The glossary

233 terms, each answered in one sentence, then explained properly with an analogy and a worked example.

A

Ad CTR (feed click rate): Ad CTR is the share of searches or results-page views on a feed that end with the visitor clicking a paid ad.
Ad spend: Ad spend is the money paid to advertising platforms to buy traffic; in search arbitrage it is the main cost of the business.
Advertiser conversion: An advertiser conversion is the valuable action, such as a sale or lead, completed on the advertiser's own site after someone clicked their ad on a search feed.

Break-even point: The break-even point is where revenue exactly equals cost, so a campaign makes neither profit nor loss.

Cash-flow float: Cash-flow float is the money an arbitrage business must fund between paying for traffic today and receiving the matching feed revenue weeks later.
Clawback (revenue deduction): A clawback is revenue a feed removes from a publisher's earnings after the fact, usually because clicks were judged invalid and the advertiser was refunded.
Conversion rate (CVR): Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors or clicks that go on to complete a desired action, such as a purchase, sign-up or enquiry.
CPA (cost per acquisition): CPA is the average amount spent on advertising to produce one conversion, calculated as ad spend divided by the number of conversions.
CPC (cost per click): CPC is the price paid for one click on an ad; in search arbitrage it is what the arbitrageur pays a traffic source for each visitor.
CPM (cost per mille): CPM is the price of one thousand ad impressions; "mille" is Latin for thousand.
CTR (click-through rate): CTR is the percentage of people who click something after seeing it, calculated as clicks divided by impressions.

eCPM (effective CPM): eCPM converts any pricing model into an equivalent price per thousand impressions, so traffic bought or sold in different ways can be compared.
EPC (earnings per click): EPC is average earnings per click sent, a term borrowed from affiliate marketing that trackers use for revenue divided by clicks.
Estimated revenue: Estimated revenue is the provisional earnings figure a search feed reports soon after clicks happen, before final checks for invalid traffic are complete.

Finalised revenue: Finalised revenue is the confirmed amount a feed will actually pay for a period, after invalid clicks and other adjustments have been deducted from the estimate.

Gross revenue: Gross revenue is total revenue before the costs of earning it are subtracted; where in the chain it is measured changes what the number means.

Lander CTR (keyword click rate): Lander CTR is the share of landing-page visitors who click a keyword or related search term, taking them on to the page that shows search ads.

Monetised click (paid click): A monetised click is a click on a sponsored listing from the search feed that an advertiser is charged for and the publisher is paid for.

Net payment terms (Net 30/60): Net payment terms state how many days after a period ends a payment is due; Net 30 means payment about 30 days after month end.
Net revenue (ex-TAC): Net revenue is revenue left after subtracting the cost of buying the traffic that produced it, also called revenue ex-TAC.

Profit margin: Profit margin is profit as a percentage of revenue: the share of each dollar earned that is left after costs.

Q4 effect: The Q4 effect is the rise in advertising prices and budgets from October to December, driven by holiday shopping, followed by a sharp drop in January.

ROAS (return on ad spend): ROAS is revenue divided by advertising spend, usually shown as a percentage or multiple; 100% (1.0x) means the ads exactly paid for themselves.
ROI (return on investment): ROI is profit expressed as a percentage of what was spent: revenue minus cost, divided by cost.
RPC (revenue per click): RPC is the average revenue earned per monetised (paid ad) click: the "sell" price in search arbitrage. Convert it to revenue per visitor (RPV) before comparing it with CPC.
RPM (revenue per mille): RPM is revenue earned per thousand units, usually page views, sessions or ad impressions: revenue divided by the count, multiplied by 1,000.
RPS (revenue per search / session): RPS is revenue divided by the number of searches (or, in some reports, sessions), showing how much each search on the feed earns on average.
RPV (revenue per visit): RPV is total revenue divided by the number of visits to the landing page, showing what one arriving visitor is worth on average.

Scaling: Scaling is increasing a profitable campaign's ad spend to earn more total profit, ideally without eroding the return that made it worth growing.
Search volume: Search volume is the number of searches: either how often people look up a keyword in a search engine, or how many queries a publisher sends to its feed.
Seasonality: Seasonality is the predictable rise and fall of traffic costs, advertiser bids and user interest at different times of the year, month or week.
Smart pricing: Smart pricing is Google's system for automatically lowering what an advertiser pays for a click on a partner site when that click is less likely to lead to a sale.

Take rate: Take rate is the percentage of money flowing through an intermediary that the intermediary keeps for itself.
Traffic quality score: A traffic quality score is a rating of how genuine and commercially valuable a publisher's visitors are, used to decide what their clicks are paid, or whether to keep them.