your business and ads. You can mine (gather) keywords using the Keyword Planner or Search Terms Report

An essential tool that lets you test the search volume, bid estimate, and competition for certain keywords.

Google’s prescribed status of your keyword.

Words or phrases describing your product or service that you choose to trigger your ads. The keywords determine when your ads show. When your keyword matches what people search on Google, your ad will appear.

The web page your audience lands or ends up on when they click your ad i.e. the result of the Destination URL.

One of the core targeting options for Search and Display campaigns. For display campaigns, choose the language of the sites that you’d like your ads to appear on.

A targeting option that allows you to target your ads based on major life events such as weddings, new children, moving, etc.

A Campaign Status that lets you know that your budget is lower than the Recommended Daily Budget. In other words, your ad is not reaching its full potential because your bid is not competitive enough. Your campaign can still be successful.

Adds location details to your ad, so that people can find your business location.

A status for certain keywords alerting you that the keyword or keywords you selected are not searched very often. This doesn’t necessarily require action – in fact, some look for these keywords because they are oftentimes low competition and highly specific.

A type of targeting that allows you to choose specific websites, videos, and apps on the Google Display Network to show your ads on. This gives you more control over where your ads appear for “Display Network only,” “Search & Display Networks,” and “Search Network with Display Select” campaign types.

Select the maximum cost-per-click bid amount for your ad group’s default bid. When you identify certain placements, keywords, audiences, and times of day that have the best returns, you can use manual bidding to increase returns.

A bid strategy that optimizes your campaigns for the most clicks.

An automated smart bidding strategy where Google optimizes for higher volume of conversions, rather than the amount of dollars your conversions are generating.

The highest amount that you’re willing to pay for a click on your ad. This is specific to your business and marketing strategy.

Gives customers the option contact you by sending a text message from your ad.

An advertisement that displays only on cellphones or tablets. AdWords campaigns default to show on mobile and desktop.

Ads that show only on mobile. Though this is not a specific setting or checkbox provided in the AdWords interface.

An AdWords& overall Google account feature that allows you to sign in to multiple Google accounts (such as your personal and business accounts) and quickly toggle between the two.

According to Google, this setting, “optimizes your ads for each individual auction using signals like keyword, search term, device, location, and more.”

The natural or free results from certain search terms on the Google Search results page. Note: not all search terms produce ads.

When a day’s ad spend exceeds your average daily budget. Note: Due to a recent update, Google will not spend up to 2x over your daily budget.

The default timezone for your AdWords account unless edited otherwise. It is good to check this setting if you want to make ad schedule bid adjustments

This is a site whose URL//domain is owned but has no website built. AdWords will not allow your ad to run when the Destination URL leads to a Parked Domain Site.

Ad Status that means your ad is not currently running or being seen and you will not be charged until you resume the ad.

The way you pay for your advertising spend on AdWords.

The status of a campaign when it is still going through the approval process from Google.

One of 4 keyword Match Type. Phrase match keywords trigger your ad when a certain phrase is searched in its entirety.

The different locations on the Display Network where your ads show. See Managed Placements and Automatic Placements for additional information on the options available.

A key metric for Video Ads that tell you how often your video was played by dividing the # of plays by the # of times your ad was shown. Similar to CTR, Play Rate measures engagement. We recommend using Play Rate to test different Opening Images for Click-to-Play Video Ads and Thumbnail Images for YouTube videos.

These bring your specific offerings to the surface of the SERP and provide links that take the user directly to your product, reducing the amount of friction between discovery and conversion.

The file containing all the details and attributes about the products in your Google Shopping store. Google has a number of specific requirements that you must follow to keep your store in good standing.

A way to organize your inventory of products in the Google Merchant Center. When you first setup your Merchant Center, all your products fall under a single product group “All Products.” We highly recommend separating your products into groups. Product Groups function similar to keywords on the Search Network, in that you bid on Product Groups. Separating your products into groups allows you to assign different max bids for each, giving you more control over your placement, spend, and performance.

Ads for products listed in your merchant store that appear on the Search Network and Google Shopping result pages.

A recommendation from Google’s AdWords algorithm machine (not necessarily a real thing) that are defined as “an estimate of the minimum amount you’d need to set your daily budget in order for your ad to appear as often as possible for your current set of keywords”

The URL of the website where your display ad was clicked. The person was referred to your site from this URL. This is useful for identifying where your traffic is coming from and may inform bid strategy (increase on high referral sites) or placement strategy (manually place ads on similar sites).

Is a feature that allows you to reach people who have previously been on your site. It relies heavily on a user’s cookie data and shows them ads relevant to the last session they had on your site.

Ad Status when you manually remove the ad from your campaign. When you remove an ad, they’ll stop showing and you won’t be charged.

Google will keep switching which ads enter auctions for an indefinite amount of time, but it will not optimize or prioritize which ones are entered over others.

One of the 6 AdWords ad networks. It consists of Google’s Search Network & Google Search Partners.

The sites within the Search Network that partner with Google to show ads. Including Search Partners is a default setting for Search Ads that you may want to reconsider when setting up search Ads.

The word or phrase that a person types into a search engine such as Google.com. You target these terms with keywords in order to show your ad for certain Search Terms.

The AdWords report that shows what Search Terms have triggered your ads. This is one of the most important reports on AdWords.

A way of manipulating your AdWords or Analytics tables or charts to show a specific criterion about your audience against another. A “segment” could be a specific device, age group, gender, behavior, and much more.

An automated ad extension that rewards advertisers with high ratings by showing a five-star scale based on data Google collects from business review sources.

A status for your video ad stating that it is approved and ready to go. If it is still not showing (delivering impressions), there may be unrelated issues such as low search volume or low factors resulting in poor placement/position.

The categorization of videos by length. Shortform < 10 minutes. Longform> 10 minutes. Video ads will show before short and long-form videos.

An ad or keyword status given when the destination URL (Landing Page) is suspended for violating any of Google’s advertising policies. To find out what policy your site violates, go to your Ads tab > “Status” column > disapproved > hover over white speech bubble.

The general term given to the data tables in AdWords that show your performance & ad data. You can add or remove columns, segments, and filters to show precisely what you want to see.

Formerly known as the Conversion Optimizer, Target CPA is a bidding method that sets a maximum on how much you would pay for a conversion.

A portfolio bid strategy where Google will automatically adjust your bids to help your ads outrank a specific domain.

A type of smart bidding strategy that works by using conversion tracking data to predict future conversions and associating them with a dollar value.

A bidding strategy where Google automatically adjusts your bids to push your ad either to the top of the SERP or onto the first page.

The YouTube search keywords, Display Network Keywords, topics, placements, and audience interests you want to target for your video ad.

A type of video ad that allows viewers the choice of which ad they want to see. TrueView Ads use cost-per-view (CPV) bidding. They appear on YouTube and other videos on the Google Display Network. There are two types: In-stream and In-display.

All ads must be reviewed by Google. While this process occurs, your ad status will show “under review”. This review process is usually less than 1 business day. Image ads, video ads, ads targeting the Search Partner sites, and text ads relating to sensitive material will immediately be marked “under review” upon creation.

Tags on a URL that pass certain information. This can direct users to a certain page, tell you something about their browsing actions in analytics, and much more.

Specific Display Network partner sites who produce mostly video content. YouTube is the most significant video publisher site.

You can set up your site’s code to communicate with Google when someone hits your site. This can tell you where they came from, what keyword they triggered, and what ad they clicked.

A status for video ads when it has been disapproved. It may violate Google’s advertising policies. It may also be marked as “Approved (limited)” if it violates rules that are location or placement specific.