What basic terminology should I know?

We realize that certain AdWords terms and abbreviations may not be familiar to all of our advertisers. To make things easier, we’ve created a full AdWords glossary.

Here are a few of the most common terms you’ll see:

Keyword

The keywords you choose are the terms or phrases you want to “trigger” your ad to appear. For example, if you deliver fresh flowers, you can use “fresh flower delivery” as a keyword in your AdWords campaign. When a Google user enters “fresh flower delivery” in a Google search, your ad could appear next to the search results.

Campaign & ad group

AdWords accounts are organized into campaigns and ad groups. You start with one campaign, which has its own daily budget and targeting preferences. As you expand your advertising, you add more campaigns or ad groups, which are sets of related ads, keywords, and placements within a campaign. For example, you might choose to create one campaign for each product or service that you want to advertise.

Click

If a customer sees your ad and clicks on it to learn more or to do business with you, it’s recorded in your account as a click. Monitor your clicks to see how many people choose to enter your website from your ad.

Cost-per-click (CPC)

With cost-per-click (CPC) pricing, you pay only when someone clicks on your ad. You can have AdWords manage your CPC automatically, or you can choose a maximum CPC bid. Your CPC bid helps determine how often your ad can appear and its ranking on the page.

Impression (Impr.)

The number of impressions is the number of times an ad is displayed on Google or the Google Network. Monitor your impressions to see how much exposure your ad is getting.

Clickthrough rate (CTR)

Click through rate (CTR) is the number of clicks your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown (impressions). A keyword’s CTR is a strong indicator of its relevance to the user and the overall success of the keyword. The more your keywords and ads relate to each other and to your business, the more likely a user is to click on your ad after searching on your keyword phrase.

Average Position

Average position is a statistic displayed in the “Avg. Pos” column in your AdWords account. It refers to the position on a search results page where your ad appears for each of your keywords. “1” is the highest position on the first page of search results. There is no “bottom” position. An average position of “1.7” means your ad usually appears in positions 1 or 2. Average ad positions are not fixed; they may vary depending on various performance factors.

Networks

You can choose where on the Internet your ads will appear. Ads can appear on Google’s Search Network, Display Network, or both. The Search Network includes Google and other search sites. Ads can appear beside or above search results for keywords that you choose. The Display Network includes a collection of websites that have partnered with Google (display partners), YouTube, and specific Google properties that display AdWords ads.

Quality Score

Quality Score is a measure of how relevant your ad, keyword, or webpage is. Quality Scores help ensure that only the most relevant ads appear to users on Google and the Google Network. As you progress with your account, refer to the Help Center to learn more about Quality Score and the importance of relevancy.

Conversion

A conversion occurs when a user completes an action on your site, such as buying something or requesting more information.