Pay Per Click (PPC/SEM) Terms – Glossary

PPC – PPC is the abbreviated form of Pay Per Click. PPC is an internet advertising system meant to direct online traffic to particular websites where the advertiser pays the publisher a certain price when an ad is clicked. It’s referred as a primary module with two sub-modules: CPC (Cost-per-click) and CPM (Cost per thousand impression) through bidding and flat rate respectively.

Define Adwords – Adwords is referred as Google advertising product, which is useful to make appear your ads on Google and its partner websites including Google Search. This Google’s product offer PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising which is a primary module and incorporate a sub module CPC (Cost Per Click) where we bid that rate that will be charged only when the users click your advertisement. One another sub module is CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impression) advertising where advertiser pay for a thousand impression on flat rate to publisher. In addition, it also includes website targeted advertising of banner, text and rich-media ads. Moreover, the ad will appear especially to those people who are already looking for such type of product you are offering as well as offer to choose particular sites with geographical area to show your ads.

Ad group – It’s a collection of relevant keywords and ads under one name. Maximum 20,000 keywords can be added into an Ad Group.

Ad Position – Ad position is the order in which an ad is displayed on a webpage. For example, ad position “1” means the ad is displayed first on the webpage.

Ad Rank – It’s a value used to determine the Ad Proposition.

Call-To-Action (CTA) – This is a marketing term used for the action you want the website visitor to take.

Click-Through-Rate (CTR) – It’s a metric showing how often a visitor clicks your ad after seeing it. It can be defined as the number of clicks per thousand impressions. CTR contributes to Ad Rank.

Campaign – It’s a series of relevant ad groups.

Conversion – Conversion is the action the user wants when s/he clicks on an ad. It occurs when a visitor takes action. Example, the user makes purchases, signs ups, submits inquiry forms, views a page, or downloads, depending on the program’s goals.

Conversion Rate – It’s the measurement of the success of a paid campaign. It’s measured by the number of potential visitors performing any of the desired actions such as buying a product, filling a form, etc.
example, if there are 100 visitors to a particular webpage via a PPC ad, and 3 of those 100 visitors buy the product the website sells, then the conversion rate for that particular ad is 3%. The larger the conversion rate, the more successful the website is.

Cost Per Action or Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) – It’s the amount you pay for every lead, sign-up, or purchases.

Cost Per Click (CPC) – It implies the amount you pay for every single click on your ads.

Cost Per Impressions (CPM) – It’s the amount paid for every thousand views of the PPC ad.

Demographics of Users – Users demographics are an important factor while targeting a market. Demographics include age, gender, income, occupation, marital status, literacy & lifestyle of the ad recipients. Consider following demographics while creating an ad:

  • Age – Users’ needs and demands change with age.
  • Gender – Male and female users react differently towards consumer products, jewelry, magazines, etc.
  • Income – Users’ affordability varies depending upon their income levels.
  • Occupation – Users’ occupation affects their lifestyle which in turn affect the product or service they opt for.
  • Marital status – Experts say, single customers buy a specific product frequently than those who are married. Also, married people are inclined to pay more price. Marital status is an important factor.
  • Literacy – Awareness & comfort level of the users with handling internet activities affect PPC ads and in turn the seller’s business targets.
  • Lifestyle – The acceptance of a product is highly driven by the people’s day-to-day lifestyle.

Destination URL – It’s the address where you want the user to land when he clicks on the ad.

Display URL – It’s the name of a page of the website.

Geo-targeting – Delivery of ads to a particular geographic location of the users. It allows the advertisers to choose specific locations where they wish to show their ads. It can be city, state, region or county. You can select location by zip codes as-well.

Impression – In the context of online advertising, it’s a measure of the number of times an ad is seen irrespective of clicking on it. Each time the ad displays, it is counted as one impression.

Keyword – It’s a search query made by a user. A word or a phrase of words entered in the search box by the user. The search engine matches your keywords and gives you relevant results on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP).

Landing Page – Any standalone webpage distinct from main website on which the visitor lands. If you create a beautiful & catchy PPC ad with an effective Call-To-Action and don’t link an appropriate landing page to it, all your efforts go in vain. It can be very annoying and disappointing for a prospect when he clicks on a great looking ad and finds out that the landing page is irrelevant to the ad.

Negative Keywords – They are the words for which you do not want your ad to appear.

PPC Bid – Maximum amount of fees an advertiser is ready to pay for a click.

Quality Score – It’s a dynamic metrics assigned to each of your keywords and ads. It determines the quality of your keyword, ad, and the landing page. High quality score means higher ranking on less cost.

Search Engine Result Page (SERP) – The page that lists the results returned by the search engine in response to a search query or keyword.

Split Testing – Classic method of testing to determine the effectiveness of a PPC ad. It compares two versions of an ad that are identical except for one specific difference of a word or an image.