Often times business owners, organizational leaders, and marketers are confused by the terms that PPC professionals utilize.

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

For people new to the industry and wondering, “what is PPC?” the terminology can get very confusing, and discussions between PPC specialists can often leave you wondering if they are speaking in code or even in an entirely different language.

What is PPC?

Pay per click or “PPC” is also known as “paid media”, which involves paying to advertise online (usually paying every time an ad is clicked on by an online user).

On the journey to becoming a PPC expert, the first step involves learning the extensive range of PPC terms and their meanings. With these PPC terms explained, you’ll be able to translate the key PPC terms and become fluent in PPC.

To help you get a good understanding of the various PPC terms out there, we’ve put together a detailed guide of the common PPC terms and their definitions.

PPC Terms & Acronyms 

A/B Testing

This is the testing of two different landing pages (landing page A and landing page B) to determine which converts better. Changes are usually anything from different content and text to different colored buttons.

Ad Campaign

This is an advertising campaign with a PPC network that contains advertisements that share the same theme or goal.

Ad Delivery

This is a setting in various PPC networks that determines how fast or slow ads are shown to users. The default setting in Google 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 business information on an ad, such as their address, phone number, shop rating, or webpage links. These additional pieces of information help increase the ad’s clickthrough rate.

Ad Position

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

Ad Relevance

A keyword status that measures how closely related 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 major problems with ad relevance.

Ad Scheduling

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

AdSense

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

API

An application programming interface (API) allows developers to create applications that interact directly with their Google accounts. Currently, Google has two main APIs, Google AdWords API, and the new Google Ads API.

Target Audience

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

Automatic Bidding

A feature found in many PPC networks that allows the network to automatically adjust bidding on keywords in order to meet certain 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.

Bidding Types

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

Bounce

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

Conversion

A conversion can be viewed as a goal completion depending on the pay-per-click strategy.

Conversion Rate

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

CPA (Cost Per Action)

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

CPC (Cost Per Click)

Cost per click is the amount an advertiser pays for every click on their advert. Commonly found on PPC networks such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

CTR (Click Through Rate)

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

Daily Budget

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

Destination URL

The URL address of the webpage that people will land on when they click an ad. The domain of the destination URL needs to match the domain of the display URL.

Display Campaigns

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

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 a specific landing page URL instead.

Google Analytics

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

Impressions

This is a metric that 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.

Keywords

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

KPI (Key Performance Indicator)

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

Landing Page

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

Longtail Keyword

A keyword phrase that includes numerous words, making it more specific and less competitive to target.

Phrase Match

A keyword match type that allows ads to be triggered only when a user’s search includes the exact phrase or close variation of the keyword.

PPC (Pay Per Click)

An acronym for pay per click. It often refers to various different pay-per-click networks including Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, and LinkedIn Ads.

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.

ROI (Return On Investment)

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

Search Query

A query that a user types into a search engine. Depending on the campaign’s keyword match types, this will determine whether an ad is triggered or not.

SERP (Search Engine Results Page)

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

Split Test

When an advertiser tests different campaigns or ad variations to see how they perform over time. These can be set up using campaign 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 number 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.

Conclusion

Here at LBDIGITAL, we pride ourselves on our PPC ability, helping our clients achieve huge sales growth through biddable media. For more information about our PPC services and how we could help your business, read our blog or contact us today.

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