There are so many acronyms and buzzwords in digital marketing, that it’s easy to be bamboozled. So it’s good to have a handy reference. of business terms to help decipher that media manipulation terminology.
This list is intended to help you understand Google AdWords and SEO as we like to work in a clear and transparent manner. Each of these is explained in detail in our PPC Training and are available as Digital Marketing Services
PPC – Pay Per Click
A colloquial term for Digital Advertising so not just Google Adwords, but Bing, Youtube, Mobile apps and Social Media (like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn). The term is self-explanatory in that you pay only when a user clicks on your advert, not just when it is shown (Impressions). This is outdated and can be misleading as a lot of Facebook Advertising is charged by the impression.
Google Algorithms
Google constantly crawl the trillions of websites and pages looking to give the user the best possible sites relevant to their search term. They use their secret sauce algorithms to determine the rankings. All search engines do this, but the most common search term on Bing worldwide is Google. And that says it all.
KPI – Key Performance Indicator
The measures of success for a customer which should always be clear all round. Hopefully this would be agreed in advance and might be measured in conversions, clicks, or ROI (below)
ROI – Return on Investment
The most important metric of all. It’s calculated by Revenue minus advertising spend. Lines can get blurry, as direct correlation from ad spend may not be instantly obvious. In eCommerce it is key that Google Analytics tracks where sales comes from effectively.
It’s also prudent to point out that this should be over-all. Common mistakes are to look at ROI in adwords or facebook and see a healthy return and forgot about overheads including staff, time, postage, return, import duty, etc.
Click
When someone clicks on the advert shown (after searching the keyword associated with the advert). This would take them to the chosen destination on the website. This shows in the Advertising interface as a number of clicks in the selected time period.
Impression
When the advert is shown (after searching the keyword associated with the advert). If this shows in google or not is driven by ad rank (Max CPC and Quality Score in short). This shows in the Advertising interface as a number of impressions in the selected time period.
Conversion
When someone completes the action which has been registered for conversion tracking. This could be completing a contact form, subscribing, downloading, calling, purchasing, etc. This shows in the Advertising interface as a number of conversions in the selected time period.
Display Network
A huge collection of websites that accept google advertising to be placed on their pages. The ads can be in text, image or video format. As a society we are now accepting of this, even blocks of ads in between text we are reading and we skim over it subconsciously now.
Campaign
The first and highest in the ladder of the account structure. Settings are decided at campaign level.
Ad group
Each campaign is made up of ad groups and contain either keywords or ads or both.
Keywords
These are the words typed into google by a potential customer you want an ad to show for. The keywords need to be relevant to the audience and their needs. These can be in different match types:
Broad, Phrase, Exact, and Modified Broad
This is thing most people find confusing but is the most vital.
Exact Match – Shows ads on exactly the keyword with slight spelling variants.
Phrase Match – Picks up use of the keyword in a sentence
Broad – Google exchange the word for a variant.
Broad match modified – Picks up use of the keyword but in any order.
So for the example “Wedding Ring” as a Keyword:
| Search Term | Exact | Phrase | Broad | BMM |
| Wedding Ring | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Platinum Wedding Ring | N | Y | Y | Y |
| Wedding anniversary ring | N | N | Y | Y |
| Buy Rubber Ring | N | N | Y | N |
Negative Keywords
Words that you want to block in your searches that are not relevant. (i.e for a removal company you would not want to advertise to people searching for the words tattoo, wart or rubbish.
Feed
Google Shopping requires a feed, which is the source data for the products inputted into the Google Merchant Centre.
Landing page
A specific page to direct the ad traffic. This should be relevant to the searchers query, with the ultimate aim to have a higher probability to convert than a normal page on the site.
ICC – incremental cost per click
Cost of incremental clicks divided by number of incremental clicks.
CPA – Cost per acquisition
Total cost for each lead.
EPC – Earnings Per Click
Profit divided by visitors
ECPC – Enhanced cost per click
A bidding strategy where Google adjusts bid based on historical conversion data.
ROAS – Return on ad spend
Does not include profit, simply ad spend and revenue.
CTR – Click through rate
Clicks divided by impressions.
LTV – Lifetime Value
What is a lead worth when considering the total value of the customer – not just the initial sale.
CPV – Cost Per View
CPC –Cost Per Click
Conversion Rate
Percentage of visitors which turned into customers/purchasers/leads.
RLSA
Remarketing Lists for Search Ads
DSA
Dynamic Search Ads
View Through Conversions
People who viewed your ad, didn’t click but then converted later
Ad Extensions
Additional parts of ads outside headline and descriptions which may contain, phone numbers, links to other parts of your site, your physical location or other selling points about your business.
Quality Score
A ranking of your keywords out of 10, calculated by expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. A useful guide into getting the level of quality Google want.
Click Bait
Commonly refers to posts or ads designed to make you click, usually with a headline like “you would believe what this girl did….”. It also includes using an image not even connected to the article.
These could also refer to ads designed to look like part of the site. An example being online newspapers.
Sales Funnel
Probably the most repeated phrase designed to impress. The sales funnel is the terminology that refers to capturing new business, ultimately resulting in a purchase. For the example of a clothing brand it would be split into the following steps.
- Awareness – When potential customers become aware of the brand.
- Interest – When the potential customer demonstrates an interest in the brand by conducting product research or by engaging on social media
- Evaluation – When the potential customer researches other brands for quality, value and appeal for a final buying decision.
- Decision – When a final decision is reached and perhaps influenced by discount codes, customer reviews, or social validation by an influencer.
- Purchase – When goods are purchased, and when the website can still lose the sale. Poor checkout process could result in basket abandonment.
- Re-evaluation – When the item(s) are delivered and the customer tries them on for size and fit. Long Distance selling regulations mean the customer has the right to return the item for a full refund including standard postage costs.
- Repurchase – When the customer repurchases other products.
Split Testing
The process of running similar adverts to test variables for the best results.
That’s really useful. Thanks